Only lately (it feels like months ago) I was rambling on, on this very blog, about the importance I have given over to sleep. My desire to be healthier. My wish for less freighted, angsted days.
Well, there's only so much one can do when a flu takes over, and by Wednesday afternoon I was under the Mean Bug's spell. You know how it is—you can't breathe, you can't talk, and you can't go to Zumba. You can't even learn the jive kick with Jan. Strangely (a sure sign of grave illness) you don't want chocolate. (What? No chocolate?, all right, all right, I'll have a piece of chocolate.) You just sit, and as you sit, things pile up.
Creakily, barely, things still got done—a 1,000-word review of a complex book, the final touches to an annual report, the glassy-eyed acknowledgment of three of the Project Runways All Stars editions I'd lately missed (that was high on the list; go Mondo), correspondence with my memoir-writing students, and all the behind-the-scenes-work that goes on as we prepare for
Teen Day in Manayunk. It looks like we'll have quite a crowd of young writers and readers on hand that March 24th at The Spiral Bookcase, and we're getting excited. Please do get in touch with me or the store if you are interested in this chance to meet great YA writers and to show us, too, what your own words are made of.
(And to get published!!)
But in the meantime, I have not prepared for the most important thing—the arrival home, late tonight, of our dear son. He'll spend the weekend with us before heading out to Vegas with friends. I want to be my whole self for the few hours we'll have together.
Time for a little Zen.
I've written about Jan and Lana so often on this blog that I don't need to introduce them (do I?). They are the dancing stars, the soon-to-be movie stars, the team that keeps me honest in a Norah Jones waltz, the instruction that burns but lasts.
Here they are, dancing at Philadelphia's Thirtieth Street Station.
Because that's how good they are.
We spent much of yesterday rehearsing for and then delivering the sixth DanceSport Academy Showcase, sited this year at the Villanova University Connelly Center (which is also where the Lore Kephart Distinguished Historians Series is hosted).
I happen to think it was the best show ever—full of brave souls, innovative choreography, sheer talent, electrifying youth, and the final crowning glory of two performances by Latin champion dancers Jan Paulovich and Lana Roosiparg.
It was also, for me, a chance to dance that waltz with Jan and that cha-cha with my husband—a chance, too, to be surprised by dear friends Tom, Nancy, Mark, Elizabeth, and Laura, who arrived unannounced and cheered us on. How much that meant (and how long remembered it will be). And afterward, of course, dinner with the Bells. We always love our dinner with the Bells, and it's especially fun when dinner with the Bells coincides (another surprise) with a second chance to visit with Tom, Nancy, Mark, Elizabeth, and Laura.
Thank you, Scott Lazarov, John Larson, Cristina Mueller, Aideen O'Malley, Tirsa Rivas, and, of course, Jan and Lana, for seeing us through. For asking us to do more than we think we can—for expecting it from us—and for giving us a stage upon which we can try to soar...or, at least, hear the music.
How often I can be found here on this blog, talking dance, yearning for it. How many books of mine have taken a choreographic turn or stopped and lived at, say, the very House of Dance? I've been blessed by teachers who sway me toward better—Scott Lazarov with his impeccable choreography, Jan Paulovich, who insists that I hear the music and is so artfully exact, John Larson, the King of Standard, Cristina Mueller and her Thursday wonders, Aideen O'Malley who does it all, John Vilardo, who worked me out of paralytic fear early on, and others, too. Blessed is me.
I'm not terrific at dance, but I keep trying, and I console myself that the trying matters. This coming Sunday I'll be trying again in a DanceSport Academy showcase—dancing the cha-cha with my husband and a waltz with Jan Paulovich. I'm not exactly ready for either dance. But the hours tick on, and Sunday comes.
Today, though, I share this video of Jan Paulovich and his partner, Lana Roosiparg, who dance so magnificently together. This is what they do, these teachers, when they are free to be their ultimate dance selves.
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 8/9/2012
These images really are impressive.
Hi Beth, thanks so much for your kind comment about my photography and art on Sarah's blog. I always wanted to have my work on a book jacket so if you ever do want to use my work please feel free to contact me :)
I love how the "dress" looks like a dramatic drapery behind him until you look closer and there are legs....
These are stunning. I CAN NOT believe that only the people are 'real'. He is so talented...
That's amazing. I just showed my kids.
Thanks for sharing your husband's art, Beth. Wow!! Loved each one!! Quite extraordinary!!!