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December 2005
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Dancers and choreographers on surviving and thriving with HIV.
By Joseph Carman
(continued)
Lawrence Pech, a principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet, seemed like a poster boy for
youth, good looks and vitality. But in November 1990, after partnering the legendary Evelyn
Cisneros in the now ironically title ballet The Comfort Zone, his back went into
excruciating spasms. A biopsy on his 30 th birthday revealed a tumor on his spine, the result of
non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In routine blood tests, the doctors also found that Pech was HIV positive.
That double whammy, says Pech, “kicked my butt.” Never one to cave in, Pech gave himself
ballet classes two weeks after the surgery and self-produced an evening of dance at the
Columbarium in San Francisco the following June. “I went straight from chemo to the
theater,” says Pech. “It made me get off my feet.”
Pech now serves as the ballet master and resident choreographer for the San Francisco Opera and
co-directs his own group, Lawrence Pech Dance Company. He's been on nearly every HIV-related
medication and has suffered side effects, but his viral load remains at zero. Since his diagnosis,
Pech has choreographed over 30 musicals, and graduated top of his class from the San Francisco
Conservatory of Music with a BA in composition.
Given that resume, the last thing Pech wants is for people to see HIV as a liability in terms
of a successful life. 'Those who are HIV positive shouldn't be embarrassed or feel any less of a
person,” says Pech, who lives with his long term partner. I see a lot of people hiding.
That's one reason why I wanted to be interviewed for this article.”
Unfortunately, there are those like director, choreographer, and teacher Craig North, for whom
the drugs have not worked miracles. North was a self-described workaholic who started out as
a “barefoot baby,” performing with the Larry Richardson Dance Company in the 1980s
in New York. “Then I got swallowed by musical theater,” says North, who juggled the roles
of choreographer and lead dancer in road shows like Brigadoon and My One and Only.
Eventually, he worked 12 months a year, splitting his time as an adjunct professor at Wagner
College on Staten Island and as artistic director of Music Theater North at SUNY Potsdam.
When he discovered his HIV status in 1995, North continued to work full force, having
inherited from his family a “whatever” attitude about doctors and illnesses. After
three years and a loss of 35 pounds, he finally said, “I've got to stop pretending this is
not a problem.” North went on disability and admits that, “It's been a roller coaster,
” living with a shattered immune system, 17 prescriptions, severe neuropathy (numbness of the
extremities), and ongoing hospitalizations. But North also came to a major realization.
“Whenever I had a to-do list, my name was never on it. It was all outward, looking after
other people, making sure my students had what they needed,” says North. “The last few
years have given me an opportunity to figure out what makes me tick.”
Discriminatory behavior against those with HIV still remains a concern today. A lawsuit brought
by North against a New York employer based on the suspicion of his HIV status 10 years ago was
settled out of court. And Galindo still feels some bitterness about the hypocrisy he perceives
toward the disease in the performing arts. “Everyone was wearing the red ribbon, but they
wouldn't give you a job,” he says.
Pech laments poor AIDS education, particularly the abstinence-only variety, leading to
misconceptions about transmission. “There are some nuts out there saying you
can contract HIV through tears and saliva,” he says. North adds that, “There's still
a concern about what bathroom or silverware you use, things we dealt with in the '80s. There's
a whole new generation out there getting pregnant and seroconverting.” (Seroconversion is a
change in HIV status, detected through antibodies in the bloodstream.)
And to be very clear, there is no cure for AIDS. The medications can keep the disease at a
manageable level, like diabetes, but not, as in North's case, for everyone. Nevertheless,
having made it through to the other side lends these artists a profound sense of wisdom.
“There are so many of us long-term survivors,” says Simpson. “As a survivor,
I feel so lucky. I feel like I need to give back.”
Joseph Carman is contributing editor for DANCE MAGAZINE and author of Round About the Ballet (Limelight Editions, 2004).
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