Wednesday,March3,2021
Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
15
Senior
news
March 2021
Through the Eyes of an Elder
An Accidental Gypsy
Through the Eyes of An Elder
is a monthly column in Columbia Gorge News.
Sponsored by the Aging in the Gorge Alliance, guest
writers address a variety of topics with a focus on older
adults, their families and loved ones, and caregivers.
Suggestions for future columns (topics, interviewees
or writers) are welcome and can be e-mailed to
tdcastanares@gmail.com.
BY ANTONIA ROJAS
This month’s author, Antonia Rojas, turns age 78
today. She retired from performing and teaching and
moved to The Dalles 12 years ago with her husband
Dr. Joel Kabakov.
I grew up in a small farm town in the Salinas Valley,
and my horizons felt claustrophobic.
My granny noticed the ways my personality lightened
up when I would dance. She paid for dance lessons and
through tap, ballet, acrobatics and even hula dances in
plastic “grass skirts,” my world changed.
By virtue of this newfound inspiration, I started acting
in local musical theatre productions. During a rehearsal
break, I heard a rhythmic pounding coming from the bar
adjacent to the theater. I was too young to enter, so I sat
by the door, mesmerized, and lost track of time. I didn’t
know it then, but I had just discovered flamenco!
I had to know more about this dance that was so
much like theater. I had been tap dancing, smiling for
the audience, skimming the surface. Now I was exposed
to a dance that was theater and poetry combined. I
became obsessed with finding a way to learn how to
dance flamenco. It was the antidote to the feeling of
shallowness I had with tapping. I was drawn to join with
the dancers and to be one of them, stomping into the
very earth with the dust rising around me.
I have heard that art saves lives, and I believe that to
be true. As an elder now, my definition of what art is has
changed. I now believe that life is art.
I was born with the heart of a dancer, but I didn’t
know it until I was led to follow a path that appeared ill
suited. Yet it was the opening to a life that continues to
inspire. By following what I loved, I found a world that
suited me.
I became the lead dancer for The José Greco
Company. My favorite costume among the many
beautifully layered ruffles and embroidered shawls
was the bata de cola, which means literally the dress
with a tail. It was a form-fitting bodice with a long trail
of ruffles that the dancer manipulates to create the
grace of ocean waves, lifting and gently cascading
down again as she moves across the stage. The dress
was very heavy, but appeared to be as light as air.
Having lived as an only child in a small farm town in
California, I now found myself part of a family that I felt I
belonged in. Living with the company, cooking together,
and gathering in the late nights after performances in
hotel rooms — this was where I felt most at home. With
lentils cooking on a hot plate, red wine opened, mothers
holding their babies and singing gypsy lullabies to them
as those of us gathered began clapping the rhythms of
palmas, the atmosphere felt like the “dance of life” itself.
I no longer dance on stages. I dance in my home
and in the woods, I dance on mountainsides where no
one sees, but where I feel the beauty of movement done
not for effect but movement rising out of merging with
life itself.
Dance is my currency. I have taught tai chi moves
to the infirm, and I have witnessed the benefits they
receive by gentle movements. I was a dance instructor
at a school for the deaf, where I witnessed the release it
was for them to move to rhythms they could feel even
though they could not hear them.
Fast forward several decades:
Now I live in The Dalles. I am 78 years old, and I am a
member of a musical group my husband, Joel Kabakov,
formed called “Europatopia.” In it I play percussion,
playing the rhythms I have lived for years as a dancer.
Our group has three elders in it and they not only play
music, the also paint, compose and write poetry.
Life is rich when we follow a dream. Dreams are often
considered irrelevant to “real life.” But I think dreams are
the stuff real life is made of.
Photos top to bottom: Antonia Rojas today,
Antonia in bata de cola,
Antonia when she danced professionally
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