- [Heather] Next on "Curate."

- [Elbert] Dance was always a part of my life.

It's the best freedom to be on stage performing.

It's like taking flight.

- The narratives and the conversations and the ways that we engage, they offer opportunities to make meaning for people.

- [Lea] What I'm trying to get everybody to do is kind of get a little bit closer and just appreciate.

- This is "Curate."

I'm Jason Kypros.

- And I'm Heather Mazzoni.

Thanks for joining us.

We come to you this week from the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts.

This one-time senior high school is now the center of the Suffolk arts scene with galleries, studios, a bit of history, and a 500-seat theater that they're putting to very good use.

We'll have more on the center later in the show.

- But, we start with an artist who, if you were looking for one word, it would be grace.

And while that might not seem unusual for a dancer, Elbert Watson personifies grace, not only in the way he moves, but especially in the way he lives his life.

He grew up in Norfolk and went on to travel the world as a performer.

His generous spirit brought him back home where he's been sharing his gifts for nearly 40 years as an educator.

- [Heather] Graceful, generous, wonderful.

Elbert Watson is our 757 featured artist.

(dramatic piano music) - [Elbert] It's the best freedom to be on stage performing.

It's like taking flight.

(piano music continues) (energetic music) Here at Norfolk Academy, I am the Dance Master, this is my title.

One of my goals when I first came here was to make dance an integral part of life.

And so, I've made dance a corporate part of the whole lifestyle of the school.

I teach grades one through twelve creative dance, classical ballet, modern dance, hip hop, ballroom, musical theater.

I'm also the wellness coach for some adults here.

I do private lessons.

I'm the pliability coach for every team on campus.

I think for the children's point of view to see a dance teacher and the football coach together in the same room, communicating for the same thing says a lot about education.

You see a leap on stage.

It takes hours of practice.

How can I make that leap apply to your track team?

(dramatic music) As a little kid, I always loved dancing.

I loved moving, and I remember my parents whenever guests would come over, they say, "Junior, come out, come out.

Show them the latest dance whatever."

So, dance was always a part of my life, but more as a hobby kind of thing.

I didn't know that you could dance professionally.

So, we're doing... My late teens, early 20s, I had an epiphany.

I'd heard these elderly people say, "If I could do it all over again, I wish I could have done this."

And I said, "I don't ever want to say I wish I hadda done."

What do you really want to do?

You should really go to New York.

And the first time I did it, they said to me, "You're really, really good, but you need some ballet class.

You have no technique."

So okay, I went home and studied for two years.

Take as many ballet classes as I can and get ready, which paid off.

My second audition, I made it.

(energetic music) One thing my parents gave me was a good work ethic.

They weren't like college professors.

They were regular people who say you gotta do your very best.

They go, "Do your best.

Be the best garbage man.

Be the very best at it."

The rehearsal finish at 12:00.

I was gonna go back two more and really work on it.

And I found that it had benefits and the benefits were that you became more acute with your technique but also sharper, more confident from that kind of consistency.

I've nearly knew that I wanted it.

I could depend on me and became a principal dancer within a year, which is unheard of.

And they worked me incredibly.

I mean I was rehearsing all night and all days to put my standard up to the level.

Now it wasn't fun, but it was good, 'cause I realized as a principal dancer you're representing the company.

You aren't just the person in the back.

You're the person who is like the brand name.

What was always exciting was every season I got a new part, but then you sort get typecast and then suddenly it wasn't exciting anymore.

Give that to Elbert, he can do that.

And I thought, "What?"

That means I didn't have to work for it.

I felt like time was going by and I was like locked.

So I went to a place called New York Conservatory.

This Russian teacher, he saw me totally different, which was great.

Then I left there, went to Germany and he saw me totally different, which is great, since I was being all these parts I wouldn't normally do.

(soulful music) The company in Germany was very unique in that you had a ballet company that was separate from the theater and opera.

That particular theater decided that they wanted to get rid of the ballet company and only have the opera only.

I decided to come home.

I was here for about a year and a half, waiting.

And in that time I was teaching at Richmond Dance Center and then wanted in Norfolk Academy summer camp.

And when the letter finally came for me to go back to Germany, I realized I was a different person.

I really like teaching children.

Dancing can be a very sort of self-absorbed kind of career 'cause you're really working on your body and yourself personally.

And suddenly I was giving back to children.

That was an exciting thing for me.

So then I told myself, "If you go back to Germany, you gonna be a dancer only.

But what about the teaching part, what about the choreography part, what about the directing part?"

I decided not to go back.

So that's how I wound up in Norfolk.

