Easter

Easter has always been very important in my life. Being a Christian and being raised Catholic, every bit of tradition concerning this holiday is important to me. And while I've had to adapt to the different situations, I have always held these traditions close and celebrated them if only by myself, if only in my mind.

Along with Lenten traditions, and each day of Holy Week, I have become accustomed to performing. It seems right. Last year I performed and costumed, this year, I am performing again. And, I performed today. My Good Friday was a day spent with dancers. Christian dancers, mostly women (women and Carlos, who is amazing and doesn't seem affected by the huge amount of estrogen around him.) Dancing at Rock Harbor was huge for me. I grew up Christian, a Christian who refused to listen to or watch Christian performances. I hated Christian music, plays, movies. My exeption was Jesus of Nazereth with Olivia Hussey as Mary, I don't know why but the movie appealed to me. I hate Christian arts because it seemed so cheesy, so overdone, so lackluster. I listened to secular music. Angry boy music as my sister and I called (I think now it's called emo and punk or emopunk, alternative rock...etc). To this day I have a hard time listening Christian music, I don't for the most part. Dancing in a church seemed pretty cheesy to me too. I was in a liturgical company in college and we traveled from church to church dancing at different services. We wore these aweful costumes I called "the cupcakes"...strawberry pink, three petticoats, long sleeved shirtwaist...we were covered neck to ankle and poufy. Aweful. But it ministered, seemingly, to the Oklahoma churches and I danced and joined everything I could (so I was a liturgical dancer AND a pep dancer AND American Spirit Dancer AND...). Rock Harbor was different. They had an audition. They turned people down after the audition. They were led by a dancer. They used music from Gladiator. Once I danced to Bjork at Rock Harbor. They seemed to have real people, people who didn't use cheese (okay sometimes they do, but it's minimum cheese). And their people made mistakes. and didn't deny them or justify or play the victim. I enjoy being part of their contribution to the arts and to the church. and the truth of it is, it's hit and miss. Some of the stuff is great and some stuff tanks...but that's life and they keep creating, trying, working, enjoying.