Art Imitating Life

My performance group has started practicing for our next show which is on my birthday! This is our "best of" show which revisits all of our favorite dances, music and poetry. Since our cast has changed over the last few years some dances have different choreography.

I have been cast in a dance called "Four Women" to the music of Nina Simone with the same title. Guess who I play? Aunt Sarah! With every thing going on in my life right now I get cast as Aunt Sarah. HA!

Here are the lyrics to my part:

My skin is black
My arms are long
My hair is woolly
My back is strong
Strong enough to take the pain
It’s been inflicted again and again
What do they call me
My name is aunt sarah
My name is aunt sarah

We have practiced this song for the last two weeks and I had a difficult time getting into the mindset of Aunt Sarah. She starts the song which means I set the tone for the entire piece. Black skin? Check. Long arms? Check. Wooly hair? Check. I'm suppose to be strong? Well...uhhh...CHECK!

I can do this. I CAN DO THIS! I can take what life has thrown at me. It is okay to retreat, regroup and reactivate. I forgot the regroup and reactivate part. But it is perfectly normal, it is human and every so often we fall and like babies learning to walk we just sit there and cry about it.

I had to give myself permission to grieve. Grieve for something I desperately wanted and found out I may not have. I have made the journey through the first few steps of the grief process and like everything else in life I will learn from this experience and move on.

I am bent and bruised but will not be broken. Funny, my Artistic Director had no idea what I was going through when she cast me in "Four Women." It is simply art imitating life.

If you haven't heard Four Women:

Four Women - Nina Simone

Peace & Blessings...