We need live art now ~ Opinion ~ aspendailynews.com
We need live art now
Oct 1, 2020
Editor:
Our lives are the result of what we focus our minds and hearts upon. What do you really love? This past weekend (Sept. 26-27) in the Aspen District Theatre I took pleasure at the Aspen Fringe Festival. Only 50 seats were sold, we wore masks and everyone’s temperatures were taken before entering. From my seat, my eyes wandered up to the open stage and the high space above where scenes are kept. My mother, Janet Garwood, and I were instigators in establishing the theater itself. When many in town — before it was built — wanted a performing arts center downtown, we joined Jeff from Dance Aspen and met with school board members. Fortunately, the performing arts were a high priority in education, and the theater was added to building plans.
Festival Founder David Ledingham and his wife, dancer and choreographer Adrianna Thompson, are treasures in our community. We are lucky they call Aspen home, and they continue to create and present their theater and dance to us. My personal favorite was the duet “Closer” choreographed by Adrianna and danced superbly by Samantha Altenau and Giacamo Bavutti. It was like watching Margot Fonteyne and a young Rudolf Nureyev.
The Aspen Fringe Festival website states that they are “dedicated to the idea that great art stimulates cultural discussion, inspires other artists and encourages people to think and act globally.” As a lifelong performer/writer, I would add that pensive stage art helps us evolve by reaching buried feelings.
As a dancer I taught “Moving Energy for Healing” at the University of New England in the Graduate Medical School. The head of nursing and the assistant dean of the medical school took my class consistently. I taught that “An individual is responsible for his/her own health.” We do ourselves a world of good walking in the woods, eating well and watching the highly evolved art of two people like David and Adrianna presented by accomplished performers. After the duet, I went into that starry night with an old friend, high on life, happy about dancing in the mountains again. I remembered how I felt when I first came here and studied ballet with Bruce and Toni Marks. I wanted to paint again, too. That’s why I moved here from NYC over 40 years ago. Then I met Elizabeth Paepcke, and I learned a lot about commerce and culture from her. She became a patron of my stage work and many others followed suit over the years. These contributors believe in the necessity of a humane “avant garde.”
2021 will be what we make of it. Please, please don’t hold on to cash for a questionable future. If you serve a nonprofit or buy show tickets or make nonprofit donations this year, help create a vibrant tomorrow and invest in the heart and soul of our community, through our artists — for our well-being and our children’s children.
Sarah A. Pletts
Aspen