My Meeting With Jodee

October 13, 2015

My Meeting With Jodee at the Hummingbird Cafe

Jodee was so interested in how I got to Durham…selling the house, the earthquake, the hurricane. , my first visit to ADF in 1978 at Page Auditorium…my life in Sitka, birth of my son, divorce.  Moving from Tarboro, how I got here to Durham.   Like therapy speaking to her.  I read her my poem about Stewart Singer, Dynamic Possibilities,  The War Inside Your Body about Jesse Z.  She was really encouraging about me send my poems off to Brookline to the contest.  The Amy Lowell prize…such esteemed poets have won that I almost didn’t bother sending in my stuff.  But you never know!  I conveyed to Jodee how much I LOVE ADF.  She was totally cool about me observing classes.  She said the instructors love it!  She contacted Adele Myers and got a DVD for me of “Einstein;’s Happiest Thought.”  I mentioned how it inspired me to go ahead with knee replacements.  Fear of falling…no more.

 How INSPIRING ADF is!!!  Treehouse Around Stonehenge, talking with students from VCU in 2013.  Meeting Twyla Tharp’s assistant.  Oh wonderful!!  I’ve seen a lot of dance companies…It was cool that when Kelsey came down with the DVD by Adele that she had on a shirt of the Alvin Ailey dance company.  I saw them in Richmond in the early 70’s.  Judith Jameson wiping the stage with her skirt.  Unforgettable.

Meeting Stewart Singer, Jesse Zaritt, Stephen Petronio, Adele Myers.  Jodee is amazing.    We talked about Stuart Singer, Stephan, Jesse and Jodee.  From Colorado, small college in NY then NYU.  Charles Rheinhart was her mentor.  Wow.  No wonder she’s good!

When I saw “On Their Bodies” in summer of 2013, I wondered about the genius behind the planning of it. That’s Jodee.  Took me a while to figure it out:  “on their bodies,” i.e. their body of work.   Three older dancers dancing their own dances.  Doug Varone spoke of how he didn’t think he could do it.  But he did, and beautifully!  Stephen Petronio gave me a hug when I told him his work was ground-breaking.

Our time went by quickly.  Joeee’s interested in interviewing me for the ADF newsletter – cool!

 We spoke about how some people in Durham do not even know about the American Dance Festival. Pretty amazing!  I suggested a documentary, or a book, a book that would end up on the NYT bestsellers' list.

One thing that impresses me about dancers is their supportiveness and non-competitiveness.  So sweet.