Thoughts after Anna’s Solo, “Taking the Plunge:”

Woke up at 6am, loaded the old Geo Metro with an inflatable raft, a kayak paddle, a battery-powered amp, my computer, and a change of clothes. Drove down to Lake Washington around 6:30am… the sky was
beginning to come to life with gorgeous, orangey hues peeking up over the Cascades. The rest of the sky was a deep indigo, pierced in some places by the light of a few remaining stars.

Unloaded the car and tested all the important pieces: the boat floated, the music was working, and the sun
was rising- it all looked like a “go.”

7am- Anna arrives with her younger sister, a friend, and Holly, the director of Teen Tix-an arts access program for Seattle teenagers, through which Anna heard about Glimmer.

7:05am- Got in the raft and pushed out into open waters for the maiden voyage of “Yon ’Flater,” the amazing inflatable raft. Ravel’s Tzigane, Anna’s favorite piece of violin music, started playing on shore from the little amp. As I paddled out to the dock, the sky was getting lighter and lighter- the soft, saturated light of dawn. Behind me- the shore, Anna and Co., and perhaps my better judgment. Ahead of me, the dock, the water, the mountains, the sun, the question of what would happen next. I got to the dock and tied the raft up to secure it from floating away, climbed up the ladder onto the dock, and commenced to dance. It was COLD. My body didn’t want me to stop moving, and so I basically didn’t. Lots of facing the sunrise, back to the shore, arms and legs in big swoops. Climbed up onto where the diving board would be and found some fun hangs on the metal poles. I could barely hear the music over the sound of waves and water splashing around me. I could see everyone on shore, and hoped that I was dancing with the music and that they were connected… it was hard to feel connected from that far away. As the music crescendoed at the end, I made one last leap- over the edge of the dock and straight into the water. It wasn’t as cold as I had expected. Swam back to the raft, got in and untied it from the dock, then back-paddled to the shore.

Was met by Anna and Co., and said to her, “I would give you a hug, but I am sopping wet.” She said something like, “Oh, come on, I don’t care, I mean you just JUMPED in the water for me,” and gave me a hug.

Things that I knew about Anna that informed this piece: she is a violinist, and her favorite piece is Ravel’s Tzigane; she is a morning person; she knows how to river dance; she hugs everybody; she is a lover of fantasy books (including one of my favorites, A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin), and she drives a “white marshmallow van named Carslisle.”  From our email correspondence, I had the sense that we shared a sense of awe and excitement about life, appreciation for those special, wee morning hours, a love of beautiful things, and a quiet confidence. Our meeting only solidified this knowledge.

Here is what Anna wrote about her experience of the solo:

“I’m not a person to lose my words. I always have something to say—flippant, sarcastic, serious, or profound. I’m not queen of comebacks, but words always find their way to my tongue in time.

But this time, I don’t know what to say. This gift of a glimmer solo from Kelly Sullivan was intense—like someone had taken the lid off my brain and was peering inside. If I step back from the whole thing and just think about it for a bit, I have to admit it’s not a normal thing—having your own dancer choreograph a solo just for you about you, like a viewport into your being from someone else’s eyes. My parents totally didn’t understand the concept, actually, and still don’t. There’s a lot of material here to talk about the relevancy of art, and how Glimmer is bringing art down to an intensely personal level—this one to one solo business.

I don’t particularly want to talk about the deeper meaning behind the entire project, though. I wish I could express in plain and simple words  the incredible way Kelly understood me through her dance; the moments where I could see myself and the moments I could see her interpretation of me. It was a seamless blending of my answers to the questions (really, very little to go on for an entire dance) and Kelly herself—because she chose the elements of me to emphasis.

There are so many things that are now imprinted with this solo in my mind—like my favorite piece of classical music, Tzigane. It’s a gypsy-ish soloistic crazy violin piece, and although I’ve never thought of it that way before, beautiful to dance to. I’m never going to forget Kelly rowing to the dock during the beginning notes, harsh and fiery for the early morning twilight; her pose, held to stretching point, during the middle orchestral section, and the unforgettable jump into Lake Washington on the final notes. There could not have been a more perfect morning for dancing right before the sunrise—everything was clear and beautiful. I don’t think you can know how much you love Seattle until you’ve seen sunrise on Lake Washington. And yes—Kelly was dancing on a floating dock out on the lake. Not what I was expecting at all, but perfectly staged. The predawn light silhouetted her against the water from where I sat on a cold stone wall. And yes, I know that sounds pretentiously poetic. But the whole thing was—very poetic, at least.  I am extremely grateful to have been given the chance to participate in the Glimmer project; it was like nothing I’ve ever felt before, being so involved in a performance when I wasn’t performing. Kelly Sullivan is seriously awesome. And so is Glimmer.”