Organization Exit 12 Dance Company

Cutting Edge Classical and Contemporary Dance

Hi, I wanted to send out an update about the show last weekend for everyone that didn't attend. We recieved well wished from Sen. Chris Murphy, Governor Jodi Rell and Sen. Joseph Liberman. We read Sen. Murphy and Gov. Rell's citations at the beginning of the show, but recieved the letter from Sen. Liberman too late to read. Absolutely amazing turnout. A lot of the dancers families got to attend, some from as far away as Maryland, California and New Hampshire. Old friends and new also came. Also in the audience the first night was Sgt. Tom Lawton, my best friend from the Marines. It was an absolute honor to have him there and show him the work. The show was absolutely amazing. The technical director of the theatre, Howard Kirsner, was so supportive of our work that he helped make it absolutely amazing. He suprised me with the absolute care with which he handled the details. The lighting was superb, but he didn't stop there. He got us a wide screen video projector for the video in the background that acted like a set. The green glow of the nightvision in the beginning came from the video projector. He also set up two smoke machines on either side of the stage. The first thing the audience experienced was the puff and hiss of smoke billowing out of the machines to loom in front of the stage and right above the front seats. The Arabic call to prayer starts and they see lasers cut through the smoke. Then they can barely make out two men with rifles creeping through the audience towards the stage. Howard, the Tech Dir, then played the smoke machines like musical instruments, puffing enough during the entire piece to make it surreal, dreamy, and dangerous. A few people commented: "The two men creeping through the audience scared the hell out of me. I didn't know what was happening." "I'm happy to see something so beautiful could come out of something so tragic." "I came for entertainment and was taken on an emotional journey that almost brought me to tears." "You have to make it happier. I cried through the whole thing." "You should tell the audience that it is based on your own experience and that you are planning to make it a larger work. That made it so real for me." "I wanted to watch it again and again. There was so much going on that I couldn't concentrate on just one thing. It illustrated the confusion and chaos that one goes through in a dangerous situation." We got tons of good comments about our dancers too. Natalia, Hope, Lisa, Lara, Crystal and Caitlin as well as Joe, are the best artists we could ever have the luck to work with. One man approached me about showing the video at the VA Hospital here in CT. This coupled with an outpouring of more donations this month than we recieved all last year prepares us well for what lies ahead. This work is honest and important and we are moving forward. Coming soon, look for new dancers and artists on the site. Also look for our donors page. See what kind of people donate to the arts, yup, you guessed it, it's normal people just like you. If you were there this weekend, send me a blurb about what you thought. If not, keep your eyes open for more shows in the near future...New York, we're coming back. We were chosen to perform in Sept. in NYC, one of ten out of over 160 companies, because our work is timely. I love you all.