Charlie Prince, Albert Galindo, Tristan Ghostkeeper & Ria Girard

For years my mother would tell me, “Alex you can never know because you will never be a mother.” It was only later in my life that I thought of what would have been the perfect retort, “Mother you will never know because you will never be a father.”

It was only yesterday that I watched my two daughters (Ale, the older one had just arrived from her home in Lillooet.) communicate. I felt left out by the way that they looked at each other. As an only child I have never had a glimpse at this kind of bonding. I told them that I was jealous but Hilary, my younger daughter corrected me, “You mean envious.”

Whichever term is the correct one, that is what I felt after the Saturday matinée performance at the Vancover Playhouse of the Arts Umbrella Dance Company’s Mixed Nuts. My granddaughter Lauren, 13 and I attached ourselves to the “coat tails” of former Arts Umbrella dancing star, Albert Galindo (now an apprentice with Ballet BC) and went backstage and into the inner sanctum of the dressing rooms. My granddaughter seemed to know where the boys were and that is where we were headed. But in a dark corner by the back entrance to the Playhouse I spotted Charlie Prince and Tristan Ghostkeeper (both are luminaries of the Arts Umbrella Senior Dance Company). Since we were accompanied by Galindo (one evening before heading to his native Barcelona for the holidays) I suggested a group photograph. Before I snapped my shutter a tiny and very pretty young girl asked me (just with the expression of her face) to be part of it. I took one  picture. They looked stiff.  I then then asked them to get closer. The intimate shot (not a very good one as I should have used my camera’s tiny flash) reveals something that comes from physical intimacy, of sweat and exertion through months of constant practice.

There was a bond that I could not fathom, but then I will never know as I will never be a dancer.