1) We protect what we fall in love with

This summer I was vagabonding in Manhattan. After a dance class I went to buy a sweet pastry.

As usual the store was being attended by Mexicans (three).

They spoke me in English 
 -"wat duya wantt miss"

I answered (in Spanish)  
- "err, hola!" (I ALWAYS do this)

they grinned: 
 -"hola!, de donde eres?! / hi! where do you come from?"

I grinned back: 
 - "de Mexico!, de donde mas? / from Mexico, where else?!"

One of them looked at me carefully, not that smiley:

- "ah si? / really?, you don't look Mexican"

I was about to pay, and this same guy, the not so smiley one said to me with serious eyes:

"Well, you are in vacations isn't?, hmmm... is weird to see a Mexican in New York in vacations, isn't?"

His friends started to get nervous

- "I wonder when I am going to have a vacation like you?"

He was staring at me coldly, and we all got tense, but I knew what he was doing.  I try to talk back and try to defend myself, to let him know that I wasn't rich, that I work hard, that I got a cheap airplane ticket, that I had friends over here and...but... what could I say?, I am lucky no matter what, instead I duck my head and thought:

-c'mon let it out, I know you need to do this... I won't go away, I will stay and listen to you-

"I should charge you more" he said acidly. His friends' faces were incredulous of what he was saying. I knew what he felt: resintimiento. I could see him leaving his little town in Mexico, leaving his family, working all day long for years, non stop, rain or shine, and sending money and missing Mexico bad, and I really REALLY understand him.

- "you are one of those Mexicans that can have a vacation" he gave me my change

(he didn't charge me more)

- "because I will never have a vacation like you" he stared at me in silence, maybe waiting for me to insult him.

I didn't know what to do without offending him. I really wanted to let him know I was sorry without triggering more resentment. I really didn't know what to do.  I was just standing there like a stupid... tourist.

One of his friends, trying to soften things, asked me what was my profession. With a week voice, I told him that I was a dancer. I try to smile gently, and timidly I left the store feeling strangely ashamed.

Already in the subway, I thought that of all the Mexicans that he could say this to, he found (maybe not the only one) but the one who is aware of the tough life he is having; he found the one Mexican that has a project to dance for EVERYBODY, and the one mexicana who will understand things better than himself (maybe).

I thought: Maybe THIS is a SIGN!

I felt more happy in the subway, I kept mind-toying with plans of how to expand our project in New York. I felt so much better that I decided to return back the next day and tell him about the project I was working on and that I would love to dance for him and his friends and that I really understand him from de bottom of my heart!.

* you won't believe this, but the problem of vagabonding is that you really don't pay attention to the street numbers (I want to think this) because I couldn't find that store ever again. (weird)*

That night and the next and the next night I pray (I beseech) that every human in this world can have a vacation.

But especially this man.

I wonder, how is it that Mexico has so much "poverty" when we have the richest man in the world?

We protect what we fall in love with.

How do we fall in love with the unfair, the not so lucky, the resented one?

This video is our first performance at the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco, at the peak hours of emigration paper work.  This past October 2011.

We are dancing a piece called "Piruli" which means: candy.

(we just show up, we opened a space to dance and people were like... huuum...QUE PASA?)

Thank you so much to our friends at the San Francisco Mexican Consulate, you are doing such a good a work! You are something different and you know that.  Gracias Marimar.

Andante Grazioso, Wild Alcatraz, bring your coat (and POW!)

I hope that Pyotr Tchaikovsky doesn't mind that I attached his Violin Concert in D Mayor

--for you--

:)

Because this is how, exactly, our life sounds right now.

Excited, frenzied, SUBITO SFORZANDO! with intense crescendos and sweet adagios.

very vivacious, molto Allegro, PRESTO ACCELERANDO!!! and mucho muy FORTE LOUD!

We are dancing at Alcatraz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

comprende?

first:

this week, we are performing  at City Hall in S.F. 