(energetic music) When I have a person in class and they have no idea about what to do, me trying to find that way to communicate does a lot for me.

And everybody's different and we come from different backgrounds.

I mean some people are more visual learners, some of 'em are much more images, whatever.

Once they get it, I've empowered them.

You become a role model and with that comes responsibility.

Do you do what you say you do?

Are you personally integrity?

Are you gonna do that and they sort of expect something from you.

They expect if I do something, they expect certain quality.

Just teaching the good students is not it.

It's the ones who are like, introverted who we just take this raw material and all they need is somebody to say, "You can do it."

I think I was just sort of awkward.

I always loved reading.

I'm the kind of guy would sit up in the tree and watch birds or will be catching bugs all day.

I tell myself every day I wanna see something beautiful, or learn something new.

It keeps life fresh and exciting.

There used to be an old guy at my church and he said, "When you're green, you grow.

When you ripe, you die and fall off the tree."

Dancing to me has been my identity.

It's my purpose.

I always tell people, once you find your purpose, life is great.

You know I'm doing what I love doing and getting paid for it and my life is an adventure.

When it's time to move on, I'll do something, serving somebody, somewhere.

I always know when the season's over.

Then what to do now?

(energetic music) - [Heather] Want more Curate?

Find us on the web, see this show again or any from our seven seasons.

- [Jason] Go to WHRO.org/curate for our entire catalog of content.

So again, we are here at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Art and joining us now to tell us more about the art scene in Virginia's largest city, by area at least, is the director of the Arts Center, Lorelei Costa Morrow.

Lorelei, thank you so much for having us here today.

- Thank you.

Thanks for being here.

- This is such a beautiful building and I know it has a lot of history.

Can you tell us a little bit more about it?

- Sure.

Well, actually the building is a hundred years old.

Construction started in 1922 and it was actually Suffolk High School for many years.

It functioned as a high school until 1990 and then it closed and it was actually vacant for some years.

The community, they rallied.

They raised over $20 million in a public/private partnership.

And in 2006 we reopened our doors as the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts.

We've got a stage, we've got a theater, we've got dance studios, art studios, pottery.

- Oh wow.

- We've got galleries, we have it all.

We just hosted the Kyiv City Ballet from Ukraine.

And that was really exciting for us and very powerful for us because this dance troop, one of the world's great ballet companies, was touring in Paris when the invasion began and they couldn't go home and they extended their tour through Europe month after month, finally added the United States to the tour and then they came here to Suffolk.

We were their only stop in Virginia.

They did master classes for young people.

We had the schools come in for field trips and they did two performances here on our stage.

That was really, really exciting.

- Wow.

- Also, in September we hosted the Suffolk Plein Air Festival.

It was our second year going.

And you mentioned that Suffolk is the biggest city in Virginia land-wise, and that's what makes it a such a cool place for plein air painting, because plein air painting is painting outside.

And we had 45 artists from around the country coming to Suffolk 'cause we've got such diverse places to paint.

We've got waterways, we've got a beautiful historic downtown, we've got agricultural areas, the great dismal swamp.

So they went around Suffolk painting different landscapes, came back, put their works on display.

They had a quick draw competition during the Taste of Suffolk.

Anyway, it's an exciting place to be for all kinds of art, whether it's dance or visual arts.

Great place for kids to take classes.

- What sort of things are you looking forward to in the future for your space?

- We've got a great season planned with 12 different performances, a little bit of everything for everyone.

We've got everything from magic to musicals.

We've got a Motown review.

We've got a Diva's review.

We've got a a Patsy Kline tribute coming.

- All right.

All right.

- All different kinds of stuff, choral music, chamber music, a little bit something for everybody.

We are going through renovations over the next couple years, but we are gonna be open for business through the whole thing and continuing to serve even while we're getting a little bit of a facelift.

- So Lorelei, if people want to come and check out the space and the things that you have, what's the best way for them to find all that information?

- Sure.

Well, we've got a great website.

It's suffolkcenter.org.

We're open to the public Tuesday through Saturday.

We've got an amazing gift shop that's open from 10:00-4:00.

We've got galleries that are open to the public, completely free, also open 10:00-4:00.

So we invite anybody to come out and visit.

We're happy to give tours of the building, show people our historic classroom, show people our theater, show people our little Mr. Peanut exhibit.

- All right.

Wouldn't be Suffolk without.

Okay.

- We've got displays of some of the old high schools, other high schools in Suffolk.

We've got a small collection from the Nansemond Indian Nation.

We're very honored to host that here in the center.

So yeah, we'd invite folks to come out and visit us.

- Thanks so much for having us today.

- Thank you.

