Wolves at the Door: The Mexico Trip May 25- June 6 2017

The following is both a journal, a diary, a letter to my Mom... so it is all confused and for too many different interests. That's Okay. Here it is.

Trip to Tijuana, Mexico May 26 – June 6, 2017

Purpose: Residency with Mujeres en Ritual, Tijuana, MX (where they are located)

for the project Women at Water’s Edge/Mujeres al Filo del Agua for which Dora and I got a Creation Fund grant from the National Performance Network.

We worked for five days in a studio at Center Arts in Rosarito (just outside of Tijuana)

Miroslava Wilson and Dora Arreola at the Center Arts in Rosario

as a creative residency to begin to explore potential material for the project. Worked with Dora Arreola (Mujeres en Ritual is her company) and anywhere from 6-9 members of her company each day. Also joining us was Miroslava Wilson, artistic director of Pendulo Cero Danza Contemporanea also of Tijuana. Dora, Miroslava and I are the trio making up the performers for Women at Water’s Edge/Mujeres al Filo del Agua, that will premiere in Tampa, FL in 2019 and at Grinnell College, IA 2020.

Traveled with Dora, who now lives and works in the US as a professor in the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of South Florida, and Andrea Assaf, who is the executive director of Art2Action and Dora’s partner. Art2Action is one of the co-commissioners of Women at Water’s Edge/Mujeres al Filo del Agua. Dora is originally from Mexico, and has family in the Tijuana area where she also worked for many years. Andrea has travelled to Tijuana for many years with Dora. So I traveled with these two women who know the area well!

From L to R: Andrea Assaf, Dora Arreola, Celeste Miller on Rosarito Beach

We flew into San Diego, and crossed the border into Mexico from there. The flights are less expensive to San Diego because it is a domestic, not international flight. We rented a car and within forty minutes we had crossed the border into Mexico. The border crossing in was very easy, like going through a tollbooth. No passport required. Crossing back into the US was when we had to stop, show passports, etc.

Miroslava looking out the window

Our Accomodations: We stayed at Puerto Nuevo Hotel and Villa. Dora had rented a “villa” for us, which looked right out on the Pacific. We were about 300 feet from the crashing surf! It was a delightful sound to sleep with. The downstairs had two bedrooms, and a common area with the kitchen. Upstairs was a third bedroom, where I stayed.

No ocean swimming – we were on a rocky outlook over the ocean, and it was an area with strong tides.

The view from our hotel.

View from my room

Our "villa", the downstairs left, stretching up to the arched single window - my bedroom window! I took this photo while standing at the retaining wall that overlooked the ocean.

Journal of Daily Activities and The work:

5/26 Friday

Flew into San Diego, met up with Andrea and Dora at the airport. Picked up a rental car, stopped at a Whole Foods type store to pick up some groceries – especially vegetables that wouldn’t require washing (pre-washed spinach, etc) and bottled water to stock up on. Then we drove across the border. Traffic congestion about the same as crossing any of the major bridges/tunnels into NY. Drove towards Puerto Nuevo, Dora pointing out the wall, how it runs alongside the highway etc. About 30 minutes to our hotel in Puerto Neuvo. We were all pretty exhausted. Had a drink in the hotel bar and then to bed.

Large cactus!

I was interested in how people had carved their names and words into the cactus

Dora and I planning at the Hotel bar

Sunset view from just outside our hotel room.

5/27 Saturday/Sabado

Breakfast in the Hotel – big, beautiful buffet spread. Omlettes or quesidillas made to order. Ceviche – both just shrimp and the more typical mixture of fishes. Lots of families – Mexican and US. It was Memorial Day weekend, and it seems that many Americans had come for the holiday weekend.

We enjoyed ourselves at the beautiful hotel, et to talk about the work we would enter on Monday, and then went to an Arts Festival at the Center in Rosarito where we would be working each day with Mujeres en Ritual. Met up with Miroslava, and heard her boyfriend's band. It was late when we got back to the hotel.

Arts Festival, Miroslava's boyfriend's band.

