medicine

so, i’ve been a weird funk for the past few days... just feeling generally irritated and fed up. it was like there was a little ziggy rain cloud hovering over my head, and i was standing in a puddle of my own disgruntlement. (as an aside, maybe a bad mood makes me productive because, despite everything, i managed to get quite a bit of work done.)

i’ve felt like just holing up in my apartment for the next month and not talking to anybody or doing anything.

but tonight, my mood brightened and i’m writing this feeling much better. because, sometimes, the cure for what ails you is $99 seats at a sub-par production of Riverdance, with some excellent company.

in the same way i get free movie tickets, my friend j-dub gets free event tickets, so she generously invited me along to tonight’s performance of the irish-dance extravaganza, which is currently on the five-week (!) toronto stop of its “farewell tour.” only, the extravagance is kind of gone and the show is now a cheesy shadow of its former self.

when Riverdance was first unleashed on the world in the mid-1990s, i was ALL over it. my mom and i went to see it when it came through town, and we watched gobsmacked as original principal dancers michael flatley and jean butler lit up the stage. we loved it. the precision with which the dancers performed was mesmerizing, the music was beautiful and, for a good time after we left the theater (like, two years or so) we were obsessed with all things Riverdance-y. my parents bought the soundtrack AND the DVD, and we were well-versed in the world of celtic dance.

cut to tonight...

ummm.... not so great any more. say what you will about michael flatley, but the man knew how to put together a crisp, polished, perfect show. unfortunately, a lot of that meticulous attention to detail was nowhere to be seen onstage ce soir. synchronization was off repeatedly, so knees and toes and arms and shoulders that should have been in unison were not. the two principal dancers had no chemistry and were mostly uninteresting, and a number of the troupe members were equally meh. the flamenco dancer, though, was spectacular, as were the two tap dancers, who had the crowd cheering. their work was stellar. nonetheless, we both agreed that, had we had to pay for those $99 seats, we would have felt seriously cheated.

but the evening wasn’t so much about the show as simply having a really wonderful night out with a friend. despite the lacklustre event, we had a great time just talking and laughing and sharing and making fun of the lead guy’s horrible hairdo.

it was exactly what i needed, right when i needed it. frivolous, fun and filled with flying feet.

fantastic.