“What are you working on?” asked Anis Shivani, a Texas poet, novelist, pundit and provocateur. “A story called ‘The loneliness of the arts writer’,” I replied. “All artists are lonely,” he shot back. “Maybe so, but arts writers are the loneliest,” I said.
When a writer pitched a story about an actor leaving Texas I immediately said, “No thanks, I need to focus on those staying.” Although, now I can't help wondering what would have been in that exit interview.
I spend a lot of time outside of Texas, for work, family, but mostly to keep up with my home artform: Dance. Nothing makes me happier than running into Texas dance artists doing work outside of Texas. So when a friend came up to me during my time at Jacob’s Pillow asking me if I knew that a Houston dancer was performing with the renowned choreographer Jonah Bokaer, my response was a proud, “Why, yes I do!”
Houston Ballet is throwing a little holiday get-together, at least that's what it looks like from my seat at the front of the rehearsal room as the company enacts the famous party scene from the Nutcracker.