Hello one and all (and then some!)

I know I have not written to most people for a year, or two, or more... But, This is Matthew Sly, from Victoria, who'se danced in Toronto, Montreal, Banff, the Berkshires, and Estonia (Tallinn and Tartu.) And Now... (drum roll) -I've gone to Detmold. (Confusion breaks out in the audience, and everyone turns to their neibour asking "Where?")

Matthew Sly

SachsenStrasse 20, D

32756 Detmold

Germany

+49 5231/87 79 71

m.sly@web.de

It is a smallish town just NW of the center of Germany, about half way between Dusseldorff and Hannover. (I will get a mobile phone number once I have a use for it. And I will be moving into a different flat around January.)

NOTE:This was all written a month ago. I appologize for sending it with such a delay, and will insert an update at the bottom of the e-mail.

I begin working in the Landestheater Detmold (www.landestheater-detmold.de) on 28 August. It's a nice theater, with a small, but international dance ensemble. (One German, French, Greek, Russian, Mexican, Uzbeckistanian, and One other Canadian. Hey! We're going to form a Majority there! Cool!) I was there for 6 days in June, and I like the people, and the training we'll have. The director is a realy nice guy too.

The city it's self is fairly small, with a big portion of the population being University students. There's Two big Universities there; For Music, and for Architecture/Interior Design. Essentially, all this means is that there's lots of cheap student music concerts to go to, and that nearly everyone you meet from 18 to 24 years old will be studying Architecture or Music.

The City is fairly old, and until about 100 years ago or something, it was the capital of the kingdom of Lippe. (Lip? Lipp? I'm not sure how to spell it.) So there's the castle in the middle of town, with the True Old German Prince living in it. Another thing to note, is that I'll be touring, a lot, with this theater, so after a year, I will have seen a great number of cities/towns around Germany (and a few in Austria.)

Although... It will mostly be their theaters, and the coffeeshops in their immediate vicinity.

The Countryside around there is rolling grass-land, and fields. There's some big old wooded park-land covering a big hill, just out of town. All I feel it's missing, is a nice lake near-by, -but I can't have everything.

Oh! And you may have noticed the New E-mail adress. Well... I've just got sick and tired of my whole hotmail account filling up with junkmail in the period of a week. I mean Full, so that I can't receive any messages. So, I'm switching over to m.sly@web.de. Consider yourself informed.

Now though... I fear the time since I last wrote to you is very long, and that you feel there's a great gap in my history that's missing... so, if you'd like to know what I've Done, and not only what I'll be doing, then read on.

Starting with my leaving north America:

-Autumn, 2000: My first year-long contract, in Tallinn Estonia.
-Allright place to start. But many problems, as it was but a fledgling company.

-Autumn, 2001: Move to Vanemuine Theater in Tartu Estonia. This was a THEATER. with the Operas, plays, ballets, kid's shows, stages, costumers, technicians, etc etc etc. a whole community, which I felt very welcomed in.

-December 2001: The technical Peak I've reached, in Don Q. Pas de deux

-April 2002: The Biggest roles I've had. The leads in Don Quixote and Choppiniana.

-Summer 2002: Go and Guest for a month in the Berkshires, New England area of the US. I worked with some very good people there, but not much else can be said for it. It was very nice to visit friends and relations in the East of Canada afterwards though.

-September 2002: My Mommy and Mike, (her husband,) came and visited me in Estonia. It was realy nice to see the country again, through their eyes. I also became greatly inspired about that time by one Director, who came to stage an opera for Vanemuine. She made me think of someone, and when I realized this someone is myself... I had to ask "who have I become?" Anyhow, she inspired confidence and self-assuredness in me, (which I needed.)

-December 2002: The Most Dramatic roll I've had. Armastuse Tango (love tangos) by Mai Murdmaa. Ispired from a book of Gabriel Garcia Marquezi, and to music by Astor Piazzolla. This was an honour for me to do. I felt the Choreographer was inspired. And the Music was great. And the story... the character... felt just so right to me. What was great was knowing that I could do sch a great job expressing it to the public.

