First of all, the curtain call didn’t go on for twenty minutes and I can honestly say that i missed it. It felt strange not showing my gratitude by clapping for seven or eight rounds of bows. I did fight the American urge to stand, though.
Second, I saw a dance show. 10 Hairy Legs was the company, the show had no title. Very different than Dorky Park. It was four separate pieces without an overlying narrative. It did not play with the idea amateur. It was also an all male company. On purpose. Not sure how I felt about that.
But, most shows I saw in Berlin did not tug quite so on my heart in the way that this one did. I cried a couple of times during the course of the show. It was just so beautiful and then suddenly there was water coming out of my eyes. It was like seeing the pandas run at the zoo.
Suffice to say, it was a strange experience sitting down in a theater for the first time since Berlin. It was inevitable. And it served to further emphasize the differences between the performances in the countries. Germans definitely know how to combine performance styles like theater or dance or visual art and turn them into performance pieces. They play with ideas like the amateur, narrative, and strong visual pictures. America seems to focus heavily on talent and skill and the raw performance that a human body is capable of unhindered by other elements.
My heart longs for both. And I am simultaneously amazed and perplexed and intrigued by all of this.
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