Last Thursday evening we had an event to attend. The world premiere of Slow Dancing at the Lincoln Center in New York City. We were invited by Director David Michalek to his “invitation only” celebration for all the people associated with the project. From our private balcony in the Avery Fisher Hall we sipped wine and watched as the magic of slow motion dance unfolded across the plaza on 40 foot tall screens suspended from the façade of the New York State Theater, home of the New York City Ballet.

How exactly did we manage this you might ask? Because my husband Rick was responsible for donating the use of the high-speed, high-definiton digital camera [made by the company he works for, Vision Research] that made it all possible. Back in February we got to visit David’s studio in NYC and watched two of the dancers being filmed. It was fascinating to watch the process first hand. When I saw “Lil C” on So You Think You Can Dance two weeks ago, I was still in awe that I had stood right next to his well-muscled body—in person! [He is one of the creators of krumping.]

Here is an explanation of what Slow Dancing is all about from the Playbill:
“Slow Dancing is a series of 43 larger-than-life, hyper-slow-motion video portraits of dancers and choreographers from around the world, displayed on multiple screens. Each subject’s movement (approximately 5 seconds long) was shot on a specially constructed set using a high-speed, high-definition camera recording at 1,000 frames per second (standard film captures 30 frames per second). The result is approximately 10 minutes of extreme slow motion. The trio of portraits will be randomly selected for each cycle, allowing viewers to simultaneously compare dancers from different styles and cultures.

What at first appears to be a series of still photographs unfolds gesture by barely perceptible gesture—a motion portrait in which each dancer’s unique artistic expression and technique are revealed. Viewers can choose to focus on one dancer’s complete performance or observe the interplay among the screens. The extreme slow motion enables the viewer to share privileged information about the complexity of the simplest gestures, catching details that would normally escape the naked eye.”

I took some still photos and a few videos to give you an idea. The vids are not the best and somewhat grainy, but it’s the best I could do in nighttime conditions. Watch carefully because things unfold very s.l.o.w.l.y. Keep in mind that each performer’s moves were only done in 5 seconds of real time. What can you do in 5 seconds?

I like how in this photo below you can see how tiny the real people appear at the bottom in comparison to the screen.

In this first vid, the middle screen is showing Herman Cornejo just before he begins his jump. Lil C is on the right.

Now a little further into his performance Herman is in mid leap!

The dancer on the left is Wendy Whelan, principal dancer of the New York City Ballet and she just happens to also be David Michalek’s wife.

Herman Cornejo was the most awesome for me. His form is so incredible! He is Argentinean and is now a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater. To see more of his spectacular segment, click on this link to watch the video on Slow Dancing’s website.

It was nice to see Rick’s name listed in the acknowledgments in the Playbill: [see second line]

Thank you, David! It was both a privilege and an honor to be invited. For those of you in the area who wish to see this great work of art, the exhibition runs until July 29th, nightly from 9 pm until 1 am. Admission is free, just bring a chair to set up in the Plaza to watch. In September the exhibition moves to Los Angeles in the Music Center Plaza. To read more about the dancers and the project, follow this link  to visit the website for Slow Dancing.

I’m sorry that I haven’t been blogging much. Frankly, I just haven’t felt inspired to do much of anything. I can’t seem to climb out of the funk that seems to surround me like the green muck in the pond above. I go about my day doing all my usual things with some fun outings with neighbor Kim sprinkled in, but I feel like I am just surviving and not really taking full advantage of life. I am living a monotone/monochromatic existence right now. Even Johnny needed a jump to get him going this morning for yard duty. Don’t worry about me; I’m okay, just blah and kind of numb.

Just when we thought Vaughn had started on the road to recovery, we got a call from Rick’s Mom this morning telling us that he had taken a turn for the worse last night and is now back in ICU. She was a bit muddled about what exactly the problem was, but it seems that the pneumonia is back in his lungs. Not good news at all. We just talked to him last night on the phone and he couldn’t really get enough breath to talk much to us, but at least it was something. They haven’t been able to get him up and moving much which is probably not helping things. I don’t know what the future has in store for him, but right now he could use all your positive thoughts and healing energy directed his way. Just send them in the direction of St. Luke’s Hospital in Houston, Texas.

