Philip Petit
Firstly, Philip Petit:
"August 7, 1974, (an illegal street juggler, consumate pickpocket, poet and the grandest tightrope walker) walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center.
It took all night to complete the rigging, securing the steel cable a quarter of a mile in the sky across the 130-foot gap separating the towers. Wall Street was just beginning to come to life when, at a little past seven on the morning of August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit stepped onto the wire stretched out across the void.
Philippe Petit On the street below, people stopped in their tracks - first by the tens, then by the hundreds and thousands - staring up in wonder and disbelief at the tiny figure walking on air between the towers. Sgt. Charles Daniels of the Port Authority Police Department, dispatched to the roof to bring Petit down, looked on in helpless amazement. “I observed the tightrope ‘dancer’ - because you couldn’t call him a ‘walker’ - approximately halfway between the two towers,” he later reported. “And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire… And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle… He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again… Unbelievable really…. [E]verybody was spellbound in the watching of it.”
Yesterday, STREB had a benefit performance for Philip Petit, presenting him with the Action Maverick Award. It was pretty amazing to see Philip and Elizabeth Streb interact. They are considered to be in the same daring field where they constantly are experimenting with action (hence the name SLAM - STREB Laboratory for Action Mechanics). Wasted, listening to their speeches, I can't believe that after four years of Alvin Ailey I have turned out to be some sort of stunt artist/ action maverick/ action specialist. Nothing makes me more happy than leaving my ballet class at Ailey to go fall from the truss at STREB. What a dichotomy. I'm so satisfied.
Of course, while at this settled point in my life, I made it all the way through the Momix audition. I think it's because I did back handsprings (thanks to STREB) during my improvisation. Also, I didn't realize how many people I had connections with from Momix. When I walked into the audition it was like endless chatting with the company members and the associate artistic directors. I truly enjoyed the audition, and considering that Momix was my obsession for years and years and years, if I am accepted I am going to join Momix. I'll try my best to still live in NYC so that I can be at STRB as much as possible.
One more thing about the benefit performance... while STREB was practicing before they performed, I heard a terrible and horrifying scream of pain from DeeAnn. I saw her laying on the floor, rocking back and forth, crying and holding her ankle. She ended up going to the hospital and not performing. It was so sad. It only takes one fall for Justin and I to end up in STREB... Elizabeth might have to hire on of us.
Why does everything always happen at the same time? Imagine if I got asked to fill in DeeAnn's spot and I also got into Momix... no seriously, just imagine that for a second... ahhhhhhhhhhhh.
"August 7, 1974, (an illegal street juggler, consumate pickpocket, poet and the grandest tightrope walker) walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center.
It took all night to complete the rigging, securing the steel cable a quarter of a mile in the sky across the 130-foot gap separating the towers. Wall Street was just beginning to come to life when, at a little past seven on the morning of August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit stepped onto the wire stretched out across the void.
Philippe Petit On the street below, people stopped in their tracks - first by the tens, then by the hundreds and thousands - staring up in wonder and disbelief at the tiny figure walking on air between the towers. Sgt. Charles Daniels of the Port Authority Police Department, dispatched to the roof to bring Petit down, looked on in helpless amazement. “I observed the tightrope ‘dancer’ - because you couldn’t call him a ‘walker’ - approximately halfway between the two towers,” he later reported. “And upon seeing us he started to smile and laugh and he started going into a dancing routine on the high wire… And when he got to the building we asked him to get off the high wire but instead he turned around and ran back out into the middle… He was bouncing up and down. His feet were actually leaving the wire and then he would resettle back on the wire again… Unbelievable really…. [E]verybody was spellbound in the watching of it.”
Yesterday, STREB had a benefit performance for Philip Petit, presenting him with the Action Maverick Award. It was pretty amazing to see Philip and Elizabeth Streb interact. They are considered to be in the same daring field where they constantly are experimenting with action (hence the name SLAM - STREB Laboratory for Action Mechanics). Wasted, listening to their speeches, I can't believe that after four years of Alvin Ailey I have turned out to be some sort of stunt artist/ action maverick/ action specialist. Nothing makes me more happy than leaving my ballet class at Ailey to go fall from the truss at STREB. What a dichotomy. I'm so satisfied.
Of course, while at this settled point in my life, I made it all the way through the Momix audition. I think it's because I did back handsprings (thanks to STREB) during my improvisation. Also, I didn't realize how many people I had connections with from Momix. When I walked into the audition it was like endless chatting with the company members and the associate artistic directors. I truly enjoyed the audition, and considering that Momix was my obsession for years and years and years, if I am accepted I am going to join Momix. I'll try my best to still live in NYC so that I can be at STRB as much as possible.
One more thing about the benefit performance... while STREB was practicing before they performed, I heard a terrible and horrifying scream of pain from DeeAnn. I saw her laying on the floor, rocking back and forth, crying and holding her ankle. She ended up going to the hospital and not performing. It was so sad. It only takes one fall for Justin and I to end up in STREB... Elizabeth might have to hire on of us.
Why does everything always happen at the same time? Imagine if I got asked to fill in DeeAnn's spot and I also got into Momix... no seriously, just imagine that for a second... ahhhhhhhhhhhh.