“The Other Mother: A rememoir” by Teresa Bruce

“The Other Mother: A rememoir”

by Teresa Bruce

Joggling Board Press

released November 5^th, 2013

The eight parts of speech – nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections - are a writer’s best friend. These grammatical building blocks are the foundation of everything literary. But there are some writers who do more than utilize these parts of speech, they transform and re-design them, making something unexpected and surprising. It is they who craft the written word into a living entity – Teresa Bruce is one such author. 

Bruce’s newest endeavor, “The Other Mother: A rememoir” (nationally released on November 5^th by Joggling Board Press), recounts the lives of two women – herself and Byrne Miller. Though from very different generations, they bond over dance, over loss, over curiosity, over the present and over the future. And while it is true that dance frames the entire book, “The Other Mother: A rememoir” is not a story about dance; it is a story about extraordinary and plain moments alike. It is about real experience and authentic interactions.  

“The Other Mother: A rememoir” travels through time as it follows its three narratives: two individual stories (Teresa’s and Byrne’s) along with their shared experience after meeting in 1991. Beginning with a referential date and location, each chapter is one piece of a dynamic puzzle. And while these short vignettes leap from the 1990s to the 1930s to the 1970s and toggle between storylines, the flow is flawless. One particularly lovely cadence is the re-telling of the women’s first introduction – Teresa’s perspective is given in chapter eight and Byrne’s in chapter forty-one.

As noted, “The Other Mother: A rememoir” is not exclusively about dance, but the performing arts thread is strongly woven throughout the work, taking on actual, inadvertent and metaphorical roles. As recalled by Bruce, dance was a very real journey for both women. The reader first meets Teresa as a young budding ballerina and sees how many years later, she returns to contemporary movement as an adult. Byrne’s life in dance was anything but typical, including several long sabbaticals. Her dance trajectory moved through many seasons and included stints as a Burlesque showgirl, contemporary dancer, choreographer/Artistic Director and community dance maven. Those are the dance details, the lines on the résumé.

But on a much deeper level, Bruce shares how dance was present and moved through both lives far beyond the studio, stage and rehearsal hall. Dance terms and verbiage were brilliantly peppered within the regular prose to describe relationships, circumstances, reactions and situations. One particularly poignant example is when dance terminology is used to illustrate Byrne’s reaction to a devastating medical diagnosis in her family:

“She reached for a barre that wasn’t there, off balance. She struggled not to fall, gripped her feet in second position parallel, knees bent in demi-plié…She exhaled, hands flexed at the end of hyperextended arms. She was pushing away the word, the palms of her hands telling the doctor no…” (p. 154)    

Another noteworthy instance comes at the end of the book when Bruce compares the connective tissue in ballet to the notion of moving on. Her thoughts on how transitional steps make grand motions possible was transcendent and universally applicable.

The triumph of Bruce’s book is not only in its storytelling but also in its title. Her use of ‘rememoir’ is purposeful, important and revealing. ‘Rememoir’ feels like ‘remembering’ – a verb; an action. And as such, “The Other Mother: A rememoir” proclaims that human life is a work of verbs, both active and inactive: of doing, of believing, of deciding, of being. 

For more information on “The Other Mother: A rememoir” or Teresa Bruce, visit her blog at www.teresabrucebooks.com 

"Romp"

presented by LEVYdance and Fort Mason Center

Photo:RAPT Productions/Kitfox Valentin

The General’s Residence, Fort Mason, San Francisco

November 22^nd, 2013

Have you ever been to a dinner party and speculated as to what was really going through the minds of your fellow guests? Or have you ever wondered if something unexpected might happen in the course of the evening? If so, LEVYdance’s “Romp” is for you. A site-specific contemporary dance event, the 2013 iteration (held at the General’s Residence in Fort Mason) combines mobile performance, mingling and a meal into three glorious hours. With choreography by Benjamin Levy and direction by Scott Marlowe, “Romp” takes you behind the façade, revealing the real and the authentic. And along the way, there are some delicious surprises, quite literally and figuratively. “Romp” is exquisite postmodern dance with a hearty helping of style and panache.

Guests were encouraged to arrive early so that they could enjoy drinks and hors d’oeuvres in the main foyer of the residence prior to the performance. From the beginning, a chill, casual yet intimate environment was established where friends met up, patrons chatted with the cast and the audience admired the building’s architectural details. Once eight o’clock hit, everyone was ushered into the first of four performance spaces that would be utilized throughout the piece. Chairs in the large ballroom were scattered about, facing all different directions. And once the audience was seated, the cast broke into full-out movement – a celebratory party flash mob of sorts. Twelve dancers moved with equal parts ease and abandon, dancing amidst and in between all the chairs. No fourth wall or proscenium arch was welcome at this party, where the line between viewer and performer became wonderfully porous and fuzzy. Members of the audience were invited to dance with them, which allowed for a simultaneous re-arranging and re-organizing of the seating into a large square perimeter. Then, the main trio took the space, and the narrative shifted. During this long segment (performed by LEVYdance company members Scott Marlowe, Yu Kondo Reigen and Sarah Dionne Woods), the intensity was palpable; the dancers internally tortured. Demons were exorcised through ample introverted and small reflexive movements; therapy happening in real time, through physical expression. The choreography was haunting yet beautiful; the performances, personal yet open.

