Practice and performance….
I woke up to another beautiful day in Mexico. Blue skies, warm weather and another incredibly generous host greeted us this morning. We are here in Lake Chapala where we will use our arts to promote awareness about the pollution of the lake, which has been overrun by invasive lilies. Our host, Sveglio, is an incredibly talented local artist and he has opened up his home for us to practice our performance piece and find some respite from Patricia’s ‘cozy’ living space. This morning, after another amazing breakfast of fresh papaya and red rice porridge in almond milk and almond butter, we all met together outside, under the sunshine, for a morning meeting. With 17 people it is inevitable that we will all have different expectations and hopes for a journey such as this and with each project that we arrive at, new expectations also arise so we spent the morning clearing our minds and coming to a common understanding. With a renewed energy we all got our creative juices flowing and pulled out costumes, instruments and toys, which would be the foundation of our show. Vinicio and I had used nearly all our fresh produce so we had to call the practice short and go to the market but we got a short and sweet preview of what was to come. When we left, Blitz was creating a beautifully expressive group dance, Ryan and Summer were perfecting their absolutely ridiculous clown act, Amanda, adorned in a rich, middle eastern wrap, was belly dancing, Sam had transformed into a blue dinosaur and Tony was his tamer and the icing on the cake was Morgan and Shelley’s melodies in the background. After a quick trip to the market we came back to the house to prepare food for the hungry troops. It had been a long, full, active day and we had not eaten since breakfast. We whipped up fresh guacamole, a vibrant green salad with a wickedly spicy marinade, beans and tortillas. Dinner was rushed but we were fulfilled and off we went to perform in the town centre. Imagine 17 eccentric artists piling out of a magic school bus, instruments in tow and songs being sung as we walked down the sleepy Mexican streets. It was such a magical sight. I took on the role of cinematographer for this performance so as we paraded down the street I did my best to capture the moment…people’s expressions, voices, songs and dance. One by one we all filtered into the town centre and immediately people took notice. It wasn’t bustling by any means but Morgan sat down, plugged in his amp, and started playing. As people talked about the best place to perform, whether we should find a busier location, etc… Morgan took the lead and knew that once the music is heard, the people will come. A sleepy town centre all of a sudden had 30 people waiting for us to perform. Summer and Ryan took the stage, their humor capturing everyone and the show started with smiles and laughter. The group dance was lively and expressive. Alison and Liz sang, Blitz and Vinicio did capoeira, Ulises fire danced, Sam sang a sad dinosaur song and Tony, his tamer, lost him in the crowd. Morgan and Shelley were the soundtrack and Austin photographed the action. Everyone was a crucial piece of the successful puzzle that night. The crowd loved it and stuck around long after we were finished. Impromptu break dancing and beat boxing with some local kids topped off the show and the performer in each of us was sated for the time being. We left the town centre, went back to Sveglio’s and prepared for our show the following day. Another incredibly magical day, connecting with the communities and conversing with the locals is how I like to reach people and make a difference. Today was a raging success and it’s so evident by the energy flowing through all of us at this very moment.
Until the next connection…
Hannah
