Short, Shameful State of the Menagerie

brokensymmetry flew in and dropped off Elwood this week. He is very thin, and has an exceedingly postmodern hairstyle, but he seems very healthy in all the appropriate catlike ways. He is taller than his brother, which is just not right. I've owned smaller dogs. Which is an apt comparison in several ways, because Elwood plays fetch with small furry mouse toys and/or puffballs. He also has a voice not unlike a crying child, which will be a problem in about six weeks.

Jake dislikes all human food and won't even eat wet catfood. Gabby will walk past a plate of raw fish to get to her kibble, but her profound love of rabbit proves that she at least retains some vestige of predator. Elwood is so into food, wild or domestic, he eats zucchini. He is not only capable of surviving in the wild, he could manage it as a vegetarian.

We have two cats who flick their tails 100% of the time, and one cat who has been chasing her own tail for 9 years and simply can't resist the temptation to pounce on them. Wacky hijinks ensue.

I will refute all accusations of being an old lady with a lot of cats by refusing to provide pictures or links to same.

Surealia

All of us -- canetoad, brokensymmetry, James, Nina, and myself-- went up to Marin last night to see Surealia, a dance performance put on by Dance Theater Seven, a company in Fairfax composed exclusively of children, age 5-17. Nina, canetoad, and I saw them two years ago, and this year's troup looked like a lot of the same folks, 2 years older, plus some new kids at the very youngest age group.

Summary: I have paid much more to see far worse productions by adult professional companies. The last Mark Morris piece we saw, for example.

The program took the shape of your typical Cirque; "child goes on journey through strange world, sees strange things, etc.", giving a lot of, shall we say, narrative freedom/vagueness to the proceedings. The tale, such as it is, is all told through a mixture of classical ballet, modern, and jazz styles, set to a musical score that covered a LOT of ground - Beethoven, bumpin' unnamed Trance tunes, Philip Glass, Dvorak, Ennio Morricone, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Eric Satie, among others. Two years ago, Zakir Hussain composed all of the music for the show, and appeared at the event to play a blistering tabla solo after the intermission. This year, alas, he provided one piece for the show but did not perform. There were two guest dancers, Brooke Reynolds and Isabella Qureshi, both former members who have moved on to professional dance companies, who took solo dances. Neither was set up to carry the show or "star" in any way, though; the emphasis is clearly on the current group of youngsters.

Some of the kids are just astonishing. Extremely poised, precise in their steps, powerful. Early on in the show, Alexandra Upson and Adrian Cicerone presented a sublime pas de deux, a careful and measured array of lifts and spin moves that flowed smoothly across the entire stage with nary a wiggle nor wobble. A purist might complain that the extensions could have been more, you know, extended, but I was entranced. Neither of these kids is older than 15, mind you.

Noah Kopp, apparently the oldest male dancer in the group, call him 17, gave a solo piece later on in the evening that was equally compelling, filled with impressive jumps and other strength moves. He also sports tribal arm band tattos and a piece on his right shoulder, just in case you forgot you were in the Bay Area for a moment.

The ensemble pieces work well also. Below age 10 or so, you're riding a bit on the cuteness factor. The choreography exploits this, setting up bits of costumery or cleverness for the youngest dancers that can carry all of the transitions and linking bits with both aplomb and a little bit of hamming it up. The youngest kids get all the sight gags, while the teenagers move into place for the next structured piece. There were a couple of great kids-only ensemble pieces, one set to a 20's piano vamp with the girls in minimalist hoop skirts, one with a gaggle of girls in flower costumes and the smaller boy's group dressed as bees.

The show goes on yearly around this time, and it's very much worth going. If you have a child of your own with even a passing interest in dance, it should be required.