Vendors at Arts Festival: food, art work and crafts

5/28 Sunday/Domingo

Breakfast buffet in the Hotel again and then we took some time individually to just journal and write, preparing for the week. At 2:00PM we met up with Dora’s sisters and nieces for an incredible lunch at a place famous for lobsters/langostas. Ortega's. They lobsters are a little different from our New England lobsters, a smaller head. And yummy yummy!!! We were going to go back to the Arts Festival after lunch, but we didn’t wrap up with family et al until close to 5, so we just went back to the hotel and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the sea as we prepared for Monday.

Beautiful view!

Ortega's

They make tortillas on site

Huge!

Tortilla maker

My meal!

Yummy food!

Ceviche

5/29 Monday/Lunes

We worked daily at a dance studio at the Rosarito Art Center from 10AM-2PM with members of Dora’s company, Mujeres en Ritual. We would do a check-in followed by a physical warm-up, then a vocal warm-up, then entered the creation process.

On Monday:

Introductions

CheckIn

Warm-ups Physical and Vocal. Everyday Dora’s vocal warm-ups ended with a song.

See “Actions”: Prior to the week, Dora had suggested to her company that they create an Action based on a memory of being at water’s edge (in keeping with our theme.)

We saw three Actions and talked about them.

Andrea led us through a Cultural Competency workshop, and a writing exercise where we listed our identities. Discussion.

Creation: From the prompt “longing for running water” and the following poem by Ivone Gebara from the book “Longing for Running Water”

My body is thirsty for this water…

For the water of life..

The life of water…

When will we get to drink it?

And to tremble with joy with the multitudes of the poor,

With the trees and flowers,

With the fishes and birds,

With the stars and the moon,

With the rain and the wind,

With the snow and the dew,

With the sun and the entire earth.

As the deer longs for running waters.

Everyone created a solo composition based on the prompt.

Then we did Oracle Feedback that I learned from Bertha Berritz:

Partners.

Partner A dances, Partner B observes.

Partner B then dances back to A anything they can remember

Partner A puts that remembrance into their composition.

Reverse the process.

Then individually, continue to develop solo compositions.

We showed them to each other and then it was time to Check Out.

Dora and Miroslava arriving at the studio

5/30 Tuesday/Martes Playas

Playas is a beach area in Tijuana where the border wall is, running into the sea. We went there to do a site specific exploration of the border. Our prompt was to explore the physical environment: the wall, the shoreline, the water with the prompt from a poem by Dunya Mikhail:

Forgive me for eating the moon.

I know you are everywhere,

But I wait for your song

As I wait for the missing.

Each person created a solo. Then we partnered up again and did the Oracle Feedback exchange. To bring the exploration to a close, we broke into two groups of five and each group had a minute and a half to share what we had created.

The wall runs into the sea

Artwork abounds

It is a well populated beach, with usual beach activities

Some Images from the dancing:

After the Playas exploration Dora wanted to go to Ceasar’s Palace for lunch. The place reminded me of the grand old restaurants of Little Italy.

Andrea and Dora

After lunch we went to the Art Center of Tijuana – huge! Museums, several galleries and also theatre spaces. About three times as large as the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta.

They had a children’s exhibit that was a recreation of a Van Gogh painting of his bedroom. Dora and I had fun posing in it, making a kind of surreal painting.

Then we sat ourselves in a café on the beach where we collected our notes for the day and journaled and shared notes.

A few more photos from the day:

Graffiti Art Work on the wall

May 31 Wednesday/Miercoles

Back to the studio for our regular 10-2 worktime.

Today Andrea was not here to be a translator for me, but I did pretty well understanding things. I can’t talk – but I can get a good sense of understanding what is being said. Most everyone speaks pretty good English, so if I get lost someone is always there to translate.

Check in – during check in I wanted to hear everyone’s interpretation of the encounters we had with people on the beach who had asked what we were doing. We had some good laughs comparing stories.

Warm-up: Physical and Vocal, followed by a song.

Then we each worked on a composition about our personal memory of a time at water’s edge.

Shared these.

After a break, we revisited our “Longing for Running Water” solos, then we were arranged into groupings to begin to put the solos into duets, trios and solos. I was with Dora, Grisella and Danielle.

Then we worked on solos to try and take what we had created at Playas, and turn it into something in the studio.

We then asked everyone to think about different themes in each of their compositions, and everyone wrote down a theme on index cards.

