21.01.2008

other people's houses *

one of the really great privileges and wonders of travelling is when you have the good fortune to be invited into other people’s houses. And I was so lucky, because tonight I was invited to have dinner at Shelly’s house. (That’s right, there’s no “e” in Shelly, just like there’s no “y” in Caroline.) I met shelly at the workshops we did here in Toronto over the last few days and we got chatting about life and dance and, well, food; and so she invited me over for a home-cooked meal with her vegetarian/vegan household.

it was such a lovely evening (apart from the cold. by the time i went out it had dropped to minus 14 and the wind-chill factor apparently took it down to about minus 24 degrees. mental. there was no-one on the streets, except me, tourist. mental.) I got the tram there, which was great, only they don’t call it a tram, they call it a streetcar, like in a streetcar named desire…The dinner, cooked by Jacob, was a delicious mushroom, barley and chickpea broth, accompanied by a salad of a grain I can’t remember the name of but which was really tasty, and an enormous leafy salad with grated beetroot and carrot and it had seeds in it and all sorts of other yummy organic things. Mmm it was all so good. Then we had chai and delicious apple crumble, and then we played Settlers of Catan!!! and all this interspersed with great conversation about life and the world.

and it turns out, oh it is such a small world, that Shelly is going to Scotland later this year to do the next SPCP (Solo Performance Commissioning Project) with Deborah Hay, which I did on Whidby island in 2000. The SPCP was a really wonderful two week residential workshop with Deborah, who is an amazing choreographer, solo performer and thinker, where she teaches and in a way bequeaths that group of participants a particular piece of choreography. Ours was called Boom, Boom, Boom. And although I don’t have cause to talk about it all that much, I got a great deal out of doing that workshop, both professionally and personally, and it influenced my practice in many ways.

so, connections were made, ideas and a meal were shared, and warmth and hospitality were given and very very gratefully received.

*other people's houses is the title of a beautiful song by paul kelly