Well, I finally got to board a plane as planned while at the airport. Kind of an important part of the trip. (That comment refers to the time I went to the airport and my flight got delayed 5 times then finally cancelled.) Whether or not I get to actually fly out, the airport is never my favorite experience. It does start off pretty terribly. You stand there in your socks waiting for a stranger who already hates you to judge and hopefully approve the way you packed your bag. There is no way to make that look dignified so you might as well just fly in pajama pants. The plane itself was not the fanciest I’ve been on. The inflight entertainment was an old episode of Suits and a man in front of me whose snores kept startling him awake. From the airport I took a train to a bus and made it to Stef’s apartment no problem. I saw the show both Friday and Saturday night. LOVED IT both times. We had gorgeous weather and I got to spend time with some people I hadn’t seen in years. I didn’t really do any sight seeing but we went to a few cool bars and I met some awesome people. Only one snafu for the whole trip: I hopped the wrong train which happened to be heading to a pretty sketchy area. Luckily I realized it as soon as the doors closed. I think I was a little distracted by the guy with the wheelie backpack strolling by me on the platform yelling profanities and praising Jesus. Yeah we’ll blame it on him. Lord, I missed my truck this weekend. The city certainly has its beauties though. A few hours following my little mishap, we were all sitting on Stef’s front stoop chatting, sipping champagne and soaking up the sunshine when someone in a brownstone across the way started playing a beautiful concerto on the piano with their windows open. It was like a scene from a chick flick. We all went out after the performance that night. Damn those city bars for staying open and full of people till 5am. It is very disorienting. I somehow made it home on about 4 hours of sleep and finally having recovered from six hours of bus, train, plane, and car travel feel like I can put together a few intelligible thoughts about the performance itself.
It was brilliant. Beautiful choreography, beautiful songs, and BEAUTIFUL dancers. Those women are amazing. It almost brought me to tears both times which is a big thing. I hate crying so I don’t do it.
The opening number depicts a breakup and the following dances show the progression of the moving on process—grief, fear, loneliness, repainting the past, loneliness, trying to move forward, loneliness, getting used to being alone in a crowd of couples, loneliness. Finally moving into finding empowerment and joy in being alone, shedding the fear, shedding the expectations, refusing to live someone else’s plan or checklist for your life. Realizing new dreams. No longer searching for completion but enjoying the journey...alone. It was such a relatable message. We all know what it’s like to feel lonely. The feeling passes. Learning to be alone without feeling lonely is essential to surviving. People will come in and out of our individual journeys. When it comes down to it, we all are alone but we’re all together in that.
Just a little older and definitely wiser ❤️