Update on Gavin Stewart, Vanessa Owen and Megan Medford Jones:
Vanessa texted me that she, Gavin and her parents (who live nearby in Old Fort) are all doing as well as can be expected. Vanessa's mother had taken a spill and broken her hip the day before the worst day of rainfall and was, amazingly, transported out of the quickly-deteriorating area to a hospital where she had surgery almost right away. She is doing well now, Vanessa said, and so is her 82-year-old father, who stayed behind. Gavin and Vanessa are keeping a close eye on his daily crossings of the creek that separates their houses ("He's got a stiff upper lip," Gavin said. "He doesn't want to be coddled, so we're trying to help respectfully, make sure he knows he's not alone, and also be there in case anything happens. He doesn't have road access yet.")
Their barn/studio was spared! "I can't tell you the relief we felt when we walked down after the flooding and saw that it was situated just far enough away from the creek that it's all still there," Gavin said in a text (their cell and internet services are still spotty.) "Everything inside seems untouched." Gavin said that stepping into the studio triggered his instinct to move again, just a little. But for now, their focus is still so much on their day-to-day existence that putting energy towards dancing, teaching, choreographing and producing seems unfeasible. Not quite as impossible as a week ago, maybe, but not within easy reach, either.
"The thing I'm realizing is that creative practice is necessary," Gavin wrote. "But I don't think I realized how much of a luxury it was until now. There are health and human existence things that take priority in order for anybody to be able to have the space to even think about such things. But we are very fortunate... We have a barn! And we're starting to look at teaching some classes in November, not sure how that will take shape but hopefully it will. We're starting to emerge from this with some new ideas and approaches, and ways to improve on what came before."
Some of the studios where Gavin and Vanessa regularly teach ballet and contemporary dance are resuming classes, but G and V aren't going to be back at it until they have more reliable transportation out of their valley. Their usual vehicle is stuck until the road leading out to the main thoroughfare is repaired, and for now they're sharing a 4-wheel drive vehicle with neighbors. "We're hanging in there," Vanessa wrote. "Chugging away at clean-up, rebuilding on our property and in Old Fort." Another sadness, expected but a disappointment nonetheless, is that they've had to cancel a performance event that I was to do with them in November at Story Parlor, an Asheville arts space "dedicated to storytelling and the exploration of the human condition, for the community and by the community." We were to reprise the spoken word/dance creation with a section of my book and the phenomenal dancer, Melvin AC Howell, from its first iteration in Stewart/Owen's 2020 performance What Remains. That'll have to be shelved for a future time.
Story Parlor's mission now, and in the months to come, could not be more fitting for what happens after a massive shake-up like this one. I think there will be, and already is, lots of realizations and questionings about what "normal" is. Is it just what's familiar? What is our condition as humans? I imagine Story Parlor will be an interesting place to see, hear and contemplate what the human condition even is.
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