The Performance in Suriname – Herman Jiesamfoek and Myself

I am reminded of an excerpt from Victor Hugo’s Poem – Ghosts when I think of this performance. This poem was the inspiration for the creation of the ballet, Giselle. And seems appropriate to share at this moment.

“Yes that’s life. After the day, the night livid.
After all, waking up, hellish or divine.
Around the great banquet sits an eager crowd;
But many guests leave their seats empty.
And get up before the end.”
~Victor Hugo~

The performance day finally arrives. After waiting almost a month for the military government to extend the curfew so that we could do the performance in the evening when it was dark enough to allow the stage lights to be able to generate the mood of Giselle Act II, I was excited to get this show … on the road.
The curfew was extended to midnight so that we could start the show at 8:30 pm and have it end around 10:30 pm and then people would have time to get home.
Herman and I rest during the siesta time and then get up to get ourselves organized for the show.
While big stars such as Natalia Markova, Rudolf Nureyev and Monica Mason get huge amounts of money for the shows, we were obviously not remotely in that league, and we were doing these shows to give inspiration to the younger generation of ballet dancers in Herman’s first ballet school.
The school had paid our plane tickets from Washington D.C to Suriname and then (for me) back to Dallas. For Herman they paid his ticket back to Berlin. We got a small amount of money, $200 per show, and the company was paying for us to go to the Black Water Resort, deep in the jungle the following day as an excursion for relaxation and fun!
Herman’s family was clearly giving me free room and board. So we were saving on hotel costs for me. His mother was an amazing cook and we were well fed and cared for. His parents also paid for a last dinner with Herman’s family the night before I left to head back to Dallas.
Herman and I get to the theater, and the Winti practitioner was busy on the stage once again, to make sure that the ghosts had been cleared off the stage and out of the theater.
I smiled and waved to her, and she smiled back before getting serious about her rituals.
There is a hustle and bustle back stage and the dancers are clearly excited to perform for an audience.
The audience files in and I see many military uniforms with their wives dressed up and clearly enthusiastic for this type of performance. We had given a lot of tickets for those high up in the military that helped us change the curfew … so the show could go on.
This performance was going to be a mixed program. The small company of dancers from the school were performing their own ballet to open the performance. The young girls were filled with excitement and the chance to be on a big stage with a special audience.
We were to perform Don Quixote Pas De Deux after them. Then there would be in intermission, and everyone would come together to do Giselle Act II.
This is the scene where Giselle has died and is initiated into being a part of a ghostly army that seeks out men who have broken the heart of young girls and then exact their revenge upon them … killing them.
Such a scene seemed destined to bring the ghosts out from the graveyard across the street. But I was not worried because we had our Winti Practitioner. I figured she had us protected.
Seems I was wrong.
We forget that in many cultures the superstitions run deep, and audiences can be easily spooked. I think the spirits might have had it out for me as it seemed I was going to be the target for this evening’s festivities.
I warm up with Herman and he seems relaxed and very happy to be performing for his home crowd.
We watch the local ballet company perform their first, opening ballet and are very enthusiastic and supportive of them during their curtain calls.
Then it is our turn. We perf0rm Don Quixote Pas de Deux and everything goes swimmingly. Next is the intermission and costume changes for all of us.
I get into my long tutu for Giselle and do the hair style that is classically for this ballet.
This act opens with Hilarion looking for Giselle’s grave. He has brought daisy’s, the symbol of true love. But he gets spooked and runs away in terror.
Next the Queen of the Willis, Myrtha comes out and bourrées across the stage from one side to the other. Exactly in that moment, a black cat jumps up on the stage and crosses the stage with her in front of the audience at the front of the stage.
Instantly, the crowd is making a lot of noises, clearly spooked by the appearance of a black cat. There is such a ruckus happening that I look out from the wings only to see a third to a half of the audience getting up to leave. There is nothing we can do about it. The show must go on and they saw the black cat as a bad omen for the performance and an indication that the spirits are displeased.
Finally, Herman and I are on stage dancing the Pas De Deux, when suddenly in the heat and the humidity, I feel the front seam of my bodice rip! As I am doing the turns and the lifts with Herman, I can feel the bodice continue to rip. It is tearing up towards my nipple. With each exit that I go off, I try to ask the dancers and the back stage crew, for a needle and thread to sew it quickly up.
They do not seem to know what to do or they do not understand as I am speaking English. Finally, someone gets my message and a needle and thread show up but not before Herman takes it upon himself to try to keep the costume together by grabbing the two wayward sides and pinching them together and using the costume to lift me. He is doing an amazing job managing it all but when the rip is about one inch from exposing my nipple the needle and thread show up.
Much to my relief, I finish the show without further problems.
Once the curtain comes down the last time, Herman and I are both bent over laughing so hard at the absurdity of the moment. I compliment him on his ingenuity and strength to keep me up in the air and my virtue intact for the performance.
I decided that I needed to show my personal respect for the spirits in the neighborhood. So after each performance, I took the flowers from that show over to the graveyard and distributed them about the various graves, while asking for their help and support for the rest of our shows.
We had a few more performances but we had no further problems with the ghosts of the nearby graveyard.
The Winti Priestess said I did the right thing and that was needed for me to show respect to the ancestors of this place.

~Suzanne Wagner~