Simple Joys

Hi everyone,

Or should I say HOLA??!! Today we had quite a successful session. We had a new strategy, which basically entails talking to them/having some kind of discussion for fifteen minutes each morning and then going right into the work. We eliminated the theater game today to great success. While the goal of a theater game would be to bring energy and focus to the space, what tends to happen with this group is that they just get silly and unfocused and we can never really recover that energy. We find that theater games are a better "filler" activity - we can do them in between work periods. (Sorry Joel! Theater games are good, just tough with this group, when their thinking is not in that mindset at all yet!)

Today we focused on sexual and domestic violence - that is the second section of the show. Last night I did some choreography and Anna did some writing and we came up with what we would like to be a group piece - combining the choreography and the writing. And today we did just that. We split the group in two - the girls that had demonstrated the most promise with the dancing, and the girls that had maybe seemed more apt to doing well with text. I had 5 girls in my group; Anna had six. It worked out quite nicely, actually. Anna took her group outside and had a good time working on her poem, and I worked with my group in our classroom and all was well. Actually, not entirely perfect - there was a little episode with Rosa Lourdes and Valentina - I didn't even realize that there was a problem, and I don't think Valentina did either - Rosa sort of just was offended by Valentina's presence, I think. I tried to keep the peace, but because Rosa refused to participate while Valentina was present, I sent her out and she came back a little bit later with a little bit less attitude. It wasn't too big a deal - it was honestly just surprising for me because there really was no problem.

In any case, my group did excellent with the dance - in particular, Valentina was passionate about the choreography and I am thinking about working with her to create a solo piece - with her own choreography, perhaps to be performed either alone or with text in the background. She fascinates Anna and I just because she comes from such a difficult background, and yet works harder than anyone I have ever met. For instance, we went to the pool in the afternoon with the girls yesterday and they all were having fun, playing games and just chatting with us and with each other. Valentina, however, who doesn't know how to swim, spent the entire hour and twenty minutes practicing her kicking and strokes. Anna and I would come over, give her suggestions, and then she would work doggedly at it and show us ten or so minutes later. She is an impressive young woman.

So we put the dance and text together, and it looks legitimately cool. I am super psyched about it. So is Anna. We feel that this is the first piece of the show that is perform-able - and truly touching. Everything else is coming along - and quite well, I might add. Tomorrow Jessica has arranged for us to spent the entire afternoon at a different space, so that will be awesome in terms of even more focus and excitement from the girls.

This post is getting long, and for that I apologize. I just wanted to write about the art project we did with the girls as well. We organized a simple collage project using random magazines. They were told to pick some magazines, go through them, and cut out pictures and words that reminded them of what it means to be a mariposa. They did a great job - totally engaged and happy. It was intriguing for Anna and I to watch them as they looked through the magazines - first of all, it was as though they had never seen a magazine. They were absolutely enthralled. They were running back and forth, exclaiming over pictures of beautiful white women or spotless, gorgeous kitchens, or food or people laughing with perfect white teeth. Yulian's collage consisted of pictures of a mansion-like house. She spent the entire hour with her head buried in a home improvement magazine, exclaiming over the beauty of the houses. Rosa's collage had a picture of two young laughing women and below it a picture of food. Under the pictures she wrote that in the future she hopes that she will have that kind of food and those kinds of friends - and that she hopes she will be happy enough to not have to have food like that to make her smile. Or something along those lines. In any case, it was a very emotional experience for Anna and I. The fascination and idealization of American culture is huge here, but even more so is just how much we take things for granted. The simple joy of these girls looking at those magazines and imagining what the lives of these beautiful models must be like was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. It's all so bittersweet.

That's all for now. :)

Maybe these girls will inspire each of you to pick up a magazine and look at it through their eyes. It is magical and humbling. These girls continue to amaze and inspire us.

Wishing each and every one of you a moment of simple joy,

Kelly and Anna