the westwind academy - Las Vegas NV
Your Hosts: Dina Emerson & Michael Woody
Between October 2009 and July 2012 we hosted seven house concerts that, at the risk of appearing fixated or worse, have given me a purpose in life to serve these people and their kind. Naturally, I think that requires a story to explain but oddly this isn't the best place for it.
Instead, here's the evidence that it all took place with notes. It was an improbable collision of two lives, twice, twenty two years apart, that produced the... sacred situation, no other way to put it for now... that allowed a group of folks and their families that might have remained workmates and neighbors to become playmates and collaborators, well... more than they already were, this particular group of people in this particular place, the international performing artists of Las Vegas who came over to our home and made the following possible. PreShow: prelude to the house concerts
First there was the Cirque du Soleil Cabaret at Zumanity Theater Sept 28, 2009. I shot this roaming around unmolested, a perk of being a Cirque Spouse. These were the last of the salad days and soon enough Cirque would start making cuts. These are some fragments of afternoon rehearsals and include the evenings/mornings performance of "The Music Box" with Magalie and Jason Biltz and "It's Only Time" by Dina Emerson before an after work audience of 1600 artists and technicians from all the Cirque shows in Las Vegas. The first Westwind Academy House Concert took place 18 days after this Cabaret and Dina would sing "It's Only Time" yet again but in the much more intimate and homey environment of our home and on the same bill as one of my oldest dearest friends visiting from Virginia and who had been keeping me safe there for two years until reuniting with Dina nine months before the House Concert, none other than Kirk McLaren playing his own composition on my piano near a display of his mastery of sculpted jewelry under the moniker Amulet by Merlin. Everyone at the Cabaret was invited to watch or play, refine or experiment or all of the above in the safety and comfort of Westwind among friends, families and collaborators. Over 33 months maybe a thousand did. This is what remains of what they saw us do for and with each other. It was wonderful, I had never hosted anything like it much less co-host it with a love of my life and I was so constantly busy in the background in motion for each one that I barely got to stop and glance about to make sure there were more smiles than not. i was always awestruck by something whenever i stopped. I recall precious few conversations but the ones embedded are ones with someone who had never been there before, though I do know The Flying Karamazov Brother made it to one and then invited us to see their show on the Strip. My memory first is of exhilaration articulating what I was seeing over time to a stranger who obviously belonged in my house, making me eager for the view from their fresh eyes and frustrated because I had to start moving again, the night was still young at midnight. I imagine I'm remembered, if at all, as either a blur or babbling a lot. The House ConcertsThe House
2009 10 16 House Concert 1 - Kirk McLaren
2010 03 05 House Concert 2 - Alex Clements
2010 07 15 House Concert 3 - Pool Party with le reve
2010 11 18 House Concert 4 - Tyler Williams
2011 08 18 House Concert 5 - benefit for Anne Charbonneau
2011 11 17 House Concert 6 Ashia Grzesik
2012 07 26 House Concert 7 - Vox Indigo/Cirque Allstar band
From there, it was just a matter of hammering out how long the sets would be, and who would be performing with who; an easy task, because most of the artists have already worked with each other. It's an interesting setup, because every musician in the ensemble will not only be playing for the crowd, but for each other as well.
For the performance, the musicians will be formed into eight groups backed by other Cirque musicians, each with their own set of styles, talents and influences, from funk to afropop to jazz and R&B. “A good example is a vocal group called Vox Indigo,” Butterley said. “They feature three of our singers, and they're already a self-contained group. “In their band, they have a couple of people who already play with them. To fill out their band for this particular concert, they have other musicians from Cirque.” And Santa Barbara-born Dina Emerson, a singer in Mystere by Cirque du Soleil and one of the founding members of Vox Indigo, is looking forward to taking part in the performance. “I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to participate, and the full support of the company is behind us,” she said. “We absolutely love our jobs, but to have the opportunity to perform our own music is very special.” The core group of the international Vox Indigo is four singers and a guitarist, but thanks to the other Cirque musicians, the band will be augmented for the performance and feature bass, drums, percussion and cello, Emerson said. The expanded group will do what Vox Indigo normally does: eccentric homages and deconstructions of some of the band's favorite artists. “We take familiar cover songs, and we completely rearrange them,” she said. “We change the style, too.” Soulful British singer Adele is a big influence on the band, but also expect to hear Vox Indigo turning Dolly Parton's country popper “Jolene” into Latin jazz, and forge Pink Floyd's anthemic “Comfortably Numb” into a lyrical ballad. And that's only one act; everything from a 14-piece band to traditional African music is part of the set, and all of it featuring some of Cirque's most talented artists: Canadian rock saxophonist Eric Plante, cellist Dena Massaro, who has performed with YES and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Los Angeles-based classical and jazz pianist Otto Ehling, and jazz percussionist John Abraham, who will be providing the drums for all of the acts of the Collective. The audience will get nothing if not an eclectic show. “I'm so happy that kind of opportunity exists for people, because they'll be exposed to a really amazing range of talent and style,” Emerson said of the performance. And it's an opportunity that Cirque is happy to be bringing to Santa Monica. “We have a deep standing affinity for Santa Monica,” Butterley said. “Cirque has a long-standing connection with the pier; it was sort of the birthplace of Cirque in America in many ways.” " 2012 11 22 House Concert - MJW (postponed)
Therein lies a tale.
It was a strange ride from the relatively intimate July house concert in Las Vegas for 150+ through the August public event concert in Santa Monica for a 1500+ into September wondering what next and when for the Westwind Academy before the property was tragically lost at the end of 2012. Unbeknownst to me then was it was all over, "decided", before we returned to Las Vegas. No one bothered to tell me for another 18 months. In the mean time, ignoring or making allowances for my gaslighting, I was feeling I had been in town long and deep enough to have some standing of my own in the local and sustainable community, not just the Cirque Spouse who baked for the Mystere dressing room and never stopped moving at house concerts. Though Cirque is the obvious link my immediate attachment to the layers of live performers/technicians that I considered community, certainly the ones using my bathroom, was based on my career in theater and love for my craft. Amaluna is not The Tempest but if it's on a stage it involves some facet of my life in the craft. Even though most of the performers came from atypical performance traditions [sports] the commonalities meant I already had the vocabulary to talk shop and roughly shared experience with people who came from dozens of countries speaking a variety of musical languages, mostly Quebecois. I never didn't appreciate that, having toured some Europe in the 80's. It led to talk of their life starting/maintaining families in Las Vegas, culture shock they all experienced, the difficulty of having the unheard of - job security in the performing arts - wondering what comes after a specialty act is recast or retired just before the Cirque bubble burst and they stopped folding old talent into other Cirque positions to honor the sacrifice of their bodies to the show. All that to say I enjoyed a fairly easy rapport with people whose work I could appreciate, whose skill I am still awed by, who sat in my house and appreciated my work despite no pro performing skills and after featuring quite a few of them by then I decided it was time for me to take a set for myself to feature my predominantly MIDI theatrical and live music with these folks providing the pool of talent I could consider seriously asking to help me hear music of mine I have never heard a human being play. I suppose I viewed it as my own coming out party and the live music was just the beginning of the tribute to Dina, my new friends and the forming community I had in mind. My music is eclectic as circumstantial need and flashes of desire were the primary motivators for its existence. Looking at my catalog I had little already arranged for the instruments in my talent pool so I considered the contenders interesting enough to attempt and began arranging new scores for old work with specific Las Vegas artists in mind. As this is merely an account of an unrealized event I won't hesitate to reveal how far I went imagine who might play what. |