Walk Across California
Promo Video – http://youtu.be/yapEqtgzoek
Friends – please help us make this trip a reality – see below for contribution options (by check or PayPal) and special contribution rewards.
Walk Across California, conceived as an extended two-week dance, is a class/art-making project for Santa Clara University students and faculty designed to engage with the incredible diversity of California. My name is David Popalisky and I am a dance professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Santa Clara University where I am known as the one with all the crazy ideas. One night in November 2010 a wild idea struck me and has consumed me ever since. Wouldn’t is be cool to create a class where students and faculty would walk across CA from San Francisco to Yosemite to witness the incredible range of this state’s natural environments and diverse human populations, the ultimate slow dance? So now Walk Across California is getting ready to do just that with the walk scheduled from June 15th to June 30th.
Through the sustainable act of walking, this project intends to cultivate each student’s “sense of wonder” by simply slowing down the pace. We are focusing on sustainability, environmental justice and social activism combined with artistic reflection, as we walk among, and meet people from all walks of life in California. A special theme of the class has been to cultivate a comprehensive awareness of how food functions in our lives, from understanding the inequities of those who labor to grow our food to appreciating how sharing food with family and friends creates foundational relationships in our lives. I have been scouting the walk route since last summer, setting up meetings and meals with various communities along the way. The itinerary includes talks with farmers, teachers, park rangers, artists, shop owners and Native Americans. Among highlights are a lunch with food activists from People’s Grocery in Oakland; dinner in Tracy with organic farmers; a visit to a farm workers’ labor camp, a meeting with a water conservation educator in Groveland and an overnight stay and community meal with the Me-Wuk tribe in Twain Harte.
Although these activities are already set, the improvisation of the walk will be “discover as we go.” The students are helping to plan before the trip and will spontaneously guide decisions during the walk, all designed to build community from the ground up. This spontaneity connects directly with a crucial aspect of Walk Across California – artistic reflection. After each day of observing the landscape and hearing people tell their stories, students will reflect creatively through various art forms, such as poetry, drawing, song or dance, to discover meaning from each day’s adventure. We’ve already begun this aesthetic reflection by performing our daily Blessing Dance, taught to me by my Native American dance teacher Juan Valenzuela, to acknowledge the sacred space of transformation and the people within that space. Students have explored these art forms as part of class this spring including creating short collaborative projects.
Creating Walk Across California has been all about connecting with extraordinary people, from my colleagues at SCU like Sean Watts, Renee Billingslea and John Farnsworth who helped spark this idea, to formerly total strangers like Jumoke Hinton-Hodge from People’s Grocery in Oakland, Fr. Dean McFalls, working on behalf of farm workers in Stockton and Carlos Geisdorff a member of the Me-Wuk tribe. But the walk really became a reality when Kim Scarlata of Tracy answered the phone last summer. After hearing a little bit about Walk Across California she said, “sure you can camp on our small farm and I’ll make you a big farm meal.” I hung up the phone and thought, “Wow a total stranger just opened up to this crazy idea and welcomed us in.”
So I invite you to become part of Walk Across California and help these students have an experience of a lifetime as they make truly transformative human connections. I am asking for your help to offset the many walk expenses (for ex. food, lodging/camp fees, gas for our support vehicle, modest honorariums for some speakers) so each student pays no more than the $600 initially promised as required for participation in Walk Across California. A number of the students are asking for scarce family resources to cover their fees, in fact, one student took the initiative to sell chocolate among her friends to raise funds for her first payment.
Thanks for taking the time to learn more about Walk Across California and for considering helping me make this a reality for everyone involved. Oh yeah – what about those rewards. I know I’m a sucker for refrigerator magnets so for only a $10 contribution you’ll get our Walk Across California magnet with Chad Eschman’s cool logo design. For a $25 contribution one of the students will write you a thank you note sharing their walk experience, for $50 we’ll add a montage photo of the group on the walk, for $75 we’ll add the Walk Across California commemorative DVD, and if you can contribute $100 we’ll happily send you a Walk Across California T-shirt. Finally if you want to “sponsor a walker” at $150 I will send you a printed Walk Across California book of photos and reflections. Thanks again and I hope you can be a part of Walk Across California.
