Culture Vulture

This guy is from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. They really do jump like this; the hard part is taking the photograph.

Now here is my big discovery; the advice that you can thank me for later: before you come to New York get a student card. Enroll in some stupid cheap TAFE course that you are not interested in and get the student card. New York is the city of the arts and poor people simply cannot go. There is a sign out the front of every theatre saying "Poor people not allowed". Actually, the sign is at the box office and it simply says the price, but it amounts to the same thing. But, students are different to regular poor people, because they are potentially rich people. Therefore they should be allowed to participate in the cultural offerings of the city. There is a logic.

Tickets to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre are $75 at the cheapest. But if you are a student with a photo id student card, even from Australia, then your ticket is $10. So Charles bought the ticket in the morning, the guy at the ticket office intimated that no one would check ID at the entry point and I went and saw the show.

The dance company began in Harlem, the dancers are predominantly black and the audience likewise. It was like being at a convention of beautiful, black, cool, graceful people and I had been let in by mistake. And, let me tell you no one knows how to applaud like a black audience. Everyone, grandmothers, little children, and men in bling, they all go nuts. So I joined in.