He Was Swimming the Other Way
they are composing a dance
working and reworking
and writing it down and changing things and discovering things and
going home to write it all down again and come back the next day with new ideas
Delia and Tanya and Caroline and Laura and Jen
we are a sold out crowd,
come to watch the results of all these weeks of working all this
creating
suddenly there is boat in a river
like the Fraser River or the Mississippi.
or maybe it is a vast ocean
somewhere in the Mediterranean.
and the mast of the boat is Caroline
standing on the boat
with a black dress on her chest
they are moving down the center of the river in the month of June
while Caroline is singing
gonna be sinkin soon.
(Norah Jones)
gonna be sinkin soon
like oysters crackers honey and cheese
we’re gonna be sinkin soon.
a trio moves out of the boat and
why did she move her arm that way? fling it out to the right?
the other hand made a fist. why?
I know.
I can feel it in my leg.
Laura comes out from the rest because she is
the solo.
she is the strength;
she is the sinew
the presence.
her tenacity fills the room.
and she is tough to the core.
all four are on the floor,
facing north
we can see
only their backs,
where their intrascapular muscles move
the program doesn’t tell us what this is all about and
I have to figure it out
so I think they are women.
I think they are sitting on rocks in the sea
and they are facing north and seeing something that I can’t see.
I keep thinking of the sirens
the boats going down
sinking Odysseus,
we are all going down
together.
there is something about a fish
Tanya and Jen in blue and pink
bathing suit costumes
back to back
a funny duet.
Tanya talks to her man about going to the beach he is
nothing but a ball with a face painted on it
hanging on a string from the ceiling,
she is funny and sad.
he is brusque and pathetic
I hope she loses him
fast I hope
her real man is
a little more together than that ball
four women face north
sitting on the floor.
they can see something
we don’t see
tell something
that we need
the boat returns with Caroline
a black dress on her chest
singing sugar cubes and apple pie,
dancing fish and stormy sky
we are going to be sinking soon.
going to be sinking soon.
everybody hold your breath ‘cuz
down and down we go
the lights come down and everybody claps and all four of them rush out
on to the middle where the ocean was
holding hands in the wild applause
Caroline and Tanya and Jen and Laura
and Delia who is sitting in the audience
beside me they are all
smiling and clapping and the guy who is sitting behind me says to his friend
that was so great it was so great.
something for everybody and
everybody is happy
we wander out into the corridor and back to our cars and home to the
tv and newspapers and the financial crisis
sinkin soon
all going down
but how can it be that bad in the end
if Caroline sings and
Jen flings her arms and
Laura stays strong so she can’t be stopped
and Tanya with her rubber ball
makes us all laugh.
He Was Swimming the Other Way: Choreography by Delia Brett of MachineNoisy Dance, Part of EDAM’s Propulsion, Nov 12 – 21, 2008, The Western Front Dancers: Caroline Liffman, Tanya Podlozniuk, Jennifer McLeish-Lewis, Laura Hicks
Sjahari Hollands is an internist, playwright and contact improvisor.