It was also honouring, because the three soloist rolls in it had 2 casts. Ours, (My Partner and I, as well as one Character-dancer who joined us last year,) and the National Opera of Estonia cast, (Kaie Korb, the Prima ballerina Absoluta of Estonia, her Partner, and Vestrus, her Husband, who used to be principal with the National Opera.) It was great to work with all of them. Truely great.

That's about all I feel has been important in the last 3 years. I've three times gone to Germany now, to look for a place there, (and the third one was success. "Third time pays for all." as Gaffer Gamgee used to say. :-) It was a little interesting how I took a different transportation there each time: Bus, Plane, then Ship.

What else has happened to me though?

I've grown older. I've read a bunch of books, I've fallen in Love, (no, don't read it like That! wait for me to finnish!) ... with Curries. (Ooooh, spicey Indian food, killer Tai, and those strange fruity-meat dishes of the far east.)

I've experienced weather of -30 Celcius. (At Christmass 2001,) And the Joys of Running naked out of a Sauna into the -30 snow (the same Chrismass.) Realy, it was a fantastic experience, diving into the frozen snow, rolling around in it, and then running (Twice as fast ;-) back into the Sauna.

The Best two books I've read over the past 3 years were *Mother Night* by Kurt Vonnegut and *Les Miserables* (Hugo of course.)

And... that about brings me up to the present.

So, if you're STILL thirsting for more information from me, read on about what I'm doing right NOW.

Sitting around in Estonia, waiting for August.

Why Estonia? (Why Not? And...) There's lots of friends here I can go and Visit durring the next month, (There's only two good friends in Germany I know right now.) All my Baggage is here. I want to have a final Party and thank the Whole theater here, for the great two years I've had, and they all come back to work on the 16th of August. So, that's the big Party day, if you'll be anywhere near the Baltics. ;-) And, lastly, it's SO cheap to live here. (To stay here for a month, just sitting around, the place I'm renting is 300 Estonian Kroons = $30 Canadian = 20 Euros. For a Month! So, I'm saving up my cash to Furnish the place I'll be going to in Detmold.)

So, I'm just ... making curries, visiting friends, and taking it easy.
(Of course, you might ask, "If he's got so many friends, then what's he doing spending an hour writting this gargantuan e-mail?" -er. -well... They're just busy today. All of them. Yeah, that's it :-)

Anyhow, keep warm, happy, flexible, satiated, satisfied, ... and everything else good.

And I'll write you all again... (in another year or two? No! Earlier! Realy... Honestly... -maybe. :-)

Pax,

SlyM

PS: So, That's what I wrote back in August.  Now, I'm in Detmold, in the new flat, preparing for our "ballet-Abend" next week.

Life here is busy, and there's no good place for internet useage... so I'm just borrowing my flat-mate's computer rather frequently. The two worst things I can say about being here: There are few English books in the libraries. And all the shops close at 3 'o clock on Saturdays, and don't open at all on Sundays. The best I can say, is the classes. I feel that my technique is improving solidly. (I've given up hope of ever having my spelling improve. And living with other languages doesn't help at all.) Oh yeah; It's also rather nice earning Euros, (as opposed to Estonian Kroona.) Yep. That's nice. (So are the foreign shops here: lots of Indian, Russian, Chinese and Arabian food-stores.)

And how was the Party I had in Tartu? Pretty good. It ended up with only dancers there, and a few musical theater people, in their break between rehearsals. The food I made was well apreciated though, and there was just plain Too much of it. So, after, I took a few cakes to the big Singing stage, where there had been a huge Opera Gala... and partied with some of the chorus for the rest of the night. (Well, not the entire night: I must have got to sleep at about 3 or 4 am. Anyhow, for me it was a wonderfull 12 hours of celebrating.)