Where/ what is the thesis in this article?
Dance-floor dynamo is 65 and stayin' alive Former hippie and member of Perth County Conspiracy calls drug peyote `the catalyst that turned me into a dancer' Aug 14, 2009 04:30 AM NICK AVELING STAFF REPORTER Peter Cheyne puts down his double Scotch and removes his tweed jacket. He bobs toward the dance floor, a sweaty patch of hardwood in Little Italy's Sutra Tiki Bar. And then it begins. He launches into an improvised flurry of spins and kicks, somewhere between the Tasmanian Devil and a 14-year-old gymnast. His surroundings become props: the wall, a chair, a group of girls who are only too happy to join in. Cheyne is the best dancer in the room – likely the best on the entire street. One more thing: he's 65 years old. "I dance for the meditation," says Cheyne, who every so often takes the train from Stratford to strut his stuff in downtown Toronto. "I dance to stay still." He sure fooled his audience. Crystal VanLeeuwen, a 28-year-old nurse, could scarcely believe what she was seeing. "I was definitely surprised. He looked good dancing, and he's having a good time. He loves what he's doing," she said. Born in Scotland, Cheyne's path to sexagenarian dance machine began with a kick in the stomach. He was 9 years old, living at a boarding school outside London, England. "I got in a fight with a pair of identical twins. When I woke up in the hospital three weeks later, the doctors had taken my appendix out," said Cheyne. "During the operation they found out I had tuberculosis in one lung." He spent the next nine months in hospital, followed by a year in a Brighton sanatorium. It was then, said Cheyne, that he chose a future in the arts. "Most of my life I've lived outside the box, and it goes back to those two years I had no basic schooling. I've had to invent myself outside of those kinds of things." Finally, the doctors gave Cheyne's parents a choice. The boy needed clean air. Australia or Canada would do just fine. Cheyne's stepfather (his birth father died in World War II), a budding stage actor by the name of Tony van Bridge, reluctantly settled on Stratford, Ont. Van Bridge went on to become one of Canada's most renowned stage performers. Cheyne, meanwhile, would eventually be introduced to the Perth County Conspiracy – and a drug called peyote. "Peyote was the catalyst that turned me into a dancer," said Cheyne. But that's getting ahead of the story. The '60s had arrived in Stratford, and amidst the flickering candlelight of the Black Swan coffee house, a quiet revolution was underway. A "unique collection of stumbling creative people" – writers, artists, dancers and, above all else, musicians – flocked to Stratford, and by 1969, the Swan had become an unofficial clubhouse for the vanguard of Canada's hippie movement. They started a commune on the outskirts of town, named themselves the Perth County Conspiracy, and got on with the business of changing the world, touring Canada and releasing five records. "It was sort of a Canadian version of the Grateful Dead," said Cheyne. Cheyne found his Conspiracy niche in an alfalfa field. "It was a beautiful, lovely day, and one of the Conspiracy members was playing a tune called `Layers of the Onion.' It was a little cosmic ditty," he said. "All of a sudden there was a huge door in my field of vision with yellow light pouring out of it. I stepped into it and leapt off the planet. "It wasn't an intellectual thing, but I realized there was an avenue of creative expression, and it was going to be mine." Over the next few days, his peyote-fuelled epiphany crystallized: Cheyne would teach himself to dance. He would also teach himself to mime. And that was that. The Black Swan closed in 1975 and the Conspiracy, by then numbering 100 or more, broke apart. But a faithful few remain in Stratford, tied not so much to the Conspiracy itself as to the friendships created therein. Cheyne lives with Harry Finlay, one of the Conspiracy's founders. The pair recently staged a reunion in a Stratford church basement. "It (was) the 19th annual revival – a fundraiser for Shelterlink, an organization that addresses the needs of homeless youth," said Finlay, who describes living with Cheyne as a "delight." Cheyne continues to dabble on the fringes of Toronto's arts scene. And given the crowds that gather when he hits the dance floor, he considers each move an exercise in "guerrilla theatre." He has also found a new passion with which to pay the bills. "Gardening is what brings me great joy right now," Cheyne said. "A little old lady came up to me last week and said, `You're the dancing flower guy!'" he said. "I'm viewed as an eccentric, and I don't mind that at all. It's an accolade."
Media & Journalism - 1 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
There is no thesis
Read more discussion :
