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.