Black & White photograph of Juli Patten, Jonni Hovan & Vaneeesa Blaylock in modern dance studio at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, circa October 1989

Diary #34 – Dance, Really

WAN CHAI, HONG KONG, 1988 — Juli Patten, Jonni Hovan, Vaneeesa Blaylock. Modern Dance class. Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Black & White photograph of Juli Patten, Jonni Hovan & Vaneeesa Blaylock in modern dance studio at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, circa October 1989

THE HAGUE, 2012 — I dug this photo out because it seems like so many recent diary entries have been about what a flaky dance major I was, so I thought I should find one of me actually taking class! The funny thing is, even though this photo was supposed to be my proof, and I suppose it is, but I just can’t help but stare at it and hear the little homunculus in my brain scream over and over,

I’m Nineteen!!!

I’m a year younger in this picture than my daughter is today. She just started her junior year at King’s College, with promises of fewer near-failing scares in dubiously selected biology classes, and this photo is from the first month of sophomore year at HKAPA. After freshman year at UCSD I was lured off to Hong Kong. This is like the first month of school, roughly 24 years ago today. Juli and Jonni were really nice girls, but I barely remember them now. There are so many people I’ve lost touch with from the “Pre-Facebook-Ages.”

I’m Nineteen!!!

It’s funny how you can go digging in the time capsule for one thing.

But by the time you find it,

it decides to be about something else…

As a virtual public artist my work invites avatar communities to express their identity, explore their culture, and demand their civil rights.

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