Scrawled across the back of Anna Perron‘s t-shirt in black marker, visible to the girls that sit lacing their skates as she moves to the center of the floor within the National Guard Armory, are the words "The Charlottesville Roller Derby Initiative." The front reads: "Bring it."
Perron, a graduate of UVA’s School of Nursing, has done her homework for the inaugural practice of the Charlottesville Derby Dames. She asks if the women present have grabbed copies of an information packet that contains a press release, some history of the sport (started in the 1930s, the game involves earning points by skating past opponents during specified times, called "jams," without being knocked flat), information on neighboring leagues and a medical waiver, which bears the line: "Behavior which could potentially lead to intentional or unintentional bodily injury…will not be tolerated." Curt wonders if this defeats the purpose entirely.
 On your mark…get set…beat each other senseless! A tough crowd of skate-clad, helmet-headed gals gets the inaugural practice of the Charlottesville Roller Derby Initiative up and rolling. |
No violence comes tonight, though. Members of the River City Rollergirls are on-hand to lead the local women through stretches and drills to improve their skating abilities, as wide in range as their ages. The Richmond girls wear t-shirts with "roller derby names" such as "Raven Darkhold" and "Ram Jam Betty." One of them (a coach, thankfully, and not on wheels) is pregnant. They whip the local women into a slow-moving circle that gathers speed on the Armory’s floor, keeping a wide circle that brings them near stacks of chairs and the venue’s concrete walls. These girls stand three inches taller with skates on, and they look like they could use Curt’s scalp as a kneepad.
A video of the River City Rollergirls. |
Perron watches the group as she tightens a wheel on her skates.
"I always wondered about roller derby when I was little," says Perron. "I kinda remember my parents saying to me while I was skating, ‘You’re so fast…"
Perron attended her first roller derby event in the summer of 2006, the "Blind Rage Bout" in Baltimore, Maryland. "I almost cried, I wanted to try it so badly," says Perron, a statement she’ll repeat. Following her enthusiasm, Perron discovered other leagues around the state, heard stories of practices in armories and parking garages, including a group that practices on Sunday mornings in the parking lot of the Art Institute of Washington.
Perron called an interest meeting in January of 2007 that attracted 26 women; now, looking out at her inaugural group of skaters, Perron stands on her skates and pushes off to join the whirling mass, her nose ring capped with plastic tips, hair held back, all business.
Before leading the girls through stretches, Ram Jam Betty takes a seat on the perimeter. Betty, a former Charlottesville resident, graduated from Tandem Friends School in 2004 then moved to Richmond, where she began attending practices with friends. Betty played briefly for the Derby Demons, another Richmond team, but now skates solely for the Rollergirls. Her father, who still lives in town, sits near Curt and speaks briefly with his daughter about Thanksgiving plans before letting her rejoin the squad at the center to lead stretches. Shouts ring out.
"Spread those legs, ladies!"
"Don’t want to see any crotch shots!"
No dates for an additional practice are set yet, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t cultivate that blood lust now, gals. Strap on your skates and e-mail rollerderbycville@gmail.com if you’re game for it.
A late Night
It has been more than 10 years since Live Arts staged a Stephen Sondheim musical (that would be Assassins in 1996), but director John Owen has been waiting much longer to put on A Little Night Music. Specifically, since Owen graduated from Albemarle High School following the play’s premier in 1973.
After his graduation from AHS (where, Owen says, he performed in the typical musical theater pieces: "Music Man…Oliver…") Owen travelled to Europe and found himself in London for a single night, where he met with friends of his parents. When they asked if he planned to see a play that night, he announced, "A Little Night Music." The friends discouraged him, and he wound up at Jesus Christ Superstar instead. Owen’s wait wasn’t over.
"I was really familiar with a lot of Sondheim’s music, and of course I loved it," says Owen, now seated in the Live Arts offices, waiting for a crew of dancers to vacate the small theater on the building’s fourth floor to rehearse with his cast for A Little Night Music. "Sweeney Todd is my favorite show. And so I asked [Live Arts actress] Kay Ferguson about it six years ago."
Ferguson lent Owen a tape of the New York City Opera’s rendition of Night Music, a version he considered a little stiff. "And a year ago, I got it out and I played it again and I couldn’t leave it alone." With space in the Live Arts schedule around winter, Owen finally had his gig.
And here’s where Owen’s obsession pays off for you and yours: Night Music opens on December 6 at Live Arts, and it does so under the direction of the man that put Hedwig and the Angry Inch in the local theater, put a real bootleggers ‘n’ bar feeling into Ain’t Misbehavin’, and put the first ever musical on at Live Arts in 1992 (The Fantasticks). As each show managed to break the fourth wall in some regard, CC asks Owen what he plans to do to keep audience members on the cusp of their cushions. Owen gives Curt a quick teaser, saying that performers will take up residence in the front row of seats occasionally, then lets CC hang with a simple "We have a few surprises."
The dancers leave Owen’s rehearsal room and Curt helps the director and his stage manager to wheel a piano from the Downstage theater (where a crew was disassembling the set of the recent Live Arts Gala) and into an elevator to transport it to the practice space. A few performers are present, including Dan Stern and Marthe Rowan, who Owen guides through a quick scene including Rowan’s effortlessly glossed "Send in the Clowns." Curt takes his leave again; after years of waiting, what’s another week or two?
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