Page 12

HIGH GEAR

WHY

HAVE A

SKELETON

IN YOUR

CLOSET?

Truman Dead!

But for Carlos. See below:

June 1976

COME OUT NOW!

GET HEP

RAP

8 P.M.

EVERY FRIDAY AT

THE FREE CLINIC

By Donna Minkler

Carlos Colon is a person first, a celebrationist second and a Puerto Rican born Cleveland resident of the gay community third. He's bilingual, was bisexual but never bicentennial. The inevitable initial visual flash on meeting Carlos for the first time is that you are in the presence of a Latino lover but somehow the best of your olfactory senses tell you there's very possibly more than Brute behind the brawn.

I first met Carlos when rehearsing for a play at the Fairmont Center (Coventry Campus). I chanced upon a rigourous demonstration of warm up exercises executed with what (from unsophisticated status dance critic) appeared for all the world like physical grace propelled in space.

as

my a

Why is any form of classical dance considered incriminating at worst, embarrassing at least?

Carlos reasons that dance is a celebration of life... it affords you the utmost freedom, If you arent succeeding in school, you naturally look to other avenues for your talents...Despite the fact that ballet, according to Colon, was never reserved for a specific sex, the stereotypes are reinforced in the media....

One thing, added Carlos "is that people can't seem to get it into their heads that being gay is not a pre-requisite for being a dancer. I get that reaction all the time...if you're a dancer, people just naturally think...ah ha...gay!

And if you're gay, you're a dancer. I don't buy that. I don't buy that all!”

Carlos who became interested and involved in ballet only after exploring other forms (modern, jazz, Spanish and tap) claims, that dance is a celebration of life.

You get a feel of complete freedom...the way people move...Thats important....it tells you where their thoughts are at, and can be forecast by the way they move.

The unfortunate thing is that the way they move is also bound to be judged ... the more graceful... the more chance an effeminate label will be applied.

Of all the dance forms the modern jazz (a kind of eclectic discipline not requiring the staccatic energy of classical ballet or the staccatic delivery of tap is his favorite; however the bulk of his dance performances have been more along the lines of the musical or theatrical dance...)

But the image of prefab notions of male dancers still, plague me....leotards for the latents, tights for the tame.

One of the problems that ballet itself has had is the garb that the dancer had since time immemorial to put on...but leotards and tights were the hand me downs from a Frenchman's kind kings court during whose reign arts, especially performing arts, were encouraged.

Carlos indicated that tights and leotards were decreed by the king to afford the greatest amount of fluid movement for both sexes.

Even in the relatively short amount of time Carlos has been working professionally at

Fairmont as a director and dance teacher he's seen an increase in the enrollment of men in the dance... (are they all gay?) Not all.

"Guys seem to be less resistant to putting on leotards and tights now."

No matter what the pros and cons, would your father have preferred to see his six year old American dream boy pass the football or pirouette especially if daddy's little big man is the spittin' image of his pop.

But dad ain't blatant. Why he's not even aware of the kind of lexist (word discriminating by selection of word) he's become.

won bmA olostorg

After all, a gays a gay .. and I guys will be guys. Namath throws his "gear" in a "pack" Nureyev and "works out" at the "gym." packs his "paraphernalia" in a "satchel" and "rehearses" at the studio.

Carlos's own experience was refreshingly different.

He neither had the pushy parent who'll swear up and down he's only had his child's best interest at heart" when he drug Johnny to the studio before he could the walk," or embarrassed parent who walks into Bobby's room only to find

him flying about leaping all panful and frightening graceful.

Instead, the Colons asked their child if he'd be interested in free tap lessons after school once a week. Carlos took them up on it, and for the next two or three years went to classes amateurish but fun. His adolescence was spent exploring other areas only mildly related to dance. His favorite extra curricular interest as a senior in high school was theatre. After a stab at the business world following two years of college where he received training in dance, Carlos decided to satisfy his curiosity regarding any "real talent".

He applied for and was granted a scholarship to study dance at Fairmont Center for the Creative and Performing Arts where his dual responsibilities included teaching and managing the desk.

Still, I wonder, to myself about the fading "truisms": the immaculate man .. the under calloused hand. Carlos declares "Look ... if people are going to decide things about me because of my involvements, then let them. I don't need them." To me, I have nothing to lose either way. People have accepted me as a person, and not for my sexual preference."

alqmic evil distte veave not

On his marriage and subsequent break-up: "Being gay was part of the break-up of my marriage. Although I never looked for an encounter when I was young, I did do research on homosexuality. After I married, I had two experiences and realized, being gay was more than a passing adolescent phase."

was

"I have a daughter who is 6 now. She adjusted to the divorce O.K. I see her frequently, though at first my wife resisted allowing me visitation rights. I don't know my wife's motives. Maybe in part it was because I was gay; but later she changed her mind." "I soon moved in with two other guys, one of whom, Sammy, became my lover. Since then, I've been predominantly gay. My daughter doesn't know I'm gay yet. I won't pinpoint an age to tell her. When she starts asking questions, which I'm sure will be soon, I'll tell her the truth. A year ago I would have been uptight. But in the last five years the acceptance of homosexuality as a life style makes it much easier."

Of Sammy, his lover, Carlos says, "Sammy told me to tell you two things, One, that I have a fabulous lover and two, that the 32nd Street Club Baths are the best in Cleveland."

The philosophy of their relationship can best be described in a single thought: "The family that cruises together stays together."

Carlos' parents do not know he is gay. He thinks his wife may have told his mother, but feels she refuses to believe it. "I don't think I've let them down. I have a life I enjoy. They have nothing to be disappointed about. I'm part of two minorities. I'm Puerto Rican and gay. I've not. experienced discrimination for either. But then I have no time for people who will not accept me for who I am."

The Celebrationist. "Chiqui, Quando me vieness a ver?"