All it takes for the crushing costs of health care to hit home is for someone you know to get seriously ill. We’ve seen it happen in Austin’s live music community, when musicians have rallied around one of their own with benefits to help defray the expense of medical treatment. Now, it’s happening in the dance community. Choreographers and dancers are looking to help Sharon Marroquin, who is currently being treated for cancer and, despite having insurance through the Austin Independent School District, is being socked with some heavy bills. One of the scene’s most supremely gifted dance artists with multiple awards from the Austin Critics Table and a “Best of Austin” Critics Pick as Best Master of Gesture, Marroquin is also that rare individual who has worked with companies across the community: Ballet East, Diverse Space Dance Theatre, Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company, Forklift Danceworks, Tapestry Dance Company, Spank Dance Company, Austin Dance India, Performance Encounters, and Wicked Cricket Dance Theatre. It was Wicked Cricket’s Caroline Sutton Clark who conceived of the events for her colleague and friend, a pair of movie parties to which the whole community is invited. The first is this weekend: a screening of Amargosa, Todd Robinson’s 2000 documentary about Marta Becket, an artist-performer who, in 1967, took over an abandoned recreation hall in Death Valley Junction, Calif., and transformed it into the Amargosa Opera House, a space where she has performed or presented performances three nights a week ever since, audience or no audience. It screens Saturday, Oct. 9, 7pm, at Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd. Admission is free, with donations accepted at the door. Cornucopia is also donating a popcorn tasting bar, with proceeds benefiting Marroquin. The second movie night, set for Sunday, Nov. 21, 6pm, features Flashdance, with prizes for best Eighties outfit and booty jog. Dancing and singing along not discouraged!
This article appears in October 8 • 2010.