by Odilia Rivera Santos
Music, movement, multisensory shenanigans.
I decided this morning to celebrate Christmas in a dark dance club with an international cast of characters in my favorite neighborhood, my stomping grounds since teenagehood. I am listening to Poncho Sánchez, sipping a mediocre cup of coffee, watching the tall slim business man in his Brooks Brothers best, arms hanging like a mericat, wait his turn to order; he looks like he has a wife who places his clothes on the bed each morning, so all he need do is dry off from a shower and blithely slip on his uniform, which seems as iron-clad as that of a police officer. He probably does stand guard somewhere between people and their money in a subterranean corporate cave. We apply our training in the world. Last night, as I was slipping into my uniform of late --insomnia, I considered how my training from the age of seven has been deeply-rooted in research and an attempt to remain one step ahead. Every difficult circumstance has the potential to leave one with valuable skills or lifelong injury; I chose skills over injury.
My parents had an elementary school education and I, along with my brothers and sisters, had to research information, make major decisions, and act as interpreters to parents adrift in a new country with a new language. Research is natural and intuitive at this point.
I am listening to some great techno cumbia and thinking about New Year's Resolution #3 - more dancing.
I hope to see you at the monologue show I've written: In and Out of Character, Women Speak in January at The Organization for Puerto Rican Artists in the Lower East Side in January.
follow me on Twitter: @bezotes
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