Trafika Europe 13 - Russian Ballet

Two Stories

absentminded levity, because among the resortly treasures of the Crimean landscape, the personage of Scheiderman represented something on the order of a bush of roadside heather: harvest, if thou so desire, any sprig – and take it with thou as thou wish. I mysel f was witness to how, after another alcohol - fueled, strong-spirited night, as Schneiderman, in a chi ldl ike manner, f l inging away from his body the cal loused, inf lamed hand of a ditch digger lay sleeping it off on a calm September beach, a wagtai l , feather- l ight and fearlessly, al ighted on his bony shoulder as though upon a shrub of heather. Sti l l , the principled Schneiderman absence of wi l l did not exclude fol lowing a course of action. And in this consisted the element of magic, that he performed these deeds without a moment ’s indecision. And, independent of motive – whether it be the unsober idiosyncrasies of his tippl ing bosom buddies or the whimsies of a transient enchantress – everything that Gena Schneiderman did in his l i fe was, viewed within the context of accepted norms, absolutely pointless – and absolutely stunning. I will offer but one illustration, of which it was for a long time forbidden to speak, because this typical for Scheiderman epic comports so poorly with the constraints of sane reason, not to mention with at least two unmentionable statutes of the criminal code. This line could only be crossed once Gena, in

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