Tend the Flames / Mind the Ashes

11/10/2025

Retirement Day #2303

Last weekend I attended the H2 dance concert at the Knickerbocker Theater in Holland, MI. The performance was remarkable thanks to a strong senior class of dancers presenting with qualitative range and technical capacity. The tap, jazz/hip-hop and contemporary choreography was entertaining and satisfying. It was delightfully nostalgic to see Ray Tadio’s “Chandra Duet #1” again – a powerful work originally created 20 [WHAT?!?] years ago and performed with Aerial Dance Theater. H2, born in 2017, is the descendant of Aerial, the original pre-professional repertory company of Hope College: [https://www.everydaydances.com/post/an-homage-to-beginnings-aerial-dance-company-the-first-seven-years-1986-1993.]

As the H2 dancers performed, my physiology twitched with kinesthetic empathy. My last personal performance with Aerial was 23yrs. ago. Memories of the original “Chandra” duet, sensitively danced by Tim Heck and Colette Harris, came to mind and heart. I’ve been there. I know this place. I feel this work. Would I want to do this now? No – but I'm glad I did what I did when I did it. Now I gratefully sit back, enjoy and appreciate this vibrant dance company as it evolves and thrives under Matt Farmer and Ray Tadio’s artistic leadership.

Today also marks the 8^th year anniversary of Billy Mayer’s death, one of the original collaborators and creative forces behind Aerial. After watching H2 this weekend, I offered a prayer to Billy – thanked him, and reminded him that he lives on, influencing and inspiring many who may not know who he was, but are, nonetheless, his living, breathing, creative heirs.

Keep on dancing.

Memento Mori. Amor Fati. Carpe Diem.