Ignorance is Bliss

I read Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings while I was in my sophomore year of high school.  It was on a list of books we could choose for our required reading in my literature class.  I also read Strange Fruit by Lillian Smith around that time for the same class.  Both of these novels were enlightening to say the least.  At the time I was simply a young and naive girl.  It was astonishing to read the stories of bad things happening to people as if they were normal and almost expected.  I learned that in some places your background or your past experiences somehow brings justification for further immoral acts. 

What an innovative justification!  To do wrong and continue to do so because you've already got your hands dirty or you've already been exposed to a crummy, hard life.  But your past--however crummy--does not justify reliving it in your future.  Make amends and live better. 

I tend to be an optimist and hope that everyone can easily overcome their struggles.  I try to give people the benefit of the doubt as long as possible, because it seems more difficult to find reasons to mistrust people than to just give them a chance.  However, would you give someone a chance when the odds are quite terribly against them? Would you give them a chance if they've only showed minimal signs of progress? How much would you need to know about them before trusting them to do what's right without oversight?  Do we need to know someone's past to be able to fully trust them? 

Did I need to learn why the caged bird sings?  What if I had never known?

beck

For the Beauty of the Earth

It's springtime in DC and I'm reminded of John Rutter's arrangement of "For the Beauty of the Earth." Growing up I sang in the Central California Children's Choir and our choirs loved singing this song. I love it and I can't help but hum or sing it whenever I'm reminded of it, which is often times in the spring. The melody picks me up and whisks me away.

Here's a video of a boy's choir singing it (and I don't think they're native English speakers...tehehe):



For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies
For the love, which from our birth over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to thee we raise this our joyful hymn of praise.

For the beauty of each hour of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent child
For friends on earth and friends above, for all gentle thoughts and mild;
Lord of all, to thee we raise this our joyful hymn of praise.

For each perfect gift of thine to our race so freely given
For graces human and divine, flow'rs of earth and buds of heav'n;
Lord of all, to thee we raise this our joyful hymn of praise.


beck

P.S. I'm an aunt as of yesterday at about 12:55 am. Baby Abigail finally arrived. I get to see her next weekend when I drive out to Kentucky for General Conference and Easter. I've already decided that instead of taking notes during General Conference that I will just hold my little niece. It will be time well spent.

P.P.S. I don't want to talk about Health Care Reform, but I will say that it doesn't sit well with me. I don't like the idea of it and the fact that so many proponents were saying it was absolutely necessary and the only thing we could do to fix our health care system. I told my co-worker that I'll talk about it again in 5 years when we'll have seen the major changes that are expected to take place.

The Month of Dance

So I decided at the beginning of this year that I would focus more on dance. I want to take classes again. But in the meantime, I've been able to watch many dance performances. February was the month for dance at the Kennedy Center and I saw a show almost every week starting in the last weekend of January.

First I saw American Ballet Theatre's Romeo and Juliet. I saw the production with my co-worker. My absolute favorite scene was in the crypt. It was also a little morbid though since Romeo thought Juliet was dead and yet proceeded to dance with her as if she was alive. In truth that is what made it incredible: Romeo was dancing a full on pas de deux with a limp body. Sadly, I can't find a clip of it online, but this is a clip of the balcony scene performed by two of ABT's finest at La Scalla in Milan. I also hadn't realized that large sections of the score had been used in the production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that was performed at my dance studio. The music filled my mind with fond memories of dancing as a youthful girl.

The next week I went with a few friends to see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. It's a dance company with primarily black dancers. I counted only two white people in the entire company. The choreography is contemporary. The company performed the legendary "Revelations" as well as a couple of other pieces. I felt inspired by the athleticism and passion of the dancers. It was also noticeable that while they danced with passion and fierceness, they were perfectly in control--which made the performance all the more powerful.

The next week I saw the Mariinsky Ballet perform The Sleeping Beauty. In all honesty, and as harsh it may sound, I was only wowed by the orchestra's performance of Tchaikovsky's music. There were some beautiful costumes, humorous numbers and beautiful dancing, but I felt absolutely no wow factor. It was actually a struggle to get to this ballet because it was during DC's Snowpocalypse II. I left feeling a little bored and sad for the wasted effort.

The next week I saw one of the most incredible performances I've ever seen in my life. I saw the Bolshoi Ballet perform Spartacus. The performance compared to when I saw the Dance Theater of Harlem as a young girl. I was competely wowed--and I noticed I was not the only one. Almost the entire audience stayed for at least 10 minutes at the final curtain giving a standing ovation to the company. Unlike the Mariinsky Ballet with perfect technique but a boring performance, the Bolshoi Ballet had perfect technique and polished acting skills. The dancers told a powerful story through movement of a slave's struggle for freedom and justice. It was like watching a movie where you become so enraptured that you feel like you're in the story yourself. Even now, I get giddy thinking about the special treat it was to see this performance. The man who played Spartacus had springs for legs that sent him flying with such ease on every jump. I loved the feeling of the audience too. The show was great and it was evident that everyone who was there enjoyed it. We all experienced something marvelous together.

I ended the month of dance by seeing the Suzanne Farrell Ballet's "Ballet Across America." The company performed pieces by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. It was fun for me to see the performance of Apollo by Balanchine because I remembered learning part of the piece during a master class at a ballet competition. I will have to remember to give more credit to the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, because they really are a treasure here in DC. The Balanchine Foundation maintains a certain level of quality when they release choreography to be performed. So the fact that the Suzanne Farrell Ballet meets that standard earns a lot of credit in the dance world.

Oh how I love the art of dance. The body is such a beautiful gift from God and I love that we can use it to express ourselves and create such beautiful and powerful movement.


beck

Salut Printemps!

Hello Spring!

Your season is fast approaching. I welcome the sunshine, the flowers, and the growth that you bring to this corner of the world. But I'll be honest: I don't love the allergy attack with which I have been afflicted. I hope that I'll be able to breathe out of my nose again and take a breath without sneezing sometime in the near future. I'm looking forward to your arrival nevertheless.

See you soon,
beck

This Just In...

...and hopefully more to come soon.

beck