- The Inheritance Project is a national organization that explores a region's identity through storytelling.

They came to Hampton Roads last year bringing citizens together to talk about and explore what makes Hampton Roads unique.

Their community salons provided creativity and content that they crafted into a stage production, "Exodus Homecoming," which was performed for the public this past spring as part of the Virginia Arts Festival.

(rock music) - Welcome to the Jubilee Festival of the future of us.

The promised land planted the seeds.

The water, watered the soil and we the descendants rise up to claim our inheritance ♪ We survived ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ ♪ We survived ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ ♪ We survived ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ (audience cheers) (guitar music) - Good afternoon.

Happy Thursday.

Happy Friday eve, I've heard it's called.

My name is Ari and I'm here with The Inheritance Project.

We are a national arts organization who go to different cities around the country to make plays based on the history of the place, the people who live there, and the inherited wisdom of the book of Exodus.

Not just the Biblical story, but the themes, ideas, and how we can see it as a lens through which we see this community.

It's really important that if you come to our salon, your voice is in the room.

It sounds so small, but just claiming your space, that's a beautiful way of showing up.

- We would love you to share one word or phrase that comes to mind when you hear Hampton Roads, Tidewater, 757, Seven Cities.

Can I have a volunteer who'd like to be brave and go first?

Great.

Wonderful.

- When I think of Hampton Roads, I think of diversity, inclusion and equity.

- When I think of Hampton Roads, it's actually the opposite of you.

I think divide, I think schism.

- Divide and schism.

Isis, thank you so much.

- Every room creates a different list, then every list elicits a different conversation.

So no two spaces are the same.

If you were trying to describe this area to someone who doesn't know it, does this have everything that they would need to know?

Yeah.

Dion.

- Crime.

- Crime.

- History.

- History.

- Racism.

- Racism.

How long did that take to come up?

20 minutes?

- Military.

- Military - Flooding - Flooding - Crabs and mermaids.

- Crabs and mermaids.

- Emancipation Oak.

- Emancipation Oak.

That's really cool too, 'cause we've been thinking about the way history plays out in this area.

- Our job as artists is to take those issues and to elevate them into something that is not only authentic and recognizable, but also beautiful, aspirational and sacred.

- The thing that I think was really interesting about Norfolk is that it was our first project back on the ground after COVID.

(quiet piano music) - Loneliness is real.

Isolation is real.

People have experienced both of those things for millennia.

The COVID isolation was unique.

- Art is for me, the reason I get up in the morning.

And so when COVID happened, it wasn't that I couldn't make art, I just had to reconsider how I made art.

- When being with other people isn't a possibility.

We had to restructure and shift what we did.

- One of our trips, we were supposed to be here at the height of omicron.

All of those engagements had to be moved to virtual.

We are currently at the phase of the project where we are transitioning from friend-raising into a phase of play-making.

- It did allow for a lot of people who weren't able to attend our in-person events to be able to tune in on Zoom.

So it offered opportunities for other folks to come in and be a part of the process.

- The (indistinct) community, would you think it's more in Virginia Beach or more in Norfolk, or which of the Seven cities do you think it... - I feel like all of the Seven Cities are gonna disagree on that.

(all laugh) - Conveniently for us, the community was already comfortable with Zoom.

- The theme that we wanna talk about today is the theme of family.

As an organization, this project has been really valuable in testing our ability to navigate and move and work in situations and I feel really proud of us for that.

- Each of the family members in this family dynamic is a character from their region that they know.

And I think, Jon, that there's something about this promised-land, idealized future... - Nice, bring the Exodus into it, very nice.

The organic nature of our process means that we're writing the play from the very first conversation.

What really happens is the process gets pushed into overdrive when we start to figure out what's the story we're telling and who do we want in the room to help us tell it.

(big band music) - Musicians of the greatest caliber performed here.

I can't even possibly imagine going out and hear somebody like Duke Ellington or a Cab Callaway or Nat King Cole or Louis Armstrong in my neighborhood.

♪ A little yellow basket ♪ - The Attucks Theater is where we're gonna do the play.

And we're very taken with the idea of, you would come for an evening of entertainment.

You'd watch an entire movie and then you would see some different vaudeville acts and then Cab Calloway would come over and do what they called the "Midnight Ramble."

- Some people believe in coincidence.

I believe in basheritance.

There's a Yiddish term bashert.

It means, what's meant to be.

The Book of Exodus has three parts.

The Attucks had a three part evening.

It was a basheritance.

- So we will start at the top of the page where it says, "Prologue.

Welcome to the Promised Land."

Great.

- Welcome to the Promised Land.

I've always thought of this house as a sacred space, a temple, a place of worship.

