Problem Child

There are times as a parent where you clearly see echoes of your own idiosyncrasies in your kids. Case in point, my youngest kid's absolutely intractable stubbornness is a frustrating mirror image of my own, though we're both getting better. A little.

On other occasions, parents often get to experience aspects of their kids' interests, aptitudes, and attitudes that seem wholly unfamiliar to our own. My eldest, who goes by k (lowercase intentional), is a brilliantly charismatic performer, fierce and fearless. And neither my wife nor I possess a scintilla of whatever gene sparked those attributes.

Sometimes, the two poles mix, and we get to see our kids as the delightful mix of us and them they were destined to become. At the end of the month, my eldest culminates their collegiate dance career by presenting a significant piece of their creation. Senior dance majors at VCU are required to cast, choreograph, and stage a performance of their own making. The overall theme of this year's senior performances is Two Truths. Half of the class presented their work last semester. The other half, including my kid, presents theirs the last weekend of the month.

Here's where we get to the multitudes contained within. Check out this description of my kid's work, as they wrote it, and as it'll appear in the program for the performance:

“this is a secret language. this is a cult activity.

“problem children” investigates the idea of queer movement, and its capabilities of transformation – from human into creature, from language into gibberish, from legible into queered. informed by improvisation, writing, choicemaking, vulnerability, honesty, silliness, and the embrace of a queer sensibility, “problem children” aims to plunge the audience into a creature world, from which they will emerge bewildered and full of joy.”

I see a whole lot of myself in the joy, silliness, and honesty. And I am baffled by a lot of the other elements, even as I know they're exactly how my kid sees themselves and represent issues and ideas they wrestle with as they find their place in the world.

When the seniors presented a draft of their work to the dance faculty a month or so ago, k's advisors were generally approving, but told them to feel free to let more k come out in the work. In other words, let k be k. I'm anticipating an outrageously unusual, silly, giddy, awkward, challenging, and fun piece. And I fully expect to emerge bewildered and full of joy. If you're in the Greater Richmond area the last week of the month, come join in on the cult activity.