Special thanks to all the following people for their invaluable contributions to Walk Across California:
John Farnsworth, Sean Watts, Renee Billingslea, Barbara Murray, Amy Shachter, Phyllis Brown, Laurie Laird, SCU Ignation Center, Keith Warner O.F.M., Office of Undergraduate Studies, Santa Clara Fund, Leslie Gray, Andrea Brewster, Fr. Michael McCarthy, Fr. Michael Zampelli and the SCU Jesuit Community, Jonathan Clough, Fr. Dean McFalls, Niam Rafferty, Kim Scarlata, Rebekah Bloyd, Edward Rooks, Diana Bustos, Fr. Jim Reites, Jumoke Hinton-Hodge, Max Cadji, Dave Zuckermann, Patty Larrick, Carlos Geisdorff, Linda Stefanick, Les Stanton, Patrick Archie, Melissa Hudson Bell, Jim Buchanan, Claudia McIsaac, Nancy Wait-Kromm, Michael Ballen, Daniel Maloney, Ruth Ellison, Gloria Hofer, James Linehan, Chad Eschman, Marie Galetto, Mary Zieber
Thank You Rewards for your contribution
Please make checks out to Walk Across CA, mail to:
David Popalisky
58 North Willard Ave
San Jose, CA 95126
If you prefer to make a gift through Paypal
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Contribute $10 or more
Like You Gift! Brightly colored Walk Across California magnet with cool logo by Chad Eschman.
Contribute $25 or more
Way To Go Gift! Personal thank you note from a Walk Across California seasoned walker and the above.
Contribute $50 or more
Love You Lots Gift! Montage photo of Walk Across California highlight moments and all of the above.
Contribute $75 or more
Super Swell Gift! Get the limited edition Walk Across CA commemorative DVD and all of the above.
Contribute $100 or more
Off The Charts Gift! Walk Across California T-shirt with cool Chad Eschman logo and all of the above.
Contribute $150 or more
SPONSOR A WALKER – You Dance, I Dance, We All Dance Gift! Printed Walk Across California photo book.
David Popalisky teaches dance, choreography and dance history at Santa Clara University. Former artistic director of DaaPo (NYC), David has choreographed, performed and taught throughout the US, in Italy, Japan and Korea. He has been making dances for over thirty years.
David has the follow through gene and finishes what he starts. Just like Walk Across California, several of his major works have reached out into unlikely communities to create new audiences for dance and art. Created in collaboration with Cookie Ridolfi over two years, he premiered “Barred from Life” in 2004 and performed this solo show exploring wrongful conviction up until 2008 throughout California with a tour to Milwaukee and Chicago. He created this performance by interviewing over a dozen men who were convicted for crimes they did not commit. Exonerees were present at each performance to share personally their stories after the show. (http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/bfl/) In 2006 he premiered “The Fatherhood Project”, celebrating fathers everywhere and amazed audiences with the seven dads dancing for the first time on stage. (http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/fatherhood/) He also presented “Migrations” (2010) a one-hour outdoor performance that traveled all over the SCU campus to explore the interface between human and natural migration. This show then visited area schools for lecture demonstration shows for grade school children. (http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/migrations/) Of course, he has created and danced in many other dances including presenting “Return from HJ Junction” (2012) in the recent Pasadena Dance Festival, choreographing and performing with Abigail Hosein “When in Doubt Keep the Leg” for Monterey’s Dance Festival (2010) and Ahdanco’s Berkeley season, dancing in Tandy Beal’s “HereAfterHere” in 2010 and 2011 in Aptos, CA and choreographing “Sculpted Chaos” for Wing and a Prayer Dance company in Reno in 2009.
In another lifetime he performed with Throne Dance Theatre from NYC in Korea and Japan and with the Dave Brubeck quartet, as well as throughout California in “Outside Blake’s Window” with Tandy Beal. Next up Walk Across California.