ottawa!

We went to Ottawa this weekend - part mini holiday, part cultural experience. One of Pina Bausch's pieces, one of the most innovative/well respected modern dance choreographers working today, was going to at the NAC, it's only stop in Canada. This was an opportunity not to be missed. So we booked our tickets and took the train to Ottawa.

The show Nefes was amazing, despite the young man from Quebec next to me who fell asleep and queitly snoring throughout the second half. The piece inspired by Istanbul and features 20 dancers, rain, silk dresses and lots of soap bubbles. Aren and I were overwhelmed with the beauty and the amount of content. While there was a vocabulary of movement, choreographic phrases were rarely repeated.

The venue, Southam Hall, was also beautiful. We were trying to figure out how the floor worked and so after the show, we stuck onto the main level (the answer? they travel with their own floor, 6" decks with wood planks as the dance surface). I looked at the house from the apron of the stage and it was beautiful. It must be amazing to perform there to a full house.

We have recently started going to a naturopath. Aren is on an elimination diet for the next month. No wheat, soy, sugar, dried fruit, coffee or dairy for him. Not so bad when we eat at home, but a little challenging on the road. Luckily, we found The Wild Oats Bakery (it's also a cafe). There we found gluten free, sugar free brownies, spelt bread. great chili and macrobiotic japanese rice bowls.


The next day we went to Parliament Hill. It's really lovely inside. We didn't go on the tour but did check out the Peace Tower. We went up to the observation deck and enjoyed the view of the capital region.




Then we walked across the Interprovincial Bridge and visited the Museum of Civilization in Quebec.