My early life as a dancer was at home when my husband left for work. I would blast the stereo and dance for 5 hours, totally immersed in the music and movement. Music inhabited me and I loved the ease of not thinking but just moving. I never actually thought of myself as a real dancer. Then in my 40's I produced a huge party for some friends and hired a professional singer and her husband. They had a great sound system and we were all encouraged to do something artistic for our friends as they were moving away. I decided to dance. I was terrified. But once the music started it took me over. Later many people came to express their amazement that I had this "talent". Some said they cried. I was the one amazed. In my late 50's I decided to have my son video tape a dance and sent it to Cirque du Soleil as an audition. They receive 3000 audition videos and audition 700. I really did not expect a reply . I wanted to push my boundaries just to send it. When the email came from Cirque du Soleil that started with CONGRATULATIONS you are invited to audition. I began to shake. Now in my 60's I am again amazed and honored to be working with Patricia Rincon, a Mexican-American dance-maker who is the head of the dance/theater department at the University of California San Diego. Her special focus has been producing pieces for the Myth Project series and the development of an international dance festival called Blurred Borders.
Patricia has lived her whole creative life in a world that I felt would totally reject my form of dance, improvisational. Yet when we met and worked together last year on a Day of the Dead project presented at Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende, I felt nothing but respect from her to me. The validation as a dancer to be working at this level in my "golden" years goes beyond amazement to astonishment and deep deep gratitude.
Patricia has lived her whole creative life in a world that I felt would totally reject my form of dance, improvisational. Yet when we met and worked together last year on a Day of the Dead project presented at Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende, I felt nothing but respect from her to me. The validation as a dancer to be working at this level in my "golden" years goes beyond amazement to astonishment and deep deep gratitude.