Ballet – Touring Stories – Tel Aviv and Anchorage Alaska

 

One of the best things about being a dancer are those moments when we get to tour and be in special places with different energies.
I have always felt the pulse of energy that comes from certain places and how that same energy can impact us all in various ways.
Theaters are each unique and different and cities are as well. Even states also hold a vibration specific to its history and the patterns it has created in life’s complex web of emotional expressions.
When I was in Ballet West, we did many tours to amazing cities and states.
Now, I can look back and I can appreciate the complicated processes that were required to do such things and I am grateful to all the staff and crew that worked to make such things possible.

The processes were very different between being in the Berlin Ballet touring and Ballet West.

The Berlin Ballet loved to tour in opulence and style.

I remember going to Israel to do Cinderella with all the complex and fabulous costumes and dancing at Caesarea (a Roman Amphitheater built by King Herod). The backdrop being the ocean waves, the full moon and the ancient stones … was beyond stunning.
The Berlin Ballet loved to perform massive productions that required lots of equipment, costumes, sets, and manpower to make the magic happen.

At the time, I did not realize how much effort such an event could take.
But I do remember, the packed and loaded, huge plane trying to take off from the Tel Aviv airport.
That was something that made all of us nervous.

I did not realize until that moment that the runways in Israel must be very long because hot air does not have the lift of cold air. You need more speed to get the lift … before the plane will take off on the runway.

It seemed like we were going forever … speeding down a runway and not going up. Just as we saw the yellow lines indicating that we were coming to the end of the runway … we finally started to lift off … very slowly.
Then I see the cement barriers under us as our plane seems not high enough to clear them, but they do. Thank God!
The weight of the loaded ballet cargo plane to Berlin was quite a feat to get off the ground and I commend those amazing pilots who knew exactly how to manage it all and get us safely in the air.

Then landing in Berlin was another scary moment. While the air is colder and denser in Berlin, it is also much windier. And the runway in Berlin is short by modern standards.
This airport was built after the WWII, by the women, brick by brick, but there is a wall and houses at the end of the runway.
Boy! I would not want to own one of those houses!
The pilots needed to lower the plane slowly as they circled West and East Berlin 3 or 4 times before touching down. Those pilots knew exactly what he needed to do and put the wheels carefully and gently down at the very beginning of the runway edge so he could immediately hit the brakes and reverse the engines to slow us down.
We ended our landing with our nose almost to the edge of the wall at the other end … but we stopped in time.

Then the airport had to get a tow truck to back us up so we could maneuver and turn around to get to the airport to disembark.

In Ballet West we might have done less exotic destination performances, but we did more of them. Again, I am grateful to the staff that must plan such things far in advance so we can all go on an adventure.
One such adventure was to Anchorage Alaska.
I remember it being October and having come from Berlin Germany, I understood the type of wet cold that was coming our way.
I brought my fur coat that I had bought in Berlin to keep warm in that bitterly cold and wet climate. When one lives that far north, fabric will not insulate a person like a real fur coat. (We did not have all these modern fabrics that we have now.)
I know there are those that wince as I say such a thing but there is a reason why the eskimo’s still wear fur and skin coats and hoods to protect themselves from the weather.

And you have to remember, that we were in the 1980’s and the whole movement to protect animals was not yet in full swing.

We arrive in Anchorage, and I was astounded at what a cold, wild, desolate space it seemed.
Even in modern times, the city was not so very … modern.

We were clearly on the fringes of civilization back then and while the hotel we stayed in was very nice and one of the few tall buildings, when one looked out onto the terrain, I could feel that emptiness of the call of the wild. I would look at those mountains and it felt as if even then, few if any men might have walked on them.
The feeling of an untamed land was clearly alive and well. I could imagine the first people to see and experience such a place much less learn to survive and thrive there.
The theater was small but worked well and when we had a bit of time off, some of us went on an excursion to Portage Glacier by rental car. It was not far but it was icy cold even though it was only October. That type of cold that seeps into your bones and makes you realize that you have never felt such a cold in your life.

Along the way, we were told to stop at the Bird House Bar along the Steward Highway, as you went to Portage Glacier.

We were told it was built in the early 1903 as a miner’s cabin. It had survived the 1965, Good Friday, earthquake but for many reasons after that, it was on about a 10-degree slant.
Walking in felt like walking on the floors of the Mystery Spot outside of Santa Cruz.

We walk in and here is this very small bar with cut logs as stools, and the floor was clearly at an angle. It made me feel drunk before I had even had a drink.

The décor inside was of pinned underwear, business cards, and sexy souvenirs that were left as tokens, that you had been here.
It was a glance back into the old wild west days and this bar had quite a reputation.
The bartender was a woman who had the foulest mouth … I had ever heard. She was non-stop dirty jokes that would make a longshoreman blush. She was a huge Alaskan woman who you knew by looking at her that she could be a bouncer and take you outside unceremoniously and leave you in the cold. The jukebox played only obscene music lyrics and the tradition was (if you were a woman) if you took off our underwear … you got free drinks.
I am sure someone in our group offered up a token sacrifice … I wonder who?

I am grateful that I got to see the real Bird House Bar and feel my face flush from the bartenders’ jokes.

Eventually we made our way to Portage Glacier and to say I have never been that cold is really saying something. I thought, if this is October, what is January like around here. I was sure I did not want to know.
We could only stay outside long enough for a few pictures and then we were back into our warm car and headed back to Anchorage.

That evening we had a very nice dinner at the restaurant we had heard was known for its seafood. I ordered a calamari steak.

OMG! This piece of a large squid, was pounded and tenderized to the point of no return. Then it was cooked to perfection in lemon, butter, and white wine. It was so tender it melted in my mouth. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
It was so delicious that I ordered a second one, because I knew I would never taste such perfection again in this life.
And I was right. I have yet to be taste such a memorable moment. But its memory lingers on my tastebuds. And I hope to go to Alaska one more time and relive that special moment.

~Suzanne Wagner~