Dancing in Saratoga Springs can be challenging. The SPAC stage is as hard as a rock and it has an extra panel of depth which throws off our normal spacing. The front wings are more recessed than the back ones which makes exiting and entering downstage labored (case in point: the downstage left grand jeté exit of my Raymonda solo was a real push). The backstage crossover is pure cement and very long so sometimes we get late when we have quick runarounds. The weather is often terrible too: sometimes it is so cold that we shiver and steam rises off our bodies visibly from the audience; sometimes it is so hot and humid that we can’t breathe and we slip all over the stage on our own sweat. The lights go out on occasion. Stray bats fly around above us. There is also no way to exit the amphitheater without climbing an incredibly steep hill—so after shows and in between rehearsals when our legs ache we are faced with yet another quad workout if we want to leave the compound.
Worst of all, bugs are everywhere (like a moth to a spotlight?). Once during a Concerto Barocco performance a huge beetle landed on Albert Evans’s head at the very beginning of the adagio. It crawled around on his face throughout his pas de deux while we corps women snickered behind him. Panicked, he asked me to flick it off him when we got to the large winding circle midway through the piece. But we had formed a giant chain, and he and the girl behind me had my hands. I could be of no help, for there was no way to do it without resorting to a head butt! Eventually the beetle fell
Worst of all, bugs are everywhere (like a moth to a spotlight?). Once during a Concerto Barocco performance a huge beetle landed on Albert Evans’s head at the very beginning of the adagio. It crawled around on his face throughout his pas de deux while we corps women snickered behind him. Panicked, he asked me to flick it off him when we got to the large winding circle midway through the piece. But we had formed a giant chain, and he and the girl behind me had my hands. I could be of no help, for there was no way to do it without resorting to a head butt! Eventually the beetle fell
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