To update on some things, we did see Doris (the bear) a week ago Saturday when my Mom was still visiting. Sailor alerted us to her presence in the yard by doing his alarm barking. Sure enough, there she was in the woods inside the fence. Rick and I stood in the yard and watched her for a few minutes. At first she did her little huffing noise at us and we took a few more steps backward, but she quickly resumed her foraging without paying us the least bit of mind. I went back into the house to get my camera and Mom, certain that she would be gone when I returned, but no. She was still there. We stood and watched as she ate and rolled around on the ground with her legs in the air for about 15 minutes. Mom couldn’t believe we were standing in the yard watching a bear so calmly! When she was finished with her dinner she went over to the fence and cllmbed back over into the woods. I did take a few fuzzy pics and I’ll include them. It was just too dark to get in-focus photos. You decide: are fuzzy photos of Doris better than none at all? When she was gone Rick went down to see what she was eating and it was the roots of the swamp cabbage. Very tasty.

There hasn’t been any more news of our local runaway cow. Either she just hasn’t been spotted or they are too embarrassed to tell us that they’ve attempted a capture and failed yet again. I hope she and the bear are getting along alright. It would seem that she’s eluded her captors rather successfully. I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything new.

My cherry tomatoes are all coming ripe now. I like to pick them right off the vine and pop them right into my mouth. They are warm from the sun and still smell like the vine that way and at their luscious best. There are too many to eat all at once though so some have to wait to be eaten later on a salad.

We did manage to have a night in the city on Thursday. I plan to blog about the premiere of Slow Dancing at the Lincoln Center within the next few days. In the meantime check out their web site. The camera that was used to take all the slow motion was of course from the company Rick works for. We went to the party for everyone involved in the project, from dancers to cameramen: special invitation only!

So now you’re caught up with the latest news. Thank you for all your support through these difficult weeks — it’s meant a great deal to me to know that you care!

I’ve been overwhelmed this past week with worries and sadness and I just couldn’t bring myself to write—about anything. Rick’s Dad has finally turned the corner and is now being moved from ICU. It took him about four days to come around once they removed his “doze” meds. He had a low level pneumonia after the surgery and we were worried as he only has one complete lung. They got him out of bed yesterday for the first time in a week and he’s as weak as a newborn kitten. It’s going to take some time to bounce back, but he’s on his way to recovery finally.

While we were worrying about Vaughn’s heart, it turned out that is was our dog Daisy’s heart that we should have been concerned about without even knowing it. I can’t quite believe it myself, but we lost Daisy on Friday, July 6th. She’s gone from us ... our Daisy-Doo. Just like that. I won’t go into the details here but if you remember I mentioned she was sick. We had thought it was an infection of some kind and she was on antibiotics. They had done x-rays and on Monday her heart looked rounder than normal. Our vet wasn’t overly concerned since her heart sounded fine in all respects and Daisy was back eating and she wasn’t as lethargic as she had been. Then on Friday she took a turn for the worse and was having difficulty breathing. We rushed her to the ER at 10:00 p.m., but her heart just stopped on the exam table as she was being given fluids. We didn’t even get to say good-bye to her. We had no clue when we handed her over to the triage nurse and she led her back to the ER room that we would never see her alive again.

As it turned out she had a tumor in her heart that had started to bleed. The fluid was accumulating around her heart and before they could tap it to drain the fluid, she was gone. It’s just too sad. Even if we had diagnosed it earlier her prognosis would have been grim. At least she didn’t suffer, but we would have liked some closure with her with some advance notice. They assured us that this kind of cancer usually is hidden until it becomes critical. Daisy was only five-and-a-half. We will miss her sweet smiling eyes and silly “Doo-ness.” Rest well, sweet Daisy ... we’ll miss you so ...

More slo-mo as requested. Some of you may find this vid boring. Others will be fascinated to find out that the total time elapsed in making this vid was only one second. That’s it. I tried to count the number of wing beats and I came up with something like 72. Can you imagine beating your wings 72 times in one second?

I snapped this at the Botanical Gardens this weekend. I like it’s cheery face. Rick’s Dad is stable at the moment, but he does have a post-surgery infection at the moment and is running a fever. They have been keeping him in a “doze” under sedation and will be bringing him out of it little by little, starting today. Please keep him in your thoughts!

My Mom is still visiting, so I’ll take my usual blogging back up next week. I do have some new slo-mo vids to share with you, so stay tuned!