Watch Out For the Daggers!

Last night Mel and I went with Melinda, Jamie, Julia and Alys to see the Georgian national Dance Company perform at a local theater here in Kherson.

I get claustrophobia really bad, and it leads to panic attacks, which are incredibly miserable. I feel like I'm having a heart attack and dying, right there, in a heap on the ground, er - make that in a heap on the crowded bus, crowded theater, crowded whatever place I happen to be at the time. So, when Julia asked about going and said she'd get the tickets for us, she asked where we preferred to sit. I think she was surprised when I said I wanted an aisle seat, not a seat in the middle of the auditorium, which should have had much better views of the stage. Nope - I want the aisle where if I start a cold sweat and heart palpatations and feel like I'm going to throw up and/or faint - I can actually stand up and leave if needed. :-) (I'm wonderful to live with, I know.) So, she got tickets for the 4 of them and seperate area tickets for Mel and me. We ended up two rows apart and about 10 seats apart. The auditorium is not that big, you see, and we were on the same side, and all of the "nosebleed section" cheaper tickets were already taken. We all had wonderful views of the dancing.

To get there, we called a taxi and he took us down a street we didn't even know existed. Funny - we've walked there before, altho it's been awhile, but I didn't realize there was a public street there! It was cold last night with a stiff breeze which put the windchill down around 0* F. Therefore, when people arrived at the theater almost everyone immediately went inside. The taxi driver dropped us off and we walked the few yards to the front entrance, stood outside for a bit, thinking our group would soon arrive, but realized it was just too cold. So, we went inside.

There was a group of policemen standing just inside the door. Their uniform said Militsia, so I assume they were the real deal, not "rent-a-cops". I quickly realized that immediately upon entering the door (not doors, but door without an 's'), we all had to show our ticket to one of the guys standing there. It was kind of like a mob, jammed through a tiny opening, with a whole bunch of predators waiting to catch you as you came through. :-) Typical in so many ways. We showed our tickets and then - what to do, what to do? We'd never been there before, had no idea where we were supposed to go or what to do. But we were inside!

I looked around. There was a photo exhibition against a wall, so we meandered over there and looked at the photos for awhile. Then we meandered down the long entrance room and discovered where the toilets were (whew - I always want to know that! Always. But I would have quickly found them anyway, due to the odour - not real strong, but definitely there.) There was also a coat check area, but I'm not sure it was even staffed. There were no coats being checked, one way or the other. I'd expected the whole theater to be cold and was pleasantly surprised to see that they had electric heaters out, running full blast. We walked up to one set of entrance to the auditorium doors and looked at all of the notices posted on the wall. It took me a minute, no, it took 3 or 4 minutes to find the sign that gave us the info on the rows and seats that door led to. We causually meandered back down to the other set of doors and Mel could see above the heads of people that the sign indicated that was our door (we hoped).

The rest of our group arrived just before it was time to go in. We all herded our way up the correct ramp, showing our tickets again to guys in casual dress standing there, and through the doors (I think there was one, but it could have been 2 small doors open) and into the auditorium. Julia and Jamie found our seats right away. Last row, aisle seats. Plenty of room, altho the seats themselves were pretty small. Very small, actually. Not made for large and overweight Americans and Dutch people. Since we were on the end and the row was mostly not filled up, Mel and I just stood and waited until people had filled up those empty seats. There was a large man and his slender wife sitting one row in front of us and over two seats. A group of people arrived, pulled out their tickets and then explained to the seated couple that they were in the wrong row. Sure enough, they compare tickets and the large man and his wife were supposed to be seated next to us. Both Mel and I looked at each other and grinned "that grin" that we understand between the two of us so well. The "it figures" grin. We stood again and let that couple sit down. Mel sat beside the man, I sat on the aisle seat.

Sometime, just as the program was beginning, I realized that there were several police officers lined up against the walls on each side of the auditorium, just standing there watching us. During the program I looked over and they were still watching the audience, but also watching the program off and on. Having never been to a performance of this kind, I don't know if it's unusual to have them there or not. I did think of all the problems in Russia and in the Caucuses, though, and I thought of all these Ukrainians gathered together to watch a group of Georgians dance and wondered what the chances of a terrorist attack could be. I may have been shocked to know the truth. In a way, I was glad those young men were there. In another way, I felt like I was back in Ukraine the first time we visited, back in 1996, when things were still very "Soviet" and there were lots of times like that. Unfortunately, the whole world is like that now. So very, very sad.

At the intermission, the rest of our group came over and we started talking, in English, of course. And the man stood up, came over and started talking to us in very good, accented English. I realized right away that he was not Ukrainian or Russian and he explained that he was from the Netherlands. We chatted for awhile. The man was quite reserved, but his wife was very friendly and happy to meet us. I think she was concerned over her husband's comfort more than anything. We discovered that he is retired and has immigrated to Ukraine because his wife found it difficult to live in the Netherlands. Julia gave them their phone number and we explained where the church is, so who knows - maybe one day we'll see them at church! Wouldn't that be great?

This video clip give a sampling of what we watched. I would definitely recommend seeing this group if you ever have a chance. I would go back again, most definitely!

After the preformance was over, we all got up and clapped and cheered and the men did another dance for us. Flowers were handed out to the choreolgrapher, I think. Then we all started to leave. I had to laugh to myself - when we got to the entrance door of the auditorium, only one door was open, so we all had to squeeze through there to get to the main lobby. Why do they do that? I will never understand it. Such a dangerous thing to do.

I think Melinda, Alys and we were the last ones out of the building. The staff were actually turning off the lights. Mel had called a taxi and we waited and waited. Finally one showed up, but he wouldn't take the other two ladies! He insisted he had to take us instead. I'm not sure how long Melinda and Alys had to wait. It's funny, in that not funny way, that we went first. Both Alys and Melinda are cold all the time, wear layers and layers to try and stay warm and there they were, standing out in the cold and wind, waiting. Mel and I, the two who don't mind the cold that much and would have gladly stayed outside, were swept away in a nice, overly warm taxi, straight home.

So, the moral of the story is - if you ever get a chance, go see Sukhishvili Georgian National Dance Company. I think you'll be glad you did. Oh - and the title of this post? They use swords in one of the dances and hit away at each other. In another dance, they throw daggers into the stage floor. I'm so very glad no one accidently let a dagger slip and fly away into the audience!! :-) :-)