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| 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.