INTERVIEW WITH CHOREOGRAPHER JAI ALMENDAREZ

 

Jai Almendarez takes dance classes at ACC for his own growth, development, and healing through collaboration with artists in the Austin community. ACC has always held a special place in his heart because of the sense of community amassed here as people from all walks of life come together with the same aspirations of personal discovery and growth. Jai says, “It’s something beautiful, really!”. Jai has lived in Houston, Austin, and also attended the Gallaudet University in Washington DC where he received his BS in Biology. His goals have included being a good human being that can help as many people as possible in his life and also to earn tons of money.  Jai smiles when he says, “I am halfway complete”. Presently he is a Clinical Lab Operator in a DNA Extractions Lab in Austin Texas. He is such a high achiever that he still holds the record for his springboard diving team from college and was also invited to the Junior Olympics and won competitions in Australia during high school. Wow! 

Contact improvisation has been a huge influence in the development of his dancing.  He is grateful to Nancy Stark and Steve Paxton, pioneers of Contact Improvisation, as they have been huge influences in the development of his dancing and also his outlook on life. Jai expresses, “I cannot tell you how many times I’ve related interpersonal interactions and exchanges to contact improvisation and its techniques.”

Participating in the ACC Choreography/Composition class allowed Jai to be vulnerable and open to all possibilities which he feels has brought about the most amazing moments together with other dancers.  For example, Jai explains,  “Everyone improvised together as a group and someone started reading a poem about a dog playing in the snow. The poem was then transferred to another dancer, and that dancer recited it and soon every dancer in the studio began reciting the poem with their own interpretations and inflections.  At that moment something unique and beautiful happened.  Everyone had their own attachment to the underlying story and every recitation brought about a new intent, focus, world, and consciousness in each of the dancers. We all had to take a moment when we came to an ending and breathe into what had transpired. It shook us all to our core and when we looked into each other's eyes at the end, we all knew that everyone else around us just experienced the same transcendental experience.” Jai feels that this experience is how this piece, titled, Why We Still Believe in Magic, came to be.  He feels like the process was very smooth. The dancers created a multitude of “little pieces”  filled their “toolbox” of movement for an excess of movement to work with when they were constructing the show as a whole. Some pieces they all just stopped in the middle of moving and said, ‘ok that HAS TO BE in the show”, and other pieces were there until they simply faded away. The idea of this evening-length piece came into view in about a month. No choreographer or dancer held on to an expectation of what the piece should be and he feels that’s what allowed ALL of their voices to come out and be part of this beautiful story.

Jai’s section of the piece was inspired by a friend that had passed away. He felt like he wanted to stay home so that he could cry and be vulnerable in peace without worrying about how he looked in front of others. But he still attended class and the other choreographers were kind, loving, and supportive. His choreography partner that day had brought a poem to the class titled, “Bouquet”.  It speaks of a gardener's daughter, Paulina, and how she loves flowers and placing them into vases. It speaks of the life to the death of her flowers in such personal regard and how each flower, one by one wilt away and returns to the earth.  When her vase is empty she still sees flowers in them. Jai says, “It’s funny to think that when we are experiencing something in our lives it seems to be the reoccurring theme that one sees everywhere.  Well this was another.”.  His heart sunk and he began to cry, but working through this process allowed every choreographer to see so much more in the poem with so much more depth. He explains, “AS the flowers are our human experiences and also the people who come and go in our lives. When people leave our lives they are still there and that they always stay with us in some sense or another”.   The process of his duet had to change into a solo and he feels deeply as though his friend who passed is still there with him on stage. While watching this evening-length piece Jai says, “ Everything I could say about a parting note of my work would honestly be convoluted by cliches and cheap words. If you feel something from this work I only ask one thing, Where is this feeling coming from? Find it friends, and let's heal together.”