Check out.

Everyday we finish up at the studio, go back to the hotel, have some lunch that we make in our little kitchen, some quiet reflecting time and then planning for the next day, then dinner, then more planning and then finally to bed!

Tonight Dora, Miroslava (the other lead dancer on the project who is also sharing accomodations with us) and I looked over all the index cards and tried to pull together themes. I was very tired, and couldn’t concentrate – though I took notes.

June 1 Thursday/Jueves

10-2 Studio Time.

Today we did check-in, warm-ups and song. The song became a spontaneous improvisation, the lyrics:

My heart is open, now!

Mi Corazon esta abierto, ya!

We used the papers designating the different mapping areas from the exercise that Andrea led on Monday.

After that we worked again on solos of the Playas material. Then Dora staged a very interesting arrangement of the Playas material combined with imagery from the different characters we had met on the beach who had interacted with us when we were there:

Hombre Tortillas: The man who made an offering of tortillas as he asked one woman if she wanted to be his girlfriend.

Mujer Rusa: A Russian woman, who only spoke English, who found out we were dancers and wanted to know if we could teach her Flamenco.

Cruzando al Hombre: Man who asked us if we were crossing (the border); and when we said, “Not today.” He said, “next time.”

Check out. The mujeres have a great spin on Check out! They sing it! Announcing, “Estoy…” and then sing and dance a loud statement of what they are as they check out. Then in English they shout, “Check out!” and do like a cash register gesture with “ch-ching!”

After rehearsal Miroslava had suggested that we pick up Andrea from the hotel and go to Popotla. It is a very small fishing village partway between Rosarito and Puerto Nuevo. Right on the water, fishing boats galore. Small, hardworking population of fishermen and families. In about two blocks, about 50 restaurants! Each one has someone outside trying to convince you to come into their restaurant. We randomly picked one, a man showing us the fish he had just caught. Large enough for all four of us to eat! He cooked it on a wood grill right outside the restaurant, and also served us (complimentary) shrimp as we waited. We also had ceviche and shrimp cocktail.

Our fish!

Popotla

Shrimp!

Then our next adventure was to go to a store to purchase data for a phone so that we could try and Skype my student, back in Grinnell, into our final work day.

After this very long day, back to the hotel. A little snack and then off to journaling and bed.

June 2 Friday/Viernes:

After warm-ups we started the day by revisiting all the material – in reverse order. We started with the Playas staged work. Then time to work trios and quartets with the Playas material. I worked with Miroslava and Ayme. Then we revisted the “longing for running water” trios and quartets. And, running out of time, we just individually revisted our “personal memory” solos; and then started like we began, by watching Berta’s “personal memory” solo that she had been working on all week, layered with a beautiful poem that Andrea had written.

I think after the studio session, we just went back to the hotel, lunch, journaling, coming together to process, dinner and collapse!

Still from video shot in rehearsal:

June 3 Saturday/Sabado:

When Dora gets back to Tijuana, one thing she always does is assemble Mujeres for a retreat where different company members teach something from their practice. Dora had reserved a conference room at the hotel for this retreat. It was a way to thank the women for their work of the week (though they were all paid) and to take advantage of our lovely location. We worked from 10AM-5PM.

We had workshops/sessions in:

Meditation

Singing/Yoga

Butoh

Reiki

Gaga that I led.

The red ribbon bracelet with the opal was made by the woman who led the Reiki workshop, she made one for everyone.

Ritual singing wrap-up with water spirit songs led by Dora.

Not everyone, but just about.

We wrapped up eating a meal together at the hotel restaurant. During that meal Dora conducted a meeting with her company about next steps. Working on my Spanish listening skills, eating my delicious food, and listening to the surf.

June 4 Sunday/Domingo:

Dora’s sisters wanted to meet up for breakfast, so we met them at a “restaurant in Rosarito. Tapanco.

Fun place, yummy food… then we went to the beach with her family for photos.

After they left, we went back to the more populated beach of Rosarito. Everything was there! Pony rides, corn on the cob, drinks, coconuts cut up and served in their shell with hot sauce. You could get a massage, henna tattoos, braided hair, a band to play for you… we chilled for a nice bit.