California Connections

August 21, 2007 6AM
by Livia Vanaver

Bill, Elijah and I are en route to San Francisco to visit Livia Blankman (otherwise known as “Little Livia”...from NYU and NYC dances studio days) and Chris Bigelow, both of whom were in my graduating class at School of the Arts (now better known as Tisch). We got an early start on the trip, leaving last night after a dress rehearsal of Gwynnie (Larsen) and her Airealistic crew in Burbank. One of the absolute joys in my life is to connect and reconnect with people in the past, especially those who, like Gwynnie, have grown up in the Caravan and are now out in the world doing their own dance thing so beautifully. Gwyneth will be 30 in October, so this has been a long time now watching her grow since age 5, into the amazing woman and performer she is today. Aminah, the director of the project we saw last night, was from the original production of Stomp in NYC. Talk about full circles....In 1994 when The Vanaver Caravan and Caravan Kids & Youth Dance Company (Gwyneth included), were doing a 3 day series of performances down at the South Street Seaport, we decided to go en
masse to see Stomp. 25 of us flooded the Orpheum Theatre and were absolutely inspired and entranced...as this percussive production is so close to our rhyhmic/dancing hearts. We all went backstage afterwards to tell the cast how thrilled we were to be there and also to invite them to come down to South Street to see us perform on their dark night. Well, they came to see us the next day and were excited about what we were about in turn. The nex week we received a huge box in
the mail with 25 Stomp T-shirts and a warm note from Aminah. We never saw them again....until last night, when I reminded Aminah of that “cultural exchange”. I love these full circles that make life so abundant.

Redlands Bowl

August 18th, 2007 2 AM
by Livia Vanaver

Just finished a week out here in Redlands California culiminating with one of the most unique concerts of Pastures of Plenty that we’ve ever performed. When we first got this booking, I remembered seeing an old photo in the hallway of Mohonk Mountain House,(where we have performed annually since 1975) depicting Smiley Heights and the City of Redlands below. In reviewing the contract and detailed information in the Redlands Bowl packet, I noticed it was built on Smiley Heights. I
immediately spoke with Gerow Smiley and Pat Smiley Guralnik (Board of Advisors) and they confirmed that this is indeed a big Smiley territory, that Gerow spends several months of the winter here and that we must visit the Smiley Library when we got out there. The Smiley family is indeed a big presence in Redlands since the 1800’s as they are in the Hudson Valley, and we were proud to be an unofficial part of the family performing at the Bowl. For 84 years the Redlands Bowl (the oldest free theatre in the country, existiing on donations by audience and supporters alone), has been offering stellar concerts every Tuesday and Friday of the summer months. The cypress tree flanked amphitheatre itself is gorgeous and seats 6,000 including the grassyTanglewood-like seating, where people arrive 2 hours in advance of the show and set up their tables, chairs and candlelit picnic suppers. It is very hot in Redlands during the summer! Luckily a cool breeze brought the over 100 degree temperatures down enough for us to achieve our quick costume changes. We knew that our Pastures of Plenty show would appeal to this crowd and indeed this was true. The audience sang on all the songs and eagerly took a ride with us from the Dust Bowl ballads to Peace Pin Boogie, to This Land.....and enjoyed Woody’s wilndow into America HIstory and humanity, through his prolific music. The dancers had a blast performing in this magical space! We clogged out into the audience at the end and brought the children of Redlands up on stage with us for the finale. They were well prepared for this, as we spent the week prior to the show in the Redlands elementary schools offering school assembly concerts. We reached over 4,000 children during the week who now know that:
- This Land is Your Land is not an old country song,
- that Woody Guthrie wrote thousands of songs in his lifetime,
- that the dust storms REALLY happened ( just like Hurricane Katrina, and other natural disasters),
-that you can tell stories and express yourself through music and dance. (Some teachers are even tollowing up by having the children create their own dances to describe historic events that they are studying).

Last week we toured the Redlands Schools with Bill, myself and12 of the Caravan Kids (ages 11-16).. What an extraordinary experience for the CK to be 3000 miles away from home.... in intense desert heat The Caravan Kids fundraised to cover the costs of this trip and it was thanks to many of you for helping this to happen! They were absolute pros and were such good representatives of The Vanaver Caravan spirit of sharing. Julie Rose, Sarah Underhill and Greta Baker...three of the
amazing Caravan Moms group were there to drive, chaperone and stage manage. I think we were all impressed by how the CK rose to the occasion....waking up at 6 AM and performing 2-4 shows per day! We were all so taken by the warmth and receptivity of the Redlands elementary school children who listened attentively and participated so fully in the programs and then ran to hug us affectionately at the end. Marsha Gebara, the program director at the Redlands Bowl arranged all of this as part of their community outreadh, and was a wonderful hostess...meeting us each morning and guding us to the schools. We stayed in a beautiful motel with a pool and sauna where we alternately warmed up and cooled off for the day. The beach in Malibu bookended the trip as we worked hard and played hard with our usual serious fun. Having our newest Company members: Evita Arce, Michael Jagger (recently seen on, “So You Think You Can Dance?”) and Nathan Bugh spiced up the Swing dance sections of the show as we inserted one of their trios into Woody’s Rag,. Again, as I write about all of this...I
am struck once again with how grateful I am to have the opportunity to tour with this extraodinary group of dancers and musicians. Check out this website for a great preview article from Redlands. One of the TV stations did a 4 camera shoot and is creating a special about our show last night in the Redlands Bowl that should be out in the Fall. Let us know if you’re interested in seeing this. We’re all off to some days off and preparing for the Fall.