As a dancer and performer I met Lindsay Kemp in the 1970’s and then worked with the Lindsay Kemp Company in various productions through the 1980’s and 90’s. The company was based in Spain and then Italy where Lindsay lived and died. The company members came from all over the world and from different performance backgrounds.

If I believed in reincarnation, I could imagine I would have lived in Japan in a previous life. During the time I worked with the Lindsay Kemp Company, we toured often to Japan. Consequently many of the company became attached to the country.

Just before one of our trips, one of the company members Javier Sanz, who was a drag queen from Valencia, had sadly died, of an AIDS-related illness. He requested half his ashes be sent to his mother in Valencia, and the other half to go on tour to Japan, to be spread in the stone garden of the Ryoan-Ji zen garden in Kyoto.

Myself and one of the other company members had been given the task to spread the ashes on the garden. This garden is formed of large islands of rocks set in white gravel, with a viewing platform along its length. It was always really busy during the day, so we decided we would go just ten minutes before the garden closed.

I distracted the attendant by buying incense and my companion snuck down into the garden and spread it all over the pristine, white gravel, leaving a grey smudge.
She gave me the nod and we did a runner, saying “Arigato! Domo! Domo Arigato! Sayonara!”

When we were on the bus home, we imagined a puzzled gardener the next day, sweeping up the ashes… and chucking them in the bin.