Alumni honor Annie and themselves with dance

 An Evening of Dance

tonight, the stars aligned,

and a wonder, full of wonders,

revealed light after light shining,

an evening of dance is conceived, honed, expressed on stage

by different generations of former students and companions

under the prod, support, guidance,

of a humble teacher who dares to see who people are,

then to help them do what they can do,

every person is amazing,

but how to release that impressiveness can elude,

metaphorically, tonight, the stars aligned,

brilliance flared, then flared, again and again:

the virtuosity of the movement, obvious,

the virtuosity of what was expressed with the movement

loved even when words don’t appear to hold what we see,

it is enough that the heart joys in the experience, 

in how the human body can defy and use gravity, space, material,

to create and say what can’t be said,

to touch the receiver deeper and truer than words,

like music, dance bypasses rational control,

and can touch us, move us, 

though we’re not sure where we’re going,

after a concert of instrument or body, we are better, 

tonight I feel a deep rightness in my soul,

for what has been moved and shaken by a colleague and friend

overwhelms me with what lived on stage

in choreographer, in dance, 

in the musicians, in the tech support,

in the community, who all together

 make all better, 

together.

by Henry H. Walker

April 8, ‘22