For the love of art and those who burn the Bridges within a community
It would seem like a pretty straight forward title. Though years have passed and I am still trying to unravel the damage that had occurred from this little adventure. I have listened to countless stories of people needing to share with me because I was there. It is never bad enough to get the police involved. What could they do anyway? Here is my story...
Ixchelle
I had painted a picture ' The Dancing Dragon' for a friend of mine who taught Belly dance classes. Symbolically this was to be a trade. Azaria had to shut down her studio but had found a seemingly wonderful place to hold belly dance classes. True to the inspiring description she had given me she thought this would be a great place to put on another Goddess Rock Fest. I pulled up to this place and was astonished. I never knew it existed before, just four miles from town; over a mountain and through the woods.
The driveway was long and well hidden among the rows of pine trees that edged the property. There were four buildings; a big white old New England house. A white warehouse and a studio that set edged against a winding brook that was attached to the Connecticut river down the way. I walked into the warehouse it has large cypress trees on either side of front entrance. The cold air was bitter and the air smelt like ice, wood stove and evergreens.
A few girls were already in the warehouse. Shawna, I recognized from around town. She had tight lips, big blue eyes like a cabbage patch, short hair and a stocky frame. Phoebe was sitting on an overstuffed chair I knew her from the Halfa. She has long golden hair, blue eyes enlarged by her glasses, middle age and round in the belly. She danced as if she were painting one of her goddess paintings with smooth blended appeal and long dark strokes. Diana had a very studious quench for learning. She was in school for message, dance and she worked as a yoga teacher ever after in the pursuit of holistic health. She was flexible with long limber movements using her mind that matters. . Everything she tried she just perfected so gracefully. She wore dark rimmed glasses disguising her Barbie doll face.
We were greeted with cold welcomes of hugs. Still bundled and every breath insured us that our bodies hadn't froze yet. In walks a lady I recognize from the second hand clothes store. She was in there with her daughter, a cute little fair haired pixie girl of about 9. They had caught my eye, they were having fun giggling and laughing throughout the store. She had a fur lined gene jacket that that nearly touched the floor. She looked elegant and secretive that day. Today she walks in draped in scarves and skirts. Her high eyes apologetic slits. ‘Hi I'm Demimondaine, You can call me Demi."
"Sorry, I turned the heat on early this morning I don't know why it’s not warming up in here. "
"It is soo cold in here I ddon't know how we are going to dance." Azaria said and we all agreed.
Another girl walks in. She had a real tough voice. Dressed in all black her eyes tired from sleep. She is so tiny even with her layers on. "BBBbrrr, I almost slept though class."
"This happened in my class too; my muscles were so soar after yoga" Diana whose long limber legs wore grey and pink leg warmers, scarf, mittens and hat.
Azaria rounded us up Introduced us and said "Let’s get moving." We danced with frozen toes to Egyptian belly dance. She liked choreography as much as tribal so we worked on both moving and swaying to the music. Our shivers turned into shimmies. When the music was over we were carefully getting on our street clothes trying not to expose our skin to the still bitter cold. This was my first impression of the art bridge... cold.
We stood around gathering our things.
"I would like to invite you all to our potluck coming up on Saturday; Azaria is going to be dancing. There will be a puppet show. My husband Archaic will be playing in a band and my teacher from Berkley will be showing his work. You can bring your kids. You could bring your boyfriend, whoever..." It sounded great; I wanted to see what this place had to offer. The potential for some really amazing things to transpire was right here.
"My man would never come out for this kind of thing" Shawna informed us in a grumpy tone.
"There are so many things happening I'm sure he would have a blast, there will be dancers, great food, and music. It will be a lovely night out" Demi said with these pleading eyes.
"I said no!! He wouldn't like to hang out here, neither would I! I just told you that!!! I don't know why you would keep bugging me!" Her voice was loud and it was hard to understand where the venom was coming from. With her face all scrunched up she pulled on her shoe and stood up in Demi's face " And further more I don't appreciate you bullying me trying to get me to bring my man here so he could watch other girls, I will never come back here for anything!" With that she spun on her heal and went out the door, leaving a trail of breath behind her that froze into little shimmering snowflakes and fell to the ground with a swirl.
"Oh my, I didn't mean to offend her." Her shoulders down turned. We were all shocked and kind of made small talk. Phoebe and Diana left the warehouse to get warm in their car. Two men walked in two shades of color, staring at our last moment of the morning. "Hi, what was that all about?" the white man with the small glasses asked
"Archie, my goodness I have no idea. I invited her to the potluck and that made her really mad." Demi said in a small babyish voice. She introduced us to the men and continued with herself. "This is my husband Archie and Tommy."
"Demi, I want you to find another place to put your stuff so that the window to the office isn't blocked up." Archie said as he walked down the hall and tore her display of Native American beaded necklaces and earrings out of the window to his office. I thought that they looked nice behind the glass when you first walked in. He handed them to her and told her to find someplace else to put them where they wouldn't be in the way.
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