The Mammoth Adventure...in as much/little as I can tell

I've been putting off this story for a while because while I was there I was not in a very happy place, but I feel like now, after I've told enough people what happened I can share it... Here it goes:

I flew out of San Diego at 7:30am the day after the night performance. I landed in SJ airport at around 9 am and was picked up and put into a 152 plane and flown into Mammoth by 10:30. The whole way over I was stoked because it seemed like it would be something new and different and I would get to be networking with a bunch of amazing people from the east coast (the other students were coming from Julliard, Boston Conservatory, and Florida State).

So I flew in and tried to eat (remember I had been not feeling 100% in San Diego the day before, and plane rides always make me not hungry) and called my teacher (whose name I will omit) who was supposed to be picking me up. So the teacher came to get me... and I was a little nervous because he was not your most conventional looking guy. From behind the wheel of a big black excursion jumped a small toothpick of a man who, by the looks of his deep set wrinkles and smoker- cough, could very well have been the crypt keeper or every bad dream I had about death, incarnated. Nevertheless, the intensive had been going on for 2 weeks, so by noon we were driving back to the airport to say goodbye to Dave (who flew me there) and get my things.

As we drove back into town I was starting to get more excited, because teacher was talking about all the people he had gotten a chance to work with in New York. I felt like I was talking to my history book. Especially since the day I flew in was his 64th birthday. So after stopping at a small restaurant I finally inquired whom else I would be working with this next couple weeks, since we didn't seem to be in a hurry to get back to a group of other dancers...

"... You... you... you... and you... and two little girls they are 12 years old"

He proceeded to explain to me that out of his 12 dancers who were SUPPOSED to be there, 9 of them bailed (due to injuries or financial issues) and I was there with two 12 years olds... who were locals in MAmmoth..

At first I was stoked... I felt like Luke Skywalker going into meet Yoda and Study with a Jedi Master of dance, one on one.... or was that anxiety...?

"Let's get back in the car, I want you to read something..."

Ok, sure. I thought we might be going to a library because our conversation before I asked had a lot to do with the original labanotations of some of Harkins Ballet that existed on microfiche somewhere... maybe it was an article on the freshly deceased Pina Baush...

We drove to what I later learned is essentially Mammoth's Ghetto, maybe 3 complex's filled to the brim with Mexican families. It was not scary, just loud with lots of small children.

We walked up stairs to an apartment, which he later told me was his, without going in, he sat down and a table and motioned for me to sit down also, as he picked up 2 articles... one was the sheet, Mammoth's news paper, and the other was a californian newspaper. He pointed to the 2 articles he wanted me to read and unlocked the house.

... The first article was about California's financial crisis and how it is affecting mammoth... The second was an article about the man who I had been traveling with all day. Apparently, he was being charged with money embezzlement.

When I finished reading both articles he started talking about how he had been wrongly accused, however, mammoth was a small town, and the people pressing charges owned many things in the town: the studio we were to be working in, one of the pilates gyms... the motel I was SUPPOSED to be staying in.... So I sat there speechless, as he explained to me some nonsense about how "he had a commitment to me as a student" and (this is where my excitement turned to sheer panic) in order to make things work I would be staying there, with him.

Let's recap: I was too be staying, by myself, with the crypt-keeper, in the middle of mammoth's ghetto, in his one bedroom apartment.

Heck. No.

I felt so played, and never more alone in my life. I didn't want anyone to panic, because I was not technically in danger, and I was trying to think of all my options out. Once he left me to "settle in" I called in the most calm voice as possible and arranged an escape. So by the time my warden had returned I could tell him that I would not be staying. And by wednesday morning, I was back safely in a plane with Dave and my business partners.

It's not even worth writing about what I learned those 3 days. I had one on one training in ballet, ended up teaching and cleaning solos for the other girls, and slept with one eye opened every night, because "teacher" would roll himself a joint and get in his car to sleep under the stars (at my request) and I would be left to listen to fireworks all night in little mexico, CA. And when we weren't dancing, I was inhaling second hand smoke and listening to this yahoo name drop and complain about the american government.

But here I am, Safe and Sound, back and ready to take over the world, despite my 3 day set-back.

Tomorrow, an update on bringing dance to the bay area.