Day 21: Final bows

Today was the last of our shows, and my last in New York. We had a great first run with the kids- they performed "Sculpture garden" beautifully, and it was so cute to see their friends from Our Children playing along by putting coins in their hands! I think this really shows kids the value in their own creativity and the possibilities if they pursue their ideas! One girl said she was embarrassed to dance in front of people- but I think her confidence picked up with the cast's encouragement, and she did great! I hope that this helps the kids to open up their view of the possibilities in their future- one girl and I talked about what college is like. When I described it as like Our Children, where we choose what we're interested in studying and get to become very good at it, she seemed to be interested in the idea that at first she was hesitant about. There was a lot more to this than the fun of the show- but that was sure there today too!

Between runs, I walked the High Line, which is a beautiful public garden that was created from an old train platform that was to be demolished. Now it's got beautiful flowers with a nice view of the city and the water between New York and New Jersey. The benches and paths draw visual elements from the original purpose of the place, with train tracks peeking between some flower plantings, and also a neat area of water that runs along the ground like a shallow fountain for waling in, and it falls through a grate that mimics those alongside subway trains at their platforms.

While warming up for the second run, I really felt the energy of the space. Though my knee complained for the first time this month, I felt good in my body, and ready for the show. I think it was a good run! All my previous problems were resolved, and though it wasn't perfect, I feel good about my final New York performance, and will be excited to show the video from tonight to my family.


It has been so special to be here this month, dancing with and learning from the pros, and passing on the joy that Neta has cultivated and shared with audience and dancers alike. I might add more on this later- but unfortunately, my time is short before I leave town, and I need to shower after a two-show day, finish packing, maybe nap, and hitch my last NYC public transportation up to La Guardia for an early flight home. Thanks for following my journey if you've been reading along- I hope you've felt a bit of the bucket joy and NYC excitement with me!

...As Neta would say, "Get your buckets out, and have a ball!"

Day 20: Living/loving NY

We got a great review yesterday! I thought the article linked was especially fun to read!

From [the conclusion of the sculpture garden], a roller-coaster ride of movement and music commences. Neta Pulvermacher deploys her squad of dancers and their fifty-seven buckets in a richly imaginative series of danced and mimed tableaux, set to a musical smorgasbord that runs the gamut from Mozart to Sonny & Cher.

A special treat from today... I got a photo of a man skillfully playing bucket-drums in the subway! I felt like it was a good sign!

This morning I hitched a train over to Manhattan to backtrack to the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn bridge. I wandered a bit and finally found Grimaldi's pizza under the bridge- and I realized I couldn't handle a whole pie by myself, much less the hour-plus wait... so I walked the bridge to find sliced pizza on the other side. The bridge wasn't too long of a walk, and though it was very warm today (77F) the view was worth it as I strolled along dodging tourists with cameras and the bikers they annoyed.

I found my lunch, and looked around the area til I came to City Hall, which had a great park right next to it right by the end of the bridge. I enjoyed the sculptures there for a while, which draw from architectural ideas found in New York buildings, then sat and read my book on creativity for a while. After chatting with a fellow bench-sitter, I decided to head south to see what I could find. I got a tip that Trinity church is worth visiting, and on my way through the area after passing Wall Street and the bull sculpture, I ducked in to have a look. It was beautiful, not unlike what I saw in Germany! I love how the beautiful detailed artistry of the decorations remind me of the passion and faith of those Christian artists- and somehow today it also made me feel like God loves artists. I like to think of artists as following the original Artist in our creative habits. I tried to make my way to the World Trade Center memorial construction site, which I'd glimpsed at a distance earlier- but I walked too far and accidentally circled it, running out of time to make it back to the theater. So I found my train and made it back just in time. I feel satisfied with this as my last touristy day- although I walked a lot and got lost a little, I genuinely enjoyed some very nice places! Tomorrow it's all about the show- matinee with the kids, then the final one!

Tonight's show was really good for me- with all the walking I was a little parched but I figured out that's also why I was lightheaded yesterday, so I avoided some of the trouble today by hydrating better. This audience felt very involved, and the kids loved it- I could see their eagerness to make the sculptures move, and there was lots of laughter during the show! It was neat to think of the value that the show holds for adults and children- very different perspectives, but both can enjoy the same piece. After the show, I saw two little girls playing in the lobby: one was standing very still for the other with her hands out- they were playing sculpture garden! The sculpture girl kept looking at me like she knew I was a performer, so I found a penny in my purse and put it in her outstretched hands. She didn't dance, but she got so excited and showed her mom "look what I got for being still!" Too cute- it's great to see how the show inspired the kids! And tomorrow we get to make some dreams come true for Our Children, "the Harlem Bucketeers" as we're calling them on the program. Looking forward to the last show day!

Day 19: Show #2

This morning I went to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, with a stop in the lobby of the Brooklyn Museum- I enjoyed both! The museum lobby had quite a few Rodin sculptures and a few others, which I really enjoyed looking at. I really like the raw textures of Rodin's beautiful human forms. And at the gardens I caught a few seasonal varieties of flower still open, as well as many longer-blooming gardens full of breathtaking colors, shapes, and textures. I took lots of photos, and I'll be adding photos from the whole last week at some point here... I wandered the garden for several hours to see most of the different areas, from greenhouses of bonsai trees, to a classical Italian garden, native plants, lily ponds, and a rose garden. Tomorrow I think I'll visit the Brooklyn Bridge and a legendary pizza place there as my last sightseeing of this trip!

