Since i'm intimidated by the city and unsure of how to get around there, i've only been so bold a few times thus far, despite my strong desire to experience all that Manhatten has to offer. But desparate times require desparate measures, and this performance was one i could not possibly allow myself to miss. I was anxious to see what they were doing, how their style compares to my guru's, possibly connect with the director and emmerse myself in the beloved art form of which i am now estranged. And so i ventured alone via subway into Manhatten to see a performance at the Ru bin Museum of Art by the only company in New York that performs the same dan c e that i studied so many years before Hawaii.
It "should" have been simple enough to find, but due to an uncanny knack for effing up the simplest of directions, i spent two distressed hours of frantic searching while bemoaning my pitiable luck and glaring menacingly at conspiring streetsigns. I tried to minimize my disgust and use postive self talk: "i guess it just wasn't meant to be," "maybe there's a reason for this," "look at this as an opportunity to enjoy the city sites." But i'd been REALLY looking forward to seeing this performance for months!
Finally, after discovering certain details re: improperly juxtoposed street addresses and whatnot, i corrected my direction, walked many, many, many inconceivably loooooooong blocks and entered the promised land, the museum! I was not even deterred by the protestors holding signs requesting that i not go in because the Museum "stole art from Tibet."
Oh Great. That's just beautiful. Now i'm hatin on Tibet. Wonderful.
As if that wasn't enough, the perverse universe wanted to slap me down, A-GAIN, and nearly thrwarted my efforts when some frosty, unfeeling totalitarian undersexed museum clerk shmo looked at me funny, puckered her lips and condescendingly explained "The show started at 3."
YES I AM QUITE AWARE OF THAT, i wanted to scream in her intolerably sour face.
Instead i smiled apologetically and pleaded with her, earnestly explaining how i had spent many hours getting there and had lost my way. Unimpressed by my appeal, she dismissively waved me away. "Next," she summoned.
OHHHHHH NO YOU DON'T LADY
I don't care if i only see 5 minutes of this dang performance, i didn't come all this way to be turned away!
And so i mischeviously moved to the other line. And whadya know?! This museum clerk ROCKED! He generously accepted my $25 bucks and snuck me into the darkened theater an hour and half late. God was i glad to rest my crippled feet after pounding up and down the pavement like a flummoxed hamster in a tube. And i even got to see 2.5 dances! It was so worth it. Even if it took multiple subway mistakes and 2 additional hours of lost time trying to get home.
Ah well. Next time i'll do better!
That's how we learn, right?!
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