Next we were led downstairs to a barroom for a much shorter second vignette. Here, Marlowe, Reigen and Woods dug even further into Levy’s complex narrative marrying a sense of hesitancy, trepidation and uncertainty alongside propriety and balance. The low ceiling in this space imposed some very real physical limits that were both well-integrated in the choreography and well-handled by the dancers. Ushered back upstairs into a small room right off of the main dining area, the audience witnessed “Romp’s” third chapter. Three different dancers (who had also appeared at the beginning of the first scene) stood on steel rolling tables, while smoke billowed from the floor. They moved in unison with a very purposeful and exact clarity, while an undercurrent of sanitization pulsed beneath.

The banquet hall served as “Romp’s” fourth and final performance space. While the audience was seated at long banquet tables, the entire cast returned and movement, gesture and choreography happened on the table surfaces, around the chairs and in the middle of the room. Again, thoughts took on a physical form, coming to life in a truly honest fashion. And, Marlowe, Reigen and Woods’ final pas de trois centered around food, drink, community and adventure. An apropos conclusion seeing as how all those present were about to share a meal together.  

Good dinner parties are the result of impeccable planning. But an evening goes from good to great when ‘the real’ and ‘the authentic’ are welcomed and honored guests. Those are the events that folks talk about years later; the ones that are etched in memory; that which becomes fodder for amazing stories. LEVYdance’s “Romp” is one of the greats.

Diablo Ballet

Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek

November 15th, 2013

Diablo Ballet’s 20th Anniversary is in full gear! After opening this momentous season last weekend at Ohlone College’s Smith Center in Fremont, the company took the stage for three performances at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts. A mixed repertory evening, this first program featured three works; none were world premieres, but all were fairly new to the Diablo Ballet repertoire. This triple-bill serves as confirmation as to why this company continues to thrive in an uncertain artistic landscape – talented and dedicated technicians coupled with an artistic team that is committed to a diverse canon of work.

Up first was Mário Radačovský’s “Compulsive”, a short solo piece danced Friday evening by Derek Sakakura. Though brief in duration, “Compulsive” has a rich narrative. Control is the centerpiece – fighting for control, pretending to be in control, dealing with not being in control. Radačovský’s movement vocabulary aptly reflected the underlying message, with a clever combination of technique and humor. A recurring pas de basque sequence clearly spoke to the façade of control that we so often seek to convey. A terrific turner, Sakakura could not have been a better casting choice for this ballet. He is a perfect match for Radačovský’s choreography, which is full of dynamic and sometimes unusual turning combinations: pirouettes with one leg extended to the front at ninety degrees, double piqués ending in full arabesque.

Vicente Nebrada’s “Our Waltzes Trilogy” was next – a work for three couples that was accompanied live, and on stage, by pianist Roy Bogas. Waltzes are based in a three/four time signature, with the first beat of each bar serving as the dominant strong beat, and the two and three being weak beats. Because of this compositional structure, sometimes when choreography is set to a waltz, the two and the three get ‘thrown away’ and discarded. The triumph of Nebrada’s “Our Waltzes Trilogy” is that every beat of each measure was given equal attention and equal importance. And, the artists of the Diablo Ballet did a magnificent job translating that musical/choreographic connection onstage. Having said that, “Our Waltzes Trilogy” was perhaps one of the most difficult partnering pieces that I’ve seen in a long time. On a positive note, the duets were full of unexpected abandon and creativity. Though from time to time, the complexity of these variations did lead to some cumbersome moments. But these few instances did not take away from the work as a whole - Mayo Sugano sparkled with every piqué balance and the final unison sequence was danced brilliantly by the entire cast.

 

Photo: Aris Bernales

A witty and fun way to close a beautiful evening of dance, the 2013 edition of Sean Kelly’s “A Swingin’ Holiday” was the final work. With historic costumes, big band music (again, live accompaniment by Greg Sudmeier and the Diablo Ballet Swing Orchestra), and sexy, inventive movement, “A Swingin’ Holiday” looked like a scene from old Hollywood. The score was filled with different arrangements of holiday favorites, and the choreography, a wonderful fusion of styles (ballet, jive, social dance, jazz). Diablo Ballet is having a celebratory year and “A Swingin’ Holiday’s” festivity and merriment was right on point.