Yes, I was a wedding crasher!
This is a confession. I'm a wedding crasher! Yup. But only once so don't hold it against me. My crashing was justified. It's a long story, but I'll try and provide the Reader's Digest version.
Before my life of today, I had about four other lives. One that I'm really known for was the life of a professional dancer. (NOT ON A POLE!) I stared as a ballet dancer, and met an amazing woman named Myra Bazelle. She was my hero. She could do anything. Ballet, Jazz, Flamenco, you name it. I wanted to BE her. We danced in a children's company called Ballet Des Jeunes back in the 70s. We both carried on there until the 80s and then lost touch. In my mid teens, I left the ballet company because I had discovered modern dance, street dancing and jazz, while attending Creative and Performing Arts High School, in Philadelphia. One day I was hanging out on Broad Street in Philly, getting into some kind of trouble I'm sure, and there she was...Myra! I asked her what she had been up to and she said, "I'm working with a company called WAVES". I had heard of them and wanted to know more. She said, come by the Jazz Dance Center on Sansom Street and take my class. (She was in her 20's by then and fyi, the studio doesn't exist anymore.) So I booked my booty over there that evening and was blown away. I remember the exact song she used for the 1st warm up. Superman by Laurie Anderson...way way far out for me. But I was HOOKED. She told me I should take Shimon Braun's class, and make myself known. "Get your ass working and get in the company girl." I can hear her now.
Fast foward...I got in. Worked my ass off for real! I remember coming off stages and I was literally sweating out of my ears! It was one of the happiest times in my life. I owe that to Myra. In return I told her about a magical place called Jacob's Pillow. I studied and performed there for 2 seasons. She went there and it changed her life. Myra now runs an amazing modern company called SCRAP, in Philly.
Myra taught me about "sisterhood". She taught me how to see things through light and music. She is one of the first people who helped me to merge images onto film in my brain, if that makes sense. Actually, being WAVES also taught me to see light and how it works with movement, music and stillness. When I take photos, I always have some sort of a soundtrack running through my head. It's a massive catalog, let me tell you. It's really hard to turn the volume down if I'm having fun on a shoot.
So how the hell does this story have anything to with crashing a wedding? Well, my dear friend and yoga goddess, Karin Otto, met up with me at our 20th high school reunion. She told me about a wedding that she was going to the following day and that she needed a date. I was leaving that day, and wasn't sure I could pull it off. I was beat from the reunion, not to mention I was friggin seven and a half months pregnant with my second kid. (Yes, I was pregnant at my 20th reunion, wipe that look off your face. I'm old, get over it.) She said, "I think you'll want to go to this one with me, it's for Myra. You should crash it, I'm sure she would love to see you". Well, there was no way in hell I was missing this. Crash away!
I could go on and on about this story, but I won't. Below are the images that I took with a dinky little 5.5 megapixel Nikon coolpix. Myra married her soul mate, Madison Cario, after years of being together. I had never met her until that day but from what I saw, they were always destine to be together! I believe these images prove it. Here are a few that I was able to punch up in one of my lightroom marathons. They were married in the most amazing place created by artist Isaiah Zagar. I used to party with Isaiah's son, Zeek, but that's totally another story.
