“At Forklift Danceworks, we make dances with people whose movement is essential to all of our lives and whose stories and expertise are very valuable to hear,” says Forklift founder and artistic director Allison Orr, who is currently working on The Way of Water: Colorado River, a multipart exploration of the river that’s central to the lives of all Austinites. “And we've been gathering river experts, so we are working with Austin Water utility employees. Your Austin Water utility employees will be performing and sharing their expertise. We're working with youth from Austin Youth River Watch, scientists from the University of Texas, birders from Travis Audubon Society, and fly-fishing enthusiasts.”
The fishing enthusiast who’s working closest with Orr on the Way of Water is Alvin Dedeaux, who’s been fly-fishing most of his life. A few decades ago, he took a bit of a detour and became one of the singers for the popular local funk band Bad Mutha Goose and the Brothers Grimm, but even back then he got to the river as often as possible. Now he’s the owner of All Water Guides and one of the river experts enlisted to work with Forklift on The Way of Water.
“Somehow or another, I got roped into it,” Dedeaux says with a laugh. “I know I'm advising, I am showing people the river and talking about the river and, supposedly, I'm gonna be doing some kind of dance movements or helping somebody else choreograph some dance movements. I’m pretty open. I'm pretty flexible and I'm super open-minded and it would be one of the least weird things I've done in front of people.”
Aside from his willingness to perform, Dedeaux brings a lot of knowledge about the Colorado. “I don't know of anybody who I would say knows the river better than I do,” he says. “The amount of time I've spent on the river in the last 20 plus years.. I can say that without being cocky. Yeah, I'm an expert on the river.”
“The intention of The Way of Water: Colorado River is to deepen all of our connection to the river, to understand how we can be better stewards of it. It is our single source of drinking water for the city of Austin, and it is challenged,” Orr says. “The river, like most of the rivers across the world, is struggling. And it is central to the quality of life of not just us but the full ecosystem of animals and plants and… the fish. And so we're… gathering experts and people who care deeply for the river to help share their work, their skill, the beauty of their work.”
The Way of Water will be a multipart project, starting with a kickoff event at Laguna Gloria on October 18 and leading to shows at Hornsby Bend on November 6, 7, and 8. Between those events, there will also be a river-themed scavenger hunt designed by Kate Murray of Unfine Arts.
“My goal is to help take people on a journey along the river in between [the opening and closing events],” Murray says. “Really, the goal is to get people to engage more deeply with the inspiration behind the show and with the stewards that care for the river and the many different people that can speak for the river.”
Murray also stresses that while they’re using the term ‘scavenger hunt,’ the event really isn’t about gathering physical objects. “So in the traditional sense, a scavenger hunt is that you have to collect a certain number of things or, you know, have some kind of trove at the end,” she says. “In this case, it's really more about getting as many points as you can along the way [by] completing missions. So I think we have about 21 missions sketched out that people can do at their own pace and on their own time. And some of which are temporal and can only be done at certain times and spaces and some of which can be done in your own home, in your own backyard. So it's a more experiential… I would almost say it's less about the things you collect and more about the lessons you learn.”
“One key goal for us is to understand that we drink the Colorado,” Orr says. “That it is our single source of drinking water for the city of Austin. The city of Austin pulls it in at the Davis Water treatment plant out of Lake Austin and puts it back in the river as treated effluent down by Webberville. Everything we put on the ground, everything we throw down the drain, everything we flush down the toilet – it eventually in some way ends up back in the river. So all of the toxins, cooking oil, wipes (which are actually never flushable), all of those things make it a lot harder for our utility employees to treat the water and keep it clean and return it as clean as possible back to the river and for all the creatures, the human and the animal life that depend upon the vibrancy of the river to survive and to thrive. Central Texas has tens of thousands of years of history with this river. The way we relate to it now is actually pretty short in the river's timeline, but it is a treasure that we must protect. All of our lives depend upon it, and we want more people to care about how their actions impact the river.”
'The Way of Water: Colorado River' runs October 18 - November 8 up and down the river.
