When Ego is ego and art is art, part one

First off, let me just say that Nicole Pierce's Requiem is absolutely brilliant. One of the most enthralling and thrilling dance pieces I have seen in a long time. Nicole is an old friend who has danced with Kelli on several occasions, and I have always liked her quirky movement style, which often marries balletic elegance with an unexpected sort of robot-Barbie kind of vocabulary that is human, kinda comic, and kinda tragic at the same time. And Requiem takes it all to another level. First, it is set to the ravishing music of Mozart's masterwork of the same name, and just sitting the soul-drenching of beauty of that music is really all you need for a rich artistic experience; but you add to that the four living walls of projected trees that slowly morph from summer to fall to dead of winter, surrounding the space, and you get something memorable; then you add dance that is passionate, intelligent, intricate and deeply human - that seems to find all that is noble in the female passage from life into death, performed by masterful dancers giving every ounce of their talent and commitment - and you get something truly unforgettable. You're sorry you missed it.

But bizarrely, that's not really what I want to talk about. Because I had another experience tonight that was so far in another, fascinatingly awful direction, that I can almost think of nothing else. But in deference to Nicole, and what she deserves, I will stop here and continue tomorrow. Let's savor how exhilarating beautiful live performance can be, and leave it at that for the moment. Brava Nicole Pierce.