“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.
Orr 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.
“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," she said. "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 project 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 Dedeaux is 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,” he 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.”
Orr says the intention of The Way of Water: Colorado River is to deepen our connection to the river and 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,” she 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 Oct. 18 and leading to shows at Hornsby Bend on Nov. 6, 7 and 8. Between those events, there will 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.
“In this case, it's really more about getting as many points as you can along the way [by] completing missions," she says. There are around 21 missions people can do at their own pace and time. "It's more experiential … I would almost say it's less about the things you collect and more about the lessons you learn.”
Orr says one goal is for Austinites to understand that they drink the Colorado; it's the single source of drinking water for the city. She says that means, everything that goes down the drain or is flushed down the toilet eventually ends up back in the river. All of the toxins, cooking oil, wipes (which are actually never flushable), etc., make it a lot harder for utility employees to treat the water and return it for the humans and animals who depend on it, she says.
"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," she says. "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 Oct. 18 - Nov. 8 up and down the river.
