First things first
Dance has taken me places. As a teenager, it led me inside a beautiful studio that introduced me to indescribable amounts of pain during a five minute drill of plies. A few years later; as I struggled with endometriosis, dance took me to that quiet place where pain could no longer harm me. It took me from Mexico to the Mission district in San Francisco which began my relationship with the city. It took me inside a market in Madrid and into the wonderful flamenco world of Amor de Dios. It took me to Zulema, Daniel, Ruth, Yu-Ka, Parya, Jericha, Angie, May, Lola, Yeong-Ja, Yolanda V, Yolanda C, Carlos, Anne, Rachel, Jaime; all strangers to you, all taken by dance. Their stories are inspiration. Eyes into their culture, struggles, dreams and the reason why I view the world the way I do.
Now, stolen
Stolen is a mixed media essay inspired by the people I have met through dance and the impact they have had in my life, and the lives of others. The main components of the project are photography, writing and design.
Over the course of a year I plan to travel to Spain, Turkey, India and Brazil. During my stay, I will study a dance form prominent in each country and I will document my experiences in a blog. Upon my return to the Bay Area I will gather the best photos and I will work on a series of design prints. I will develop art work that will be silkscreened on top of the photography. The art work will carry a visual message that reflects something about the person or the place in the photo.
Why?
Periods of transition change the way we communicate, the way we choose to do art, the motivation behind it, its purpose and its form. When there’s a desire to have our voices heard, to show empathy, or to touch someone’s heart, an explosion of creativity follows. This is happening now.
Flamenco flash mobs have been taking place in banks all over Andalusia as a response towards the current economic crisis in Spain. Artists perform in support of protestors at Taksim Square in Istanbul. Fusion dancers are making us turn our eyes to places where we had not dared to look before.
These are the kind of stories I want to tell, because I’m deeply moved by them, because we need to know them, because acknowledging their existence brings us closer to understanding and on the way there, we get to be inspired.
Perhaps in these stories you will find the fire that makes you turn your every day job into the voice of a cause. Maybe you will share these stories over coffee with a friend that will suddenly be filled with hope. Maybe they will make you want to check out a dance studio and make you want to dance. Maybe they will take you places, they will make you want to travel. Stories are powerful. But if all these stories do is take you to a dance show and allow you to experience it and appreciate it in a way you never did before, this project would have still fulfilled its purpose because we all need to let ourselves be touched by beauty.
