deep in the heart...of the Bayou City!

photos by Rene Ramirez

(above front: Joanna Futral, Blake Dalton, & Mary Jane Pennington on left)

(above from left to right Sharon C. Sibley, Blake Dalton, Alex Abarca, Mary Jane Pennington, & Joanna Futral)

howdy again folks...we are finally back with a new blog, and BOY is there a lot of stuff to share! the reason for the lack of blog activity was because we were in Houston, Texas for an action packed week of performances, fundraising, master classes, art-viewing, meetings, and (if time allowed) crazy shenanigans!

i knew this would be an exciting trip because as i boarded the plane to head back to my hometown of Houston, i was seated next to what appeared to be a Buddhist monk! i wanted to pick his brain and make conversation with him; however, he didn't understand much english (this is/was an assumption)...but based on the fact that he started walking around the plane when the fasten your seatbelt sign was on, and also when asked for a beverage, he pointed at what he wanted. also, when he was on the phone he was only speaking in an asian dialect.

anywho, i landed in my heart...called Texas, to beautiful 70 degree weather, with a great breeze, but some lovely houston humidity. i arrived a day early to spend time with my family, and see friends (while the free time lasted). once the rest of the crew arrived (Mary Jane, Blake, Sharon, and Joanna) we went right into rehearsing for our performance for the Bayou City Art Fest at Memorial Park. "Point, well taken..." was our site specific performance this spring. Borrowing from various parts of our newest dance "The Point" and other processes from various stuff in our reperatory we put together a 20 minute dance structure to be performed at various parts of the festival.

we also passed out information inviting the onlookers to take photos of us and post them to our facebook fan page. if you have had the pleasure of seeing us at any of the Bayou City Art Festivals...you can't not notice us. we are always in zany costumes, dancing in areas that most folks don't dance in, but what i love is how close we get to our audience. some people even forget they are watching art and openly give their opinions (positive and/or negative) about our performance.

joanna (photo by alex abarca)

sharon (photo by alex abarca)

photo by Rene Ramirez

Mary Jane (photo by alex abarca)
photo by Angela Anelisea Watts
photo by Joy Graham (from L to R, Joy Graham & Alex Abarca)

photo by Joy Graham (from L to R, Blake Dalton, random BCAF attendee, Alex Abarca, small child...hehe)

so outside of all the fun and games of performing in the midst of hundreds of people...we also had time to teach master classes to the University of Houston dancers (my alma mater...so that was fun) & also to Rice University dance folk (Blake has also set a free-style poling piece on the Rice Dance Theatre company members). I also have ties to Rice, since my sister is a RA for the Sid Rich College students...so it was cool to interact with the Rice dancers on many levels. we also saw Suchu Dance's latest piece Ella Paradise...which was amazing! AND, we ate delicious food!!! joanna even bought a burrito that it took her 3 days (with some help from others...i graciously offered my stomach and food eating expertise to help the cause) to finish! here are some pics to show you how HUGE the burrito was!

on a more serious note (of which i hate doing), after our VIP performance on Saturday night, our beloved Blake Dalton injured himself. after returning to Atlanta, and visiting a doctor, we found out the injury was more serious that anticipated. he had tore his Achilles tendon. luckily, he has already had a successful surgery and is well on his way to recovery. however, he is not available to perform in our Miller show on the 30th of April, Let's Dance. So, i (alex) will be taking on the task of learning his role Cumulus by Beppie Blankert. it is tough shoes to fill, but we are holding together nicely and sending our positive thoughts & energy to Blake (you can do the same!). WE LOVE YOU BLAKE!

so...in a nutshell that was our time for in preparation & performance of the Bayou City Art Festival (and time in Texas). after our sunday performance we packed up and drove to Galveston, Texas to have a small company retreat where we had meetings all day!!! yay, it actually wasn't as bad as it sounds! we even visited the beach...

i hope you guys didn't miss us too much...we are back now! look for the upcoming blogs of what it is like to be the "dancer on deck" in emergency situations. in other words, get ready to hear what it is like to have a limited amount of rehearsals before you perform dances that someone had months to learn...sounds exciting doesn't it??? hehe...such is the life.

on a closing note: i LOVED performing & being in Houston (even if the time was shorter that i would like).

much peace & love...alex

p.s. send positive healing thoughts to Blake Dalton :)