Performing Arts

by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Spring:
Come Closer


Eager to play, spring bumbles in
like a dizzy bee
dazed by yellow exuberance
wondering which tree, which stem,
which blade of new grass to next visit.
Whirrrrr-whoosh hustles in the first hummingbird,
whip-stridently flirting with petal-some red,
sweet hussy of fling,
flippant rush of a thing,
yes! then tides of wings gather
to jostle for nectar,
warm air wears their buzz like a hymn.
And what could be better than today to remember
that we, too, are found in the rush,
this daily detour toward sweetness and thrill,
this unpredictable swerve of a path on which
evening enters on gray glimmer of wing so bright
                        that even the shadows are listening.

    Blonde_headshot_3
Valerie Madonia

The notion of dance in Telluride was not new before Valerie Madonia arrived on the scene.

In the 1970s, Jeri McAndrews, a New York transplant and modern dancer, settled in town and taught modern, jazz, and ballet in what is now the Elementary School cafeteria.

In 1978, McAndrews also founded the first (and only) Telluride Dance Festival.

In the 1980s, Shirley Fortenberry and Leslie Crane taught ballet to young and older. It was “Miss Shirley” who put “The Nutcracker” back in our town’s Christmas.

A little canoodling between two local nonprofits is not a bad thing – especially when considering the alternatives, such as more nail-biting over the kerfuffle on Wall Street.

The Telluride Choral Society and the Telluride Dance Academy offer a gentler, more melodic alternative to the drum roll leading up to Tuesday’s presidential election: their upcoming MasterWorks concert, “A Celebration of the Seasons,” should be a refreshing pause from the headlines in general.