Houses

I have been looking for stories that help me to build a narrative for the piece I am developing in the Beach House. In the past, I mostly built the narratives of my works by incorporating performers' personal stories. This time I thought the focus of those stories was going to be the moment of the departure from home. However, speaking with Willy I realized that the topic was not going to work for us, while Willy already built a whole solo based on that very moment of his life. After asking questions, a conversation about houses emerged.

Willy shared that he grew up in huge house, almost a monstrous place because of his dimensions.  Apparently the house was more like a complex unit with several houses connected, and where a very big family lived together. The experience of growing within that environment contribute to make of Willy, who he is today. The houses we lived in, shaped us. I have lived in many houses, but two of them have been the most important ones in my life. One was built by my grandfather and the other one was built by me, both are houses with personalities. They are both a statement about the lives of their builders, and these two houses have evolved and changed drastically throughout time to fulfill the needs of its owners and habitants.

When I was a child my favorite bed time story was about a trolley that became old fashion and was about to be disposed as junk, but a poor family found it and transform it into their happy house. I don't remember the name of the story, and until very recently I did not have any recollection about the story itself, but I remember now now how much I like it. And I wonder if that story influenced me, by creating a mind set in me that later on encouraged me to buy an old Airstream, remodeled it and make a home in it to live with my kids, like the family in the bedtime story.

I am curious to see what stories about houses is Gabriel going to bring into the conversation.
Willy's houses story and my special houses' stories are definitely relevant to the piece we are creating.  At the end this is a a site specific work in a house, and it is about its owners, its visitors and the way it has has been transformed through out time.

In one of the interactions/casual interviews I did with some Annenberg House beach visitors during the month of July, a woman told me that my piece should reflect how the Beach House was once a house for the elites and how it has become a space for all. I think she is right, but I don't know very well yet how to do it. Part of me feels that just by doing a piece in the facilities of the Annenberg House, I am making that statement already, but I keep thinking about it.

Bringing the the housing topic into the piece, builds a bridge between the personal stories of the performers, and the topic of Nomadism, that I always feel should be part of this work I am creating in Santa Monica. Now my challenge is to find out how I am going to incorporate the stories of the houses within the dance piece.

After a few weeks of wondering around the spaces of the Annenberg Beach House, I have defined four forces that will drive the rest of the creative process:

1. To explore the relationship between movement and rhythm from a multicultural perspective
2. To explore partnering interactions in diverse dance contexts rhythmically and culturally,
3. To identify, design, build and/or incorporate, objects, paths, and relationships that bring in to the piece the concepts of nomadism, migration, wondering, traveling, gypsy life style, displacement, and any other way of living in which the concept of home evolved into a notion that is no longer linked to stability nor to a specific piece of land.
4. To build an open narrative that serves as an anchor point from where to imagine possibilities.

I still wonder what is the role of the sea within the piece, and how the history and evolution of the Beach House is related to the driving forces of the piece. I feel that I should find those connections to be able to claim my work to be site specific, but I haven't yet.  So far the connections with the space are mostly stablished by intuition and attraction.

Last Friday Willy Souly, my movement collaborator, and I had our first rehearsal/studio encounter. We talked about the driving force of the piece and we improvised. We also exchanged movements and information about how each one of us understand rhythm in relationship to our specific training and background. I participated in his African dance class last Friday and it was not only very fun but it helped me to start to understand who he is and where does he comes from.

Last Sunday I had my first meeting with our costume designer who is building two costume pieces. We made decision about colors and materials based some fabrics samples that she brought to the meeting. We also started to define a timeline.