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Daybreaker all I ever wanted
Ladies and gents,
If there are two things I try to avoid at all costs they are: 1) waking up before dawn and b) dancing. The first is self-explanatory. As for the second, well, I used to love to boogie back in the disco age, but it all came to a startling end in 1984 when I attempted to do a “run-and-slide” after ingesting a small handful of mysterious orange pills one night at Area. I wound up slamming head-first into the DJ booth and having to be rushed to St. Vincents. I was fine, but that was the last time I ever “danced with abandon.”
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But, when my dear friend and favorite Bay Area doyenne Carole Shorenstein Hays invited me to Daybreaker on Wednesday morning I decided to throw caution (and good reason) to the rolling fog. Daybreaker, for the uninitiated, is a roaming early morning dance party — usually starting with an hour of yoga and ending with two hours of wild, uninhibited dancing — all before work. Weird? Sure. But admit it, you’re intrigued.
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Well, at this particular installment of Daybreaker, which took place on stage of the Curran, yoga was done away with and replaced with 1980’s-style aerobics. DJ Matt Haze spun 80’s beats, but the centerpiece was Kat Robichaud, of “The Voice” fame, in an oversized wig at the tippy-top of a terrifyingly tall ladder, to belt out “We Got The Beat” — which I took to be a mystical foreshadowing of Curran’s next production: the pre-Broadway run of the new Go-Go’s musical, HEAD OVER HEELS.
Someone known as “Aima the Dreamer” (not her Christian name, I’m guessing) played emcee in a flamboyant ensemble. For an added dose of surreality/entertainment, the San Francisco Circus Association provided an umbrella juggling act that can only be described as… nope, it can’t be described. But it was stunning! Even a proper string quartet added to the hits-of-the-1980’s underscoring.
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The only troubling moment came when I was forced into an embrace with a stranger upon entry, as everyone who entered “got a hug.” I must say, even as a staunch germaphobe with social anxiety, I rather enjoyed the physical contact.
By 9:00am, the party had ended, and we all went into our days with our heads full of endorphins and 80’s tunes. And Carole Shorenstein Hays discovered yet another way to create a sense of community upon the Curran stage.
As always, a toast of something sparkling to you and yours!
Kisses,
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