Today was our second show, with call to the theater at 5:30. Although we had a smaller audience than opening night, I think it lets us look forward to seeing this show through a great run for the rest of the weekend! The audience responded well- I enjoyed at the beginning when I got to interact with some individuals by playing with how I responded when they gave me sculpture garden coins. When a coin occasionally rolls out of my hand, I take just inhale some and wait for them to get the hint that I want them to give me the coin properly, which they oblige. When I exchanged places with an audience member at the end of this section, his family noted with amusement that I'd taken his seat while he posed with my bucket. As a whole we performed well, and while I personally don't feel that it was as good as last night's show for me I'm looking forward to bringing that energy back again tomorrow!

The New York Times article on us was featured today, too!!

With "choreographic kaleidoscopes that shift from raucous to meditative.... Ms. Pulvermacher proves that there’s more to plastic than you think."

Day 18: Opening day!!

Today we rehearsed from warm-up at 11, til about 4pm, covering a great run-through, some more cue-to-cue subtleties, and even a short break! We took about an hour before show warm-up call, and then it was time for costumes and makeup, lights, and sound- and the house opened!

The show was so great! I feel like today is the first day I understand the piece- I'd been trying to make it something more complicated than it was, when really it is truly about childlike imagination and possibilities! With that in mind and with the excitement of any show, I genuinely enjoyed sharing our bucket world with our audience today. From my opening pose in sculpture garden, through my other various roles til the very end when we party out of the theater past the audience, I felt absolutely part of the wonder and joy of 2,280 Pints!

After the show we went down a couple blocks to HM, a furniture store, for the benefit gala where a trumpet player provided music, and there were drinks, finger foods, and some great cake to celebrate Neta's company's anniversary. It was fun to dress up, chat with friends of the company and dancers, and generally celebrate a great show. It's very late now, and I'm tired after another long day- but I'm looking forward to call at 5:30 tomorrow to do it again!

ADDED: Culturebot featured us yesterday! It's a great interview with Neta, featuring this...

Is your ultimate hope for this piece to convey and inspire joy?
It’s much more than joy. It’s a bucket world. It’s a micro world created with buckets, activated by people and music. It’s not fancy. The fanciness of it comes from your ability as a viewer to go with the idea that the bucket will become anything you want it to be. It’s trying to strip human behavior and show it through buckets. The buckets become human and the dancers become more human because of their relationship to them. The imperfections become accentuated because the buckets are uniform. I wanted to make something that would be generous and open. It’s apologetically accessible without trying hard to be that. To get to that simplicity is a long journey. Mostly I just want you to be enthralled by the end of it that you would join us in the dance party.

Day 17: The longest day of summer

Today we rehearsed from 11am-10pm! And I started the day even earlier with a ballet class from 10-11:30 at Peridance. It was a great way to get ready for the day. I knew I'd be most excited about the long process today if I had a full class in the morning, and it was worth getting up a little earlier. The class was taught by a pleasant French man who gestured foot movements with his hands or indicated them subtly with his feet- instead of speaking plainly, he hummed melodies and moved his arms to show especially how he wanted us to shape the space. With no ballet class in the last six months, I managed to follow along by watching the other dancers and interpreting his marked movements. Even with this different style, he really was a good teacher, especially in the corrections he gave me. I needed to keep myself on track a lot because of slipping technique since last fall's ballet class, but his comments and correction on posture were something I thought about all day.

In rehearsal we went cue-to-cue over lighting, and while I waited for my cues I stood and practiced the posture I'd been shown in ballet. Pelvis back more, ribs lengthening away from the hips and chest lifted to lengthen and lift the whole torso. It was a long rehearsal, with a couple short breaks to eat, but we covered a lot and things are looking good. The New York Times came and photographed our final run of the day- it wasn't perfect, but we'll see what they've got after they review opening night! There's more to do tomorrow before our dress runs before showtime, but I'm confident we'll be ready. Showtime tomorrow, and the benefit!

Day 16: Tech week begins!

Today we had a later rehearsal after the tech team worked on setting up the lighting. Before going to the theater, the house girls and I shopped in Chelsea. Then at DTW we went through sticky spots, and made some minor changes to adjust to the space.

Tomorrow we have a looong day, and hopefully we'll be able to stay warm and upbeat from 11am-10pm! I plan to go to a ballet class at Peridance tomorrow morning to warm up properly for the long day. Teching isn't my favorite, but I know it's going to make the show look amazing when we have all the spacing and lights together, so I can look forward to that :)

Day 15: WAX Works

Another listing in the media- New Yorker Magazine!

Neta Pulvermacher’s “2280 Pints!” demonstrates that Stomp did not exhaust the possibilities of plastic buckets. The dance uses fifty-seven of the containers, and, in addition to being employed as drums, they also serve as boots, lanterns, stepping stones, hockey pucks, dollies, top hats, and more. At the start, pennies dropped in them bring the dancers to life, and the subsequent modes oscillate between a music-box feel, a vintage TV dance party, and artier slow bits. The ideas keep coming, touching on fun and beauty but promising a bit more than what is delivered by Pulvermacher’s company, expanded for its twenty-fifth anniversary to a stage-filling seventeen dancers by a supplement of students from the University of Florida.

(I checked out this magazine earlier, and it does tend to be critical of all the works it features. I don't know that we answer life's questions, but I do think we touch on some aspects that lead to further consideration for the audience.)

Today we went through spacing for a few hours in rehearsal. Then I went with one of the company members to see some informal dance in Brooklyn. Before the show began I shopped at Beacon's Closet, a trendy secondhand store in Williamsburg. Then down to WAX Works on the same street. It's another open showing, for feedback, which featured five different pieces, some which peaked my interest and others that made me ask more questions about purpose. I will say that I continue to be surprised by how dancers are able to find space in which to practice and perform in this city of tall, narrow buildings!