DAM! - Lake Elmendorf’s 19th Street Dam | March 4, 2023 | 5-6pm
3700 W Commerce St, San Antonio, TX 78207
I. Transformation - Individual Artists
1. Intentionally Left Empty
2. Henna Chou, Lance Higdon, Seetha Shivaswarmy
3. Venus Tejeda, Santi Perez
4. Pamela Martinez, Claudia Cuellar, John Vasquez
5. Joshua Gilleland, Alan Cade, Logan Mask
6. Chabriely Rivera, Sandra
7. Meredith Shuman
8. Weaver Harris
II. Our Power Together - Teletextile with movement by sumRset
The DAM! Series began as an exploration of sound and
ceremony inspired by the Espada Dam and Acequia system
created in Spanish colonial times. When I first heard about the
dam and acequia built by the bare hands of the native people
starting 1718 - I went looking for it. This acequia was used as
the main water system for over 200 years and is still flowing 300
years later from the San Antonio River. I took a few trips down to
what Google labeled as the Espada dam, but I only saw the
modern dam which impressed me nonetheless. All of a sudden
dams all around the city kept grabbing my attention. When I
would look at a dam, I imagined an opera house. The majestic
stage is set for the drama that is our lifeblood in the inevitable
overflowing of water. Somehow the absence of water felt just as
dramatic. After connecting with a local historian who worked
with the Missions National Park Service, I finally found my way
to the unprepossessing historic Espada Dam and Acequia. From
there bubbled up the idea for creating music based site-specific
performances that explore water as a carrier of culture while
showcasing the infrastructure around the water both natural
and human-made.
Thus The DAM! Series became a multi-location, multi-day
outdoor event having performances in 2022 and 2023. Each
unique and site-specific performance punctuates the rich
history, nature, and engineering around the waterway by
activating spaces near our waterways and spotlighting central,
south and west-side neighborhoods of San Antonio. Espada
Dam focuses on the nature around the dam and Acequia, a
National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American
Society of Civil Engineers. Lake Elmendorf’s 19th Street Dam
focuses on the labyrinth dam and the sounds created by the
concrete sawtooth structure. Roosevelt Tunnel Outlet highlights
the 3 mile underground tunnel saving downtown from flooding,
“a gargantuan engineering feat that’s made to function without
you even knowing it’s doing its job,” Jack Morgan, Texas Public
Radio.
We as a community over centuries have learned to work with
this waterflow for its beauty and bounty such as irrigation,
consumption, recreation, tourism, fishing. Our relationship to this
water’s movement and holding patterns plays a role in our city,
our collective culture, our historical culture. Thank you for
exploring the bodies of water and waterways that create the
paths of culture through our city.
See full program notes and find out more about Pamela Martinez & Teletextile at www.teletextile.org
Production Crew:
Pamela Martinez - Artistic & Music Director
Sadie Kadlec - Production Manager
Yuri Cho - Production Assistant
Angelica Vlach - Stage Manager
Tanesha Payne - Movement Director
Chris Castillo - Photographer
Andrew Leo Stanbury - Logo Artist
Clayton Price - Photo / Video
Elias Flores III - Video Editing
Laura Borys - Costumes on loan from House World
Immersive NYC
Thanks to sponsors: The City of San Antonio, Arts & Culture, The SA River Authority, American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions, MBS Studios, Mercury Project Contemporary Art Space and Southtown Music Studio.