Day 4 – I start the day off doing a photoshoot with professional solo ice skater, Wesley Campbell. Found this gorgeous long, white room with big windows I can open up for some natural light. Wesley is a big, tall dude (not as tall as me) – also terribly kind and creative. We have a great time working in the space and the images are great! Wes walks me to my subway station and sends me off.
In the evening is the opening of Malpaso Dance Company at the Joyce Theater. This is the third piece of mine that’s been performed at the Joyce this season and the place is starting to feel like home. I notice how space feels so different depending on who I am at a given moment. The Joyce used to feel like this untouchable place where “real” choreographers would present their companies and then seemingly in a matter of moments, everyone who works there is smiling at me and I feel welcome always.
Malpaso is taking my piece Bad Winter into their rep and some dancers have recently left the company, so I am here for a few brief moments in the afternoon dress rehearsal to give some notes to Manuel, who is now going into the male role.
In the break before the show, I meet some board members, both current and past at Le Singe Vert for dinner. Now that the company is focused mainly on the documentary I am making, and not the multi-layered business of a dance company, we have fewer opportunities to connect…but my board loves each other and they look for chances to get together and Malpaso’s shows at the Joyce are a great excuse to do so.
I don’t like to sit during performances of my dances. I don’t like to sit in live theaters under most circumstances. It’s a bit like being trapped and forced to sit still and behave. I like movie theaters better because you’re allowed to go pee if you have to. You can cough. When it’s my dance, I stand in the back so I can jump around and cuss.
So before the show, I’m standing in the back with my date, the uber-talented performer Amber Martin and who should walk in, but the actor I was JUST talking about last night, Ethan Hawke! Straight from my memory of making eye contact on the set of Reality Bites the night before, he appears three rows in front of me wearing a bowling shirt. Amber whispers under her breath without moving her lips, “is that?” and we both play it super cool.
Joyce Theater Executive Director Linda Shelton is standing in the aisle talking to him. She leans in to say something and they both turn to me and now, here I am again, all these years later, making eye contact with Ethan Hawke.
Except this time it’s him watching my work.
