About the Dance...(2000)

poem by Peter Menkin

Tonight the ballet, through the storm

And with some delight in the practice

Of movement that belies the interval

Dance, oh, this is a balanced pattern

Of set and good company.

The ushers are willing to show us

To our seats, with special tickets of

The set builder, the curtain puller, the Carpenter's wife girlfriend to company.

When shall this modern dance of California

This modern dance of San Francisco,

This choreography of shadow and lithesome

Classical movement in man and woman

Begin to the tell story.

We begin to gather

This the winter storm this week brings a large

Sky in some splendor and dread to the City.

Magnificent, so clear in the interlude of a winter storm.

Gathering we.

Oh, Lord, our God, who are

Amid the dancers in their presence before you

How kind they move to the music of orchestral

Reverberation in the golden walled palace

On the Coast near the Pacific Ocean.

What story

We look forward to in the movement of the limbs.

A concert of sound and movement, with a designed

Backdrop of sets constructed so overlarge and spare.

In their lighted scenery to display the colors of the

Many players who come to perform for us this evening.

Move dancers, dance dancers, lift, and turn, and go

On with the youth of the strength that we share among Us.

As audience, as visitor, as lover in the times of our Lives.

We seek the sublime in this elesion statement

Of the majestic movement with sound and story.

Gladly.

The San Francisco Ballet.

What wonderful company

On a stormy, wet, and El Nino driven evening.

Respite.

The musicians will play.

We will gather in our listening

To a congregation of observers, partakers, waiting for

The love of the body in movement before the Almighty.

In this season of the turn towards Spring and all that

Means for Lent is near and

Epiphany remains this week.

For mindfulness of the presence mankind offers in an

Homage of disciplined lives for the sake of their artistic

Sense in a life we do share with you dancers, dance for us.

Dance for yourselves, and among yourselves, with your troupe,

To be a part of this dance and this music is what we can find

For ourselves in the darkened theatre, in companionship.

And good tidings, with pleasures of the aesthetic joys.

Thank you for the gift you bring us in music, sound, light

And the stand upon the stage so large to be seen by us

With grateful minds and good concern for what you bring

Us in the beauty of your enjoyment in love for this practice.

In dance, oh, yes we go on with our tickets to our seats: visitors

And participants in this act of the ballet.

Images: Hubble telescope picture, first picture.
"Maltese Falcon" in San Francisco Bay
with Cityscape in background,
by Rick White, Mill Valley, CA USA.