- Your family has started arriving.

- There's a storm coming and I'll need to work tomorrow.

So I can't be stuck all the way over here on the other side of the bridge.

- No matter what you say, the tide is coming.

- Not here, it's not.

- I don't think you can keep it out.

- You know what the tide brings in, don't you?

Trash.

It brings trash.

- I don't get no if I'm gonna outlive the Promised land or not.

This house has its tribulations.

- Every play is a child.

It takes a village to raise it and takes a village to share it with the world.

- I'm really excited by how the work has come together and how everybody's working at such a high level of passion for the project.

It seems like everything is a dream come true in a lot of ways.

- Welcome to the Promised Land.

That's the name of this house.

I've always thought of it as a sacred space.

♪ And water said ♪ ♪ (indistinct) ♪ - Mom, your favorite son is here.

- There's my baby boy.

- It's insane out there right now.

You got folks with the housing vouchers, competing with the military vouchers, just competing with the regular folks.

♪ It came to pass, in a thick cloud ♪ - We feel like the luckiest artists in the world to have been in this special community.

- We're here tonight because I'm leaving the Promised Land.

- What?

Wow.

♪ All those who go there ♪ ♪ Shall prepare themselves ♪ ♪ Sanctify, sanctify ♪ - I think it's really exciting for "Inheritance" that we were able to create this project within the safety measures to keep everybody healthy while still being able to bring everybody together.

- Welcome to the Jubilee Festival of the future of us.

The Promised Land planted the seed.

The water watered the soil and we the descendants rise up to claim our inheritance.

♪ We survive, oh yeah ♪ - The Exodus, Hampton Roads Project was the perfect welcome back post-COVID project for us to have.

This region reminded me why what we do is so important.

That the narratives and the conversations and the ways that we engage, they offer opportunities to make meaning for people who are also searching for that.

♪ Oh yeah, oh yeah ♪ (audience cheers) - Ohio artist, Lea Gray, is inspired by nature.

She sculpts intricate flowers and plants out of paper.

- [Lea] I can actually go all the way to my childhood.

Even when I was five, you know how you asked the proverbial question of like, "Oh, what are you gonna be when you grow up?"

I always said, "I'm gonna be an artist."

I always knew, even when I was five years old, that that's what I was gonna be.

And so it just kind of took off from there.

And it was like, whatever I could dabble in.

It was pastels or you know, whatever I can get my hands on.

It was sewing or painting.

It just, it kept going.

And so I decided to go to art school, which was Columbus College of Art & Design.

(peaceful music) And then I got into origami, which also became another obsession.

Paper being the medium was something I really enjoyed working with, the meditative processes, the rhythmic kind of repetitive things.

And so from there, I think I just got bored.

And instead of continuing to create other people's designs and those geometric shapes, I decided to move onto to something more expressive, which was paper flowers.

And that was about eight or nine years ago.

My grandmother growing up, always had lots of plants in her house and I think just seeing that and being around that it, it was kind of like an inspiration for me.

And so having lots of plants myself and also going outdoors in nature, I'm always drawn in and it's always the little things.

It's the meticulous little details, the magic behind nature, the spirit of nature, that's what I am inspired by.

For plants, the paper is always card stock.

And then for flowers, it's always an Italian crepe.

From that, I use a carbine blade cutting machine, which is the Cricut.

Everybody knows it as a Cricut.

And I have two of those.

I also have Glowforge laser that I use for some of the more precise things.

So I'll have all the shapes cut out in very variegated sizes.

So it'll range from a large to a small.

And from that point, I shape and sculpt with my hand.

I glue it together, assembling it.

And then from that point, the paint is really where all the magic, the alchemy lies.

It's the process of combining all kinds of different sprays, hair products and different things to kind of make that magic come out of a piece of paper, make it look real, as real as possible.

Really what I'm trying to do is remind everybody that there is nature out there.

There is something to be looked at and appreciated.

And a lot of times we forget about it.

You know, we move on in our worlds.

We walk around and you know, we're just sort of like in the mundane or in the the process of our lives and it's just something to be appreciated.

There's magic and there's energy.

There's something about it that is good for us on many levels.

And so what I'm trying to get everybody to do is kind of look a little bit closer, find that magic, find the light coming out of the dark.

I'm inviting you to actually get a little bit closer and just appreciate.

- We have to call time on another episode of "Curate."

Thanks again to our friends at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts for being amazing hosts.

And thanks to all of you for joining us.

We're going to leave you with more art from the Suffolk Center's Galleries.

I'm Heather Mazzoni.

- And I'm Jason Kypros.

We'll see you next time on Curate.