Hi Everyone,
Around the world and back again, literally as well as figuratively so please forgive the lateness of this post. On the whole, it was a good trip to the US. There weren't any major dramas, but plenty of the usual bits and pieces.
Our journey started out from Tbilisi at the normal crazy hour of 05:00. We flew Turkish Airways to Istanbul, and after a 4 hour layover we flew 9:30 hours to John F. Kennedy airport. We were all pretty worn out by that stage, but there was more to come. Marika, who is from the administration and was in charge, took us to terminal seven. We had to find which airline we were flying, but Marika didn't know. Teona the company manager also didn't know and they certainly had not told us. We couldn't just look at a board to find which airlines were flying to Charleston either, because Marika knew that we were going via some other place. So there we were, a group of 40+ people wandering around JFK airport getting in the way because we didn't know which airline we were flying. (Fail 1!) Marika ended up calling Tbilisi to get this slightly important piece of information. Eventually, we were told that we were flying US Airways to Charllote and then on to Charleston.
We found their check-in counter to discover that it is staffed by two people and four electronic kiosks, a budget airline. They found our booking, and asked how much baggage there was. One piece per person is our reply, ok, that will be $25 per bag!! I've flown budget airlines many times and they are an effective cheap no-fills option of travel. However, you have to read the fine print! Some one in Tbilisi has obviously gone with this cheaper sounding option, but failed to take in the details! (Fail 2!) Fortunately, we had enough cash between us to cover the cost. They did have to delay the flight for us because the check in process took so long, and we made out of JFK about 1 hour late.
We arrived in Charlotte to find that it was a very busy airport. Despite the lateness of the hour, thousands of passengers that were flying. Another wait of 3 hours wait and we were on the final flight which only lasted 30 minutes, putting us into Charleston in the early hours of the morning. The Charleston Spoleto Festival, who we were performing for, put us up in some college dorms in the middle of town. It wasn't amazing, but it was clean, had air conditioning and the flat beds felt like heaven after being through 2 airlines, 3 countries, 4 airplanes and 5 airports in the last 30 hours.
I woke the next day at about 09:30 feeling refreshed and free of jet lag. Yasha and I went for a walk to find some breakfast and get our bearings. We found a place that sold bagels and I was able to walk in, greet the owner (in English), read the menu (in English), choose a bagel type (in English), share a joke with the owner (in English) and thank him for his wonderful service (in English! My sainted aunt did it feel good!!) We wandered through the downtown finding it to be a quaint city, full of retro buildings, church and historical points of interest. We explored the high end shopping as well as some markets before heading back to prepare for class.
After class I discovered from chatting with the people at the security desk that there was a supermarket within walking distance. I headed off with Jasha to get some food for our stay. That supermarket was one of the highlights of the trip. So much choice, so many products, so many prices were normal and everything was clearly written up in English! They even had fresh milk. I bought a quart just to scull on the way back to the dorms.
We had a straight run through of the show that evening. We had extras performing in the show as guards and guests which I thought was amazing. I pulled a corner in their part of the dressing room and happily joked and chatted with them for the whole season. Not to mention that they knew performance and function times and dates well in advance of me as well as a heap of of good local information.
The run finished without any dramas. Jasha Will and myself headed into town to find a place to eat and have a birthday beer. We ended up at this place called Kickin' Kichen which was one of the few places still open at that hour. It was a sports bar that also served food, nothing amazing but it was kind of cool to say happy birthday in an American bar.
The next day we had dress rehearsal followed by the opening night performance so we didn't really have a lot of time. I spent a bit of the morning at the visitor center trying to figure out how to get to the beach. Unfortunately, it became obvious that it wasn't going to be possible. It was at least 20 miles to the beach, the buses were infrequent and taxis expensive. So as much as I would like to have gone, I decided that it just wasn't practical.
The opening show was interesting. We were performing four shows of Giselle with Nina Ananiashvili dancing two shows. The shows were all well attended with plenty of people flying in just to see Nina dance. She was was on fire for both performances and the audience was very enthusiastic. Nina Gogua was dancing the other two shows and she was equally good, so at least on the principal level the audience were satisfied.
The corp boys on the other hand, left a bit to be desired. Aside from the normal showing of poor technique we had a major collision on stage. It was in one of the group peasant dances where we go across the stage in groups crossing in between each others lines. Igor had a major brain fart and couldn't remember if he was supposed to go in front or behind Will so in the end they ran smack into each other. (Fail 3!) It was ugly and messy but we some how managed to recover. Ok, so anyone can make a mistake, it's life, but when some one makes a major stuff up like that and the teachers don't say anything at all! It's unforgivable. (Fail 4!) The next day Igor got it wrong again. He managed to not smack into Will this time, but he still went upstage of Will when he should have gone downstage. (Fail 5!) Before the next show was about to start I suggested that we sort this out, but nobody was interested and was not going to waste my breath doing somebody else's job. But during the show, Will wants to do it and so we finally sort it out backstage about 15 minutes into the act. :-#
I've got excited and skipped ahead. I have to take you back to opening night and tell you about the after party. A wealthy family had put on a garden party at their house in honour of the dancers. It was a really high end do with caviar and smoked salmon for party food, martin and champagne for drinks and all served by professional wait staff in formal wear. The girls had got themselves all dolled up and spend a good part of the night taking pictures. At one point I was standing there with five different compact cameras, trying to get the group to fit into them all. I managed to get a couple of my own in there so which you can view at the usual
place. Photos tell such a better story of these things.
The following day, we had two shows which didn't leave us much time for anything. The shows went well aside from the fiasco that is the boy's dancing. Between the shows I bought a token
t-shirt from Quicksilver and wondered around a bit more. After the evening performance, Yasha Guga and myself shared dinner at a restaurant with two of the extras. I had a steak sandwich which was awesome. The best I've had in a long time and probably the last I will have in a long time.
On our final day, we had just the single afternoon performance. It was a very normal performance, the perfect end to my performing career with the Georgia State Ballet. I had spent the greater part of the morning trying to figure out when we were leaving. Everyone was telling me different things. I was hearing everything to 7 o'clock that night to 5am the following morning and pretty much everything in between. I was pretty fed up with being uninformed and not know what on earth is happening. So I was a little nostalgic about my final performance, but the greater part of me was just glad to be moving on.
After, I went back to the hotel did some packing watched some English television (amazing stuff!) and had a nap. For dinner, I went with Kola to a seafood restaurant to sample some of the local shrimp. Again, it was amazing and a good end to the trip.
Early the next morning we were at the airport ready to do the reverse trip through the 2 airlines, 3 countries, 4 airplanes and 5 airports in 30 hours. It was a long trip but we made it safely back without any major dramas.
So that's it for my little trip across the Atlantic and for my performing career with the Georgian Ballet. I'll be in Tbilisi for the two weeks to sort out stuff and get myself back in shape before heading back to London town. From there, only God knows the answers.
Till next week,
Rodney Cuthbertson
DreamChaser
