About the Dance...(2000)
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
As 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.