A December of Performances
Upon returning from my annual trip to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving, I jumped back into the thick of it with Christmas performances throughout the area. I was a bit surprised at the amount of gigs I had for the month. To start things out, I made my return to Tambach-Dietharz for an encore performance for the Advent season.
Similar to last year, the cold did not keep people from joining in on the fun in this small town in the woods. The seamen’s choir performed some numbers as well as a couple of other groups. I was given the leeway this year to sing a wider variety, rather than just Christmas songs. Also this year, I was not accompanied by the grumpy accordionist. The crowd was friendly, but often was more concentrated on their beer and bratwursts, which was fine by me.
I spent the evening in Tambach and was around to sing again the next morning at a more kid-friendly version of the Christmas market. It rained a bit, so my performance was scantly attended, not that it really mattered. I packed up my ukulele and headed back to Erfurt.
The next week, the dance school was closing for the season, which means a final winter public performance. I had many new beginning tap student in the fall semester, which did not allow me to make much progress in teaching a full song; nevertheless, our performance was entertaining albeit brief.
The advanced tap class was also slotted to perform. This class consists of six women, me, and the male instructor. The choreography was made so difficult that none of the women wanted to perform it in public. In my opinion, it would not have been terrible, but would also not have been clean. So, all of them opted not to perform. In response, the instructor brought in his private student, which was the drummer in the opera I was in and the third man in my brief participation in a tap group. We three were together again.
The following week, I had been asked by the seamen’s choir to perform with them at their annual Christmas party, where seamen choirs from all over Germany are invited to attend. There were probably three other groups there: all former fishermen and all there to drink and eat cake. It was held in the afternoon, so the participants could have coffee and cake and still drive while it was light out. This was totally my kind of crowd.
I was not aware until a couple days before the event that I was to be the side act for a clown! Yes, they had hired a clown/comedian, who is based in Erfurt, to also perform comedy and lewd humor for the group (think cross-dressing and lip-syncing to crass lyrics). So, this guy picked me up from my apartment and we headed to the hall. He let me know how much time he needed between his acts and I was to keep the audience’s attention during his absences. It worked out fairly well, oddly enough.
Again, I was not limited to only Christmas music, but I did make the effort to introduce the audience to as many songs as possible. I even wrote a medley for the even. I combined 13 difference traditional Christmas songs into one long song, all in the same relative key (which involved a lot of transposing). I do not think my efforts were appreciated, but I was happy with the outcome. Other important win: I got the group to sing along with me to “Country Roads”.
One final important note for this gig: after we had wrapped up and the stage and hall were getting packed up and cleared out, one of the audience members approached me and asked if I knew a Christmas song from the US that he really liked. I had a book of Christmas songs with me, so I told him that if I did not know it, I could easily look it up. He requested, “Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer.” Of course I knew the song; I had even considered including it in my repertoire for the evening, but assumed no one would have had heard it before and certainly no one would be able to understand the lyrics. Crazy!
The next brought the actual final week of classes at the dance school. I attempted and successfully taught a full (simple) song in one hour. Here is that performance of Garth Brooks’s ‘Sleigh Ride’:
The final week of the year was also my last week at the bakery. The shop would be closed the first week of the year, and the second week I would be moved to Dresden to begin my training to become a master baker. I did coax the two bakers to pose for a final picture with me. I cannot understate the help and support these two provided me during my 18 months with them. They may not have always understood my motivation or intentions, but they were more than willing to put in the time to explain what and why.
They, too, held a Christmas party, to which I was also invited. It is tradition for the owner (the guy in the middle) to host his business’s party with the business his best friend works at. So, as in previous years, a group of bakers and a group of carpenters all hung out at a Greek restaurant and drank until the wee hours of the morning.
I bid my farewells to the bakery and started organizing myself for the next journey: six months in Dresden for the master baker training. The owner of the bakery had promised me a work contract upon my return, which gave me purpose during my time in Dresden; however, I had not yet given too much thought to the ramifications of that prospect – but that commentary is for another entry.
