And more Béatrice
And even more

Ever since I had Tío Pepe Martinis with Evelyn Hart at the then Metropolitan Hotel I feel in love with dance and like a legion of others with Hart.

I have seen lots of dance since. I have discussed dance with many Vancouver dance critics of yore (not too many left now) and Max Wyman is my friend. Wyman wrote a book on Hart which I have read many times.

In short  I have developed through the years an eye for dance, good choreographer and good dancers. While I am a straight and heterosexual old man this does not prevent me from admiring (tremendously) the many men who dance in Vancouver. Anybody out there with a memory for what I have written might remember I feel hard for Arts Umbrella Dance Company’s Albert Galindo. The powers that be in our city did not seem to understand that a good dancer can be a good dancer but without presence excellence will not proceed. A dance company in Israel saw this and promptly hired the young man.

When I watched him dance he reminded me of the grace and beauty of the films I have seen of the great bullfighter Manolete.

In this reduced pantheon of very good dancers with presence there is Béatrice Larrivée who graduated from Arts Umbrella a couple of years ago.

I was completely enthralled by this not too tiny but compact ballerina who had that presence I am writing about. Backstage one day I watched her cry as she had injured her ankle. She sat for a while. And when it was her turn she got up and danced. This is the kind of pathos and emotion that our cyan-blue and very cold city sorely needs.

Unfortuanately Larrivée is doing just fine in her hometown of Montreal.

It is my hope that she will return to our city one day and give us some more of that pathos, emotion, grace and style.