some memories of Pearl

These are just a few of many memories from the years when I was taking
Pearl Lang's classes at the Martha Graham center (1991-2003). 

One of my favorite things that Pearl would say was for when we were doing a particular floor exercise.  To give you the feeling of how you should jump up and forward onto your front "sit bone" while you were down on the floor in 4th position, Pearl would suddenly say "It's Christmas!"  I can't remember if she said this was something that Martha herself used to say for that exercise, or if it was Pearl's own image, but I can still hear her saying it... each time her joyful excitement was just like a child on Christmas morning.  At other times (most especially if it was St. Patrick's Day), she would say to the pianist, for the 4th position turns around the back:  "An Irish air!"  She brought us to live and dance in the moment.

When I first came to the Graham school, I was so caught up in experiencing Pearl's classes for the first time and I remember thinking that she wore this special blue shawl around her shoulders each time that she taught, and how it made her so mysterious and glamorous.  After a few weeks I noticed that actually, it was just a regular old sweatshirt.  But it was the way that she wore it... I guess it was the most glamorous plain old sweatshirt I have ever seen.

I don't remember what this was in context of... but sometime in the 90s, one day she suddenly reprimanded a student in class by bursting out with "that is so totally not cool."  This was not a phrase that Pearl normally used -- as far as we knew!  She was in her late 70s then, I believe.

I loved to sit near Pearl in the audience during dance concerts, because anyone within a few seats of her would get to find out a lot about what she thought of the performance.  I liked to see if I agreed with her (usually, I did).  It means more to me than I can ever say that she came to see my own company perform.  But maybe I'm glad that I wasn't sitting near her in the audience then!

Dear Pearl, I was hoping that you would someday get to see that I had finally fixed my arms like you wanted.  Well, I guess now maybe you can see what I'm doing all the time, so hopefully I've managed to fix them.  I will never forget the particular kind of profound intensity that your classes embodied, each one like a glorious battle of life and death.  There is no adequate way to express the role that you have played in my life, and in the lives of so many others.  Love, joy and peace be with you and your family.