I started listening to Tori in spring 1996. I was taking a Modern Dance class and my teacher, Walker Ladd was choreographing a piece for the Spring Dance Concert. She's teaching us one of the pieces and the music it was choreographed to was just breathtakingly beautiful! The music was "Caught a Lite Sneeze." It was my first exposure to Tori's music and that very same day I went out and bought the album Boys for Pele. Upon first listen, the album as a whole didn't strike me as spectacular, but after I saw Walker Ladd's finished product titled a big loan from the girl zone I was awed. I was blown away by the new insights the dance gave to the music. The choreography and music complimented each other perfectly, and the result was a hauntingly beautiful experience.

The dance concert itself consisted of pieces choreographed to "Beauty Queen," "Horses," "Mr Zebra," "Not the Red Baron," "Way Down," and "Caught a Lite Sneeze." My interpretation of Miss Ladd's interpretation of the music is that she perceived women to be trapped in a patriarichal society's conventions. There were silly parts in the piece, like "Mr Zebra," but on the whole, I felt that the reaction from the audience was fear, because the combination of the movement and the music really was scary, yet simultaneously beautiful. The dancers were dressed as used, broken dolls in garish make-up, and the set consisted of a pink, blood-stained chair and ladder. There were flowers strewn all over the stage and the lighting was garish. The effect was that of a haunted house. I left the show feeling exhausted and shooken-up, but exhilerated.

Boys for Pele quickly became a permanent fixture to my CD Player. Since that time, Tori's music and insights have done much for me.