The day after we got back to Riga we left again on a bus to Cesis to see the opening performance at their new music hall. The students from the Academy of Culture were performing Howl, a work restaged on them by Maurice Causey, a native of Alabama who now lives in Amsterdam and works as an itinerant teacher/choreographer after a career of dancing for William Forsythe and serving as ballet master for the Royal Swedish Ballet and Nederlands Dance Theatre. Jo met Maurice when he came to audition the students and, during a short break, they instantly bonded with Maurice saying things like, “I don’t know why I’m telling you this….” We’ve gotten together with him a few times since and have very much enjoyed it. As Jo says, they aren’t really alike at all but, for some reason, there is a connect. The dance (which the students performed quite well) was part of a three-part evening featuring compositions by Gabriel Prokofiev (yes, he is the grandson of Sergei Prokofiev). First was a concert of three different concerti featuring vibes, violin and bass drum respectively and musicians from the Academy of Music. |
That was followed by Howl to electronic, pre-recorded music and then a “non-classical night club” in a basement, little theater which featured our favorite music of the night for live cellist and eight tracks of pre-recorded cello that had a definite post-minimalist flair.
We enjoyed the evening and the opportunity to re-visit Cesis but it was good to really come back to Riga for our final three weeks of this Fulbright adventure. We missed the opening concerts of the A Time to Dance contemporary dance festival but attended two performances featuring student-choreographed works mentored by Jo. We also saw Hiroaki Umeda, a young Japanese solo artist performing a hip-hop/technology evening that excited many…..but left us a little cold.
We enjoyed the evening and the opportunity to re-visit Cesis but it was good to really come back to Riga for our final three weeks of this Fulbright adventure. We missed the opening concerts of the A Time to Dance contemporary dance festival but attended two performances featuring student-choreographed works mentored by Jo. We also saw Hiroaki Umeda, a young Japanese solo artist performing a hip-hop/technology evening that excited many…..but left us a little cold.
| We participated in a three-day butoh workshop by Ko Murobishi This was the first dance workshop these 57 and 54 year olds have taken in many, many years. We were happy to hear young students complain of their sore bodies as we are definitely quite tired after three days. It was good, we really enjoyed sensei Murobishi’s wit and playful sharing of the experimental form of Butoh. The improvisation inspired by his teacher Hijikata Tatsumi’s first explorations was very difficult and memorable. The workshop made us more than a little sad that we missed Murobishi's performance We were delighted to have run into four of the six graduating students from the Culture College who danced in Stories from the Park as well as the student musician. They seemed genuinely happy to have seen us again – we even received an invitation to attend their graduation ceremonies. |
The midsummer Ligo festival is coming up – apparently it is celebrated with zest in Lativia – looking forward to it.