Gary's Tour in Russia

Okay, it's long overdue but here it is - a brief summary and recap (now that he's home and I'm not afraid to tell people he was gone for so long so nobody would break into my house and take advantage of a lone woman and three children) of Gary's three weeks in Russia.

He got to go on tour with the Dance Alliance team from BYU-I (where he's a prof. in Dance), since he's been their artistic director all year. In case you missed the earlier post about his show, Dance Alliance is a group of 36 dancers from all genres (ballroom, tap, modern, ballet, jazz, street dance, etc). They all audition for this tour team at the beginning of the year, then work all year for their two concerts and this tour. They got to go to Russia, too, the lucky dogs. Sometimes tour destinations aren't as exciting. Tours to Russia - way high on cool factor. Tours to Canada or, like, Iowa, not so much. They're still awesome experiences, but, you know. Des Moines is not St. Petersburg.

So here are Gary's highlights: the thing he loved most about this tour, hands down, was watching the impact of his show on the audiences. He loved the way people seemed to react to the message of the show (love, life progression, struggle, peace, reunion - you know, The Journey). They even performed it at orphanages and schools for the disabled, which he said were very sweet experiences. He loved watching the students interact one on one with the audiences and people they met there, sharing the special light they have which so many people do not - the light of Christ. Anyway, sorry to wax emotional but we've felt all along that this show was inspired for this time, this tour, this journey. It was immense validation for Gary to see it performed and accepted so well.

Cities they visited: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Saratov, Volgagrad, and Rostov.

Other highlights: the Hermitage (I'M SO JEALOUS! I got as close as the front doors on our '96 tour to Russia but they wouldn't let us go it... and I was a Humanities major, for crying out loud! Twelve years later, I'm still internally spewing frustration...); the Kremlin and Red Square; the Cossack village; Soviet Era plumbing (brown shower water) and squatty potties without tp; quirky stages; the ever-present tomato and cucumber salad (and the occasional liver); three overnight trains and one overnight bus ride (yikes! Gary threw out his back too tossing costume bags around and he was miserable in that bus seat...); souvenirs like matrioshkas, scarves, and chapkas (the fluffy hats the men wear); a Don river cruise; an ice skating show with Russian superstars like Irina Slutskaya and Evgeny Pleshenko; a ballet IN the Kremlin (again, way high on cool factor); and a night at the opera in Kazan (weren't they supposed to be working on this tour? "Back in my day...").

Lots of fun memories and pictures. Gar kept saying he wasn't having any fun without me and he wished I was there with him, but I suspect he did just fine on his own. Anyway, we all survived the separation, now he's back home, and we're looking forward to a quiet two years before he does this all again!