Dance - Part Two

History is silent on my beginnings as a "dancer". What this sentence really means is that I haven’t asked my Mum about it.

Here we can see I am taking a break between rehearsals (right).

Nijinsky’s Dad was a dancer. His sister was a dancer, and his brother was training to be but he jumped out a fourth story window. At least one of Nijinsky’s daughters became a dancer. Is dancing a thing that’s in the genes? Would Nijinsky have become a world renowned proctologist if his father had been one, and he had been pushed into back passages at an early age?

I’ve forgotten what this dance was called. Was it L’wheelbarrow, or was it La Gumboot Rouge? It escapes me (left).

I was working in a more modern style; closer to my mother. My father, I believe, worked primarily in the ballroom genre.

My mother and father’s first date was at one of Joe Brown’s enormously popular dances in Dunedin.

Here are the reminiscences of a double bass player who played at Joe Brown’s dances at the Dunedin Town Hall.

The Town Hall was the place for Dunedin people to go to on a Saturday night. It was also the venue for visitors from out of town. No visit to Dunedin would be complete without going to Joe Brown's Town Hall Dance.The Town Hall was used for modern dances such as foxtrots, quicksteps, jazz waltzes and Latin American dances, while the Concert Chamber was used for old time dances such as the Military Two Step, The Albert’s and Circular Waltzes.

"The dances were a marvellous sight. It was very colourful with women in their beautiful ball gowns and crowds of people watching and enjoying the dances." He believes the beginning of the end of Joe Brown's Town Hall Dances came with rock 'n' roll and pop music: "When rock 'n' roll was introduced there wasn't enough room for people to do the ballroom dances. People used to dance with each other, not at each other," he declares.Mr Revill has now put away his double bass but his interest in music - particularly jazz - continues. He is a volunteer announcer with Hills AM Community Access.

I went to Kapiti College. I listened to AC/DC a lot. The height of cleverness in AC/DC was a song called Big Balls. What was clever about this song was that it was talking about going to dances called balls, but - and here's where it gets clever - they were also talking about testicles.

The social pages say I've got the biggest balls of them all!

Our seventh-form ball was at Southward's Car Museum. I was very concerned about how I looked (the photo might suggest the contrary), but was not able to bring myself to: (a) take the ballroom dancing lessons the school were offering, or (b) ask a girl out. As a consequence I went to the ball by myself and did not dance.

I have to say my father seems to be having a much better time forty years earlier. He probably could have taught me a thing or two. I probably wouldn't have liked it if he had tried to give me advice about girls, but a few dancing tips might have relieved the boredom of an expensive night sitting around in a rented tuxedo when I was seventeen.

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In 1912 Nijinsky premiered his interpretation of Debussy’s L’Apres-midi d’un Faun in Paris for Ballet Russe. It produced scattered applause and some booing. Marketing turned it into a great success. Debussy was unenthusiastic about Nijinsky’s choreography.

“This ballet is about a half-animal and half-human creature, the young Faun, who is aroused by seven nubile women, Nymphs taking a bath. One of them shows an interest in him, and they dance together briefly. She drops her scarf and runs away. The Faun picks up the scarf, fondles it, takes it to his lair, and uses it as a fetish for autoerotic excitement.”

A Leap Into Madness, p.57

Apparently Nijinsky's autoerotic excitement was a little bit too explicit for some tastes in the initial performance, and had to be toned down. Debussy’s music is very beautiful but it must be hard to dance to as there are no strong rhythms; the music is more of a wash of sound with a distant pulse.

Aside from the autoerotic excitement scene, Nijinsky's choreography was unusual with the dancers very much in relief. Diaghilev had taken Nijinsky to the Louvre to see Greek vases and Egyptian and Assyrian frescoes. Our friendly biographer of the penis - Ostwald - has another theory about influences on the choreography:

"Nijinsky and his sister occasionally visited the hospital where their brother Stanislav had to be confined. In 1911 he was transferred to a vey large city asylum... these visits were moving as well as troubling.... It was customary in those days to house patients with nuerological diseases together with psychiatric patients.... Pathological movements associated with these conditions can be very striking, and Nijinsky, who felt considerable empathy with his brother and had a great interest in movement, probably remembered them well." (p.58)

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My mother had heard that there were a few skeletons in my father's family closet. She was waiting to meet my Dad at the train station. She thought: "If he is upfront about them when he meets me today then we can get married, but if he isn't then it's all off."