Sometimes the ways in which Leadership Oregon is cool are very obvious. Walking around the halls of the state Capitol last month. On the Senate floor, sitting in the seat of a hero of mine, Sen. Margaret Carter. That’s just patently cool.

Other times, the coolness is a bit more abstract.

I was having lunch with my girlfriend, Katy King, in Sellwood the other day. A woman at another table got up and crossed behind Katy.

It took my addled brain a couple of seconds to realize where I knew her. “Excuse me?”

She turned, smiled.

“Aren’t you a dancer? Oregon Ballet Theatre?”

Her eyes grew very big. She was, in fact, ballet dancer Daniela DeLoe and several of us from Leadership Portland got to watch her and other dancers practice for a performance titled “Lambarena,” a few months back. I recognized her because she’d rehearsed right in front of me.

For those of you who went, she’s also the woman who, in mid leap, had her feet slip out from beneath her and crashed to the hardwood floor, her ribs and hip taking the brunt of the impact. She then jumped up, laughed it off, and tried the move again. I would have been in traction.

In the restaurant, she laughed and said she’d never been recognized in public before. I told her I was a fan and wished her luck on the next performance, “Left Unsaid.”

See what I mean about the less obvious coolness of Leadership Portland?

dana

Dr. Seuss’ book, “Oh The Places You’ll Go!” could be should be the official playbook of Leadership Portland.

In February, several of the 2009 LP cohort got an invitation to attend the final dress rehearsal of Oregon Ballet Theatre’s production of “Lambarena.” It was simply amazing.

First, it was a full dress, so the show we saw was the show paying customers would see. Except they stopped from time to time to make some minor adjustment (they literally practiced taking bows after the performances). There were, maybe, 50 people in the audience (Katy King, my girlfriend, and I decided to dress up), consisting of friends and family members of the troupe.

The show consisted of three very different dances: “Ash,” “The Right of Spring” and “Lambarena,” the last of which combined Bach and African drums. Simply amazing.

During the first intermission, the Leadership Portland group got a backstage tour of the Keller Auditorium. I’m an ex-theater geek, so as you can imagine, it was kid-in-a-candy-shop time for me.

Literally, this is the reason one joins Leadership Portland. To stand in places we otherwise would never, ever get to stand. Oh, the places we’ve gone…