(this is a private event, send us an email if you REALLY want to come)

Next Saturday, October15th, we are dancing at the amazing

Grand Opening Celebration of the International Art Museum of America 

from 11 am - 5 pm.  Located at 1025 Market Street

Everyone is cordially invited.

We got invited to participate at the

Alcatraz Symposium on Justice & Freedom, 

Thursday – Sunday, October 20-23.  
WOW!
This past Saturday we had a long rehearsal at this beautiful mystic island, together with 40 more artists. We had to spend the night at the... prison. Yes, you read it right!  we had to sleep in the prison cells!  oh my goat!. So scary. Really, I’m not superstitious, but how I bitterly regret not bringing some... garlic!  
WHAT. an. INTENSE. Experience.



The people responsible for this wonderful event are the
WE PLAYERS, a revolutionary fantastic theater troupe.
(estan locos)
:)
get curious, show your support, grab your tickets.  





 
At the “Parade Ground” in  Alcatraz,
Mayra and I agree that it has been a long time since we felt such freedom dancing.
Impossible not to get WILD with our coal embers in this beautiful, huge space:

We also got invited to give a talk at one of the many events of

  Numina Femenina: Latin Women in the Arts 

...a talk  about: "Art, Society and Gifts".

October 31st, 4:30pm.

 at the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco.

Our Fantasia Mexicana Fundraising was a success.  muchas muchas GRACIAS!

We'll start with the first of our --mission-- performances on October 26th.

(-- here we'll release the bonfires of our cucumber heart --)

grate-fully, grace-fully  dancing for the ones who have it All;  then dancing for the

ones who have nothing.  NADA.

We are the bridge.

con amor

n

Fantasia Mexicana, Episode No.1

It was very difficult to see, we didn't know that the new protection for our masks was going to
leave us almost blind. Dancing with amber coals can get pretty HOT.
Spinning fire coals match the [circular] motion of the arms at 177 km/h under a rain of sparks.
But in this performance I was specially blind.





 
We went to dance to Los Angeles. We were at an amazing Youth Shelter.
A shelter open the 24/7 to the abandoned teenagers, to the runaway kids;
this is a space where the combination of  words like :
"juvenile prostitutes", "drug addicts", "youth gun violence and gangs"
are VERY familiar.

As a performing artist you develop this kind of ability where you are
able to read the energy of the public that you are trying to feed with your art.
When the public is totally engage in the -- art moment-,
I personally feel a flower opening in my chest.

There we were, dancing for all these sheltered youth, almost blind, trying to follow the music, jumping, turning on time with the choreography, moving in furious concentration,
and when I opened my mind towards the public, I read no reaction ---ONLY SILENCE---.
"Oh nooo!!!", I thought, "we failed! maybe they didn't like the music!".
(weird, because I was feeling the flower blossoming in my chest)


Before the performance we had the chance to eat with them.
We knew they were a difficult public, oh yes, and I didn't want to dance any music
they know, like hip hop, rap...dubstep, specially nothing "sexy".
I wanted to confront them with the most beautiful ethereal forces of sound.
And we kept turning and shaking the body! and dancing with all our might!
the SILENCE still there! (and the flower is blooming so so so big)
oh oh oooh no!
we finished.
and...
*
*
THEY EXPLODED!!!!!!!!  They YELLED!!!!!!!!, one MONSTROSOUS CLAP.
:)
they started to ask for more.
I TORE out my mask, breathed and I could finally see!
We lived the most wonderful silence: they were eating each one of our best intentions.
They were frozen, in complete awe, holding their wide open heart on anti-gravity state.
that's what they said to us. They came and hugged us. 
They helped us clean our things, they told us about their dreams, their plans.


we?
we secretly cried rainbow tears.

My dear family and friends, we The Tea Dancers / Ballet de la Compasion,
are going to have a fundraising event, and we need your gifts, support and love,
because we love to be a sparkle to people in their darkness.
We love to freeze in silence.

Save the date: Agosto 20th and 21st.


this event is going to be SWEET!