Lights! Camera! Action!

When it comes to enjoying artistic endeavors, I prefer to by-pass those things.  I like my artists up close and personal. Unscripted. Uncostumed.  Unlit.

I got lucky many years ago when I worked at the New EnglandConservatory of Music.  Most of theprofessors at the school were also members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  An elite group of musicians, indeed.

But I knew them as just regular people who walked into theschool every day.  Just like the rest ofus.  They always stopped by theregistrar’s office where I worked and chatted with us.   I attended their rehearsals every Thursdayduring my lunch hour and saw them at work.  No lights, no cameras.  Just agroup of very talented people working together to make beautiful music.

Just recently, our son and daughter-in-law hosted the Hilton Head Dance Theater for a small event at our old house on the May River.  Prior to the performance, the young dancers mingled among the party-goers.  We watched them giggle and laugh and talk with their friends. We saw them in their shorts and t-shirts.  No make-up.  No glitzy costumes. 

Then, transformed into ballerinas, they emerged from thekitchen and onto the grassy lawn.  Nostage door for them.  No fancy backdrop.  Just a beautiful, cloudless, afternoon ofBallet on the May.  

The audience was gathered on the porch, wine glasses inhand. Cell-phone cameras  quietlycapturing the beauty of the afternoon.  Proudparents.  Happy ballet enthusiasts.

Just exactly the way I like it.