Warning this is a long complex rant!!!!!!
I’ve had be a choregrapher again on my fun/dream list for a long time. I’ve wanted it for longer – longer and more deeply than I care to remember.
So, being faced with the opportunity, you’d think I ‘d be happy, I would have thought so too:(
This week has brought a bizarre event/opportunity/disaster into my life.
Last weekend I got a telephone call from a girl I’ve never heard of. Apparently she is a bodybuilder and wants to me do the choregraphy for her and her doubles partner, and prepare and teach them multiple routines.
I explained my health situation, and that I wouldn’t be in a position to help them. She was very insistent, and claimed to know all about my health problems because it was an old friend from the days I trained and competed that had given her my phone number. She then said she had had all the videos of my performances, single/and double routines, and had
been “doing them” for over a year, but needed help. What
does “doing them” mean I asked, she then offered to drop off a disk with all my routines, and her’s on it, for me to veiw. Before I could say yes or no, she was standing at the back door thrusting the disk into my hand. She had been calling
from her car outside!!!!!!!! This seemed a bit rude and very forward to me. And I’m less than impressed at my “old friend” for giving out my home phone number and address without even asking.
But the biggest shock was actually seeing the girl – she is very obviously taking high doses of steroids, of which I very much disapprove. But, I finally got rid of her, promising to veiw it.
It was a very unpleasant and upsetting.
Seeing myself and C dancing on stage was like stepping back in time. Seeing and hearing the crowd reactions, especially at the times we guest performed was both exhilerating and errie. Mum was enthralled, she hadn’t see me perform for over 10 years, and was totally cuaght up in the dances. I felt like I was looking at someone else. It was a different part of my life, a part I’ve missed very much, but it is behind me, and being confronted so unexpectedly was very
painful. I closed the computer before it was finished, but mum wanted to see the rest, and asked if I wasn’t glad I had done it, and won so many fans etc.
Yes, I’m glad I did it, and of course I’m glad it had all went so well. But it was hard to watch, especially the doubles routines – dancing with C was one of the most fulfilling things in my life, and even if we hadn’t won all the trophies and titles, and no one had ever see us dance, it would still have been one of my greatest joys.
Even though I had had to teach C how to dance, he was so strong and elegant he could lift and twril me as if I was a butterfly, infact that’s what he called me.
When choregraphing a new routine, I always choose the music very carefully, and the concept we tried to convey was that of allowing the audience a brief, magical glimpse of love.
We moved and entwined without ever losing contact, or eye contact. It took my breath away seeing it again, and it stirred up many memories and emitions.
Watching a dance, we seemed like a perfect fit, a perfect couple in love, you can’t see all the hard work that went behind it, and that is as it should be.
But then this other girl appeared, and she hadn’t been joking when she said she had been “doing” my routines. They were copied exactly, step for step, each move, each lift, all exact copies. And she and her partner are AWFUL. They have neither the physic’s or elegance for this sport. And their attemps at stealing our routines are hideous mockiers – neither of them can dance, they have no apprecaition of the music or concepts, and they are not even suited to each other.
My suspicions about the level of steroids she is taking were confirmed – she is carrying far too much muscle mass for her frame, and her genetic muscle distribution is very unattractive. She is of a similar height and weight to her partner, which makes both of them look bad, and he can barely lift her, and can’t sustain a lift in position even when he does get her off the ground.
C was 6’2’’ tall, wieghed over 18 stone with practically no body fat. I was 5’2’’ tall, weighed 7 stone with little body
fat. C could hold me in any position above his head with one hand. Choosing the right partner is critical.
Each dance that I had put months and months of effort into perfecting, now looks like a series of sad clumsy jerky movements – no rythym, no grace, no elegance, no love.
I was, and still am horrified, that this couple, without our consent, having been destroying practically every routine C and I performed, for 2 years now in public – and now they want me to help!!!!!!!!!
Livid, I contacted my “old friend” and he got quite a earful. From his point of view he felt this couple were destroying the reputation C and I had built, and everytime this other couple steal one of our routines, they get boo’ed off stage. Still, they seem determined to continue, and my friend thought I could “fix it” and “save our legacy”.
I had no idea what he meant by that, we hadn’t performed in 10 years. But he says we are still well remembered, and the professional body are still getting flooded with requests
for apperances by C and I.
And it seems the new training club [our old one shut down], has a Wall of Fame, apparently C and I are prominent, and this is how this new girl found out about us. I was still bewildered as to how this girl had gotten her hands on videos of us dancing, I thought C was the only person who had all the archives, and I knew he wouldn’t have given them away. But my friend pointed out that hundreds of people had videod us on stage, and he was right, when I think about it there were hundreds of cameras.
However, it was a member of our club that had supplied her with copies, seems once she saw the photos on the Wall of Fame, she hounded everyone till finally she got what she wanted.
It seems no one knew she had planned to try and copy the routines exactly, and all were shocked at the first performance. We the music started many in the audience had
expected C and I to appear, and when the performance went so badly, the were literally thrown off stage. But they seem undettered by their unpopularity and have continued
with this farce for two years now.
Still, I nearly fainted when my friend explained why he had finally relented and give her my contact details – they plan on coping another routine later this year, and it involves a lift C and I developed which is extremely dangrous. I leapt really high in the air and did a mid-air splits, C ducked under me, and caught one leg in each hand, and as he stood up he lifted me in that position above his head, and twriled around. I was at least 8 foot in the air in the splits, supported at each knee by C’s hands. It’s a stunning move, but very very dangerous.
It took me nearly a year to talk C into even trying it, but the audience went wild.
The thought of this other couple trying such a dangerous lift, fills me with dread – anything could happen. She has no experience in dance or gymnastics, she can’t even do the splits on the ground. She hasn’t the balance or co-ordination to maintain the position safely in mid-air, and her partner hasn’t the strength to hold her securely like that. The only consolation I can find is in the knowledge that they could never achieve the lift. But what injuries they may suffer in attempting it, horrify me!!!
So, what do I do?
I have no desire at all to help or coach this couple, for I can see no talent or future for them.
Do I have any responsibility in trying to prevent them attempting a very dangerous lift, knowing they will fail?
Does the fact that I choregraphied the lift make me liable in some way? I designed that lift for C and I, not for others to steal.
Does trying to protect a legacy I didn’t even know existed factor in?
Why should I help someone steal my body of work?
Am I just being a spiteful bitch refusing to help?
I feel the dance has died, and with it a piece of my soul:(
I’m very confused, and basically talking out loud here. But, what would you do?
love gemmword
