Space

Opening the Rover emerged out of my own need for SPACE…to rehearse and perform my own work.   Every studio I had used over the last 13 years had been hiked up to a ridiculous price that I could no longer afford hourly.     I have to admit I also felt a bit suffocated and halted creatively in some ways….wondering where if at all my work really fit.

The Rover has been a long time dream of mine, but was not planned down to the nail….AT ALL….It happened very quickly and without a board of decision makers, grant writers,  a huge staff of employees or even a business plan….Who can afford all of that?  And art is such a shifting creature it’s not so easy to plan how it will go down.  I literally took my chunk of a financial nut (huge to me, but small in New York’s economy) and put it down on this space…  It’s insane I know.

The lease was signed May 1, after a long period of wrangling with a landlord for a good price, and immediately the space (once a dusty real estate office) was set for demo, then floors redone, then move in was May 14.   May 28 was the opening of ‘Plump Reverie’, which was sold out all three nights – and it’s been an amazing triumphant rat race ever since.

Who knew how much work would be involved in actually running a space…Getting and then maintaing a website, promoting, managing classes, getting teachers to teach those classes, hosting and producing new artists, going out everyday to see those artists and to really scrape beneath the surface to find the good ones…not an easy task.  Yes…I know…You’re thinking ‘why not hire people?’….Well that would be a breeze if there were funds appropriated to that….but at the moment….not so much.

Next comes mirrors, some inexpensive lighting system, a few more chairs, pilates and yoga mats, and THEN…hopefully sometime next year the space will afford actual employees…

In the meantime…every good deed and job that comes from anyone outside of myself has been done for free or for barter of space or classes…and that has been a beautiful thing.  To see five people (for example) come together late on a Friday night to help hang stereo speakers, and all for a free class and a box of pizza, or for absolutely nothing except to give their time to something that seems impossible…..Incredible.

From the audience and performers and collaborators,  to the bartenders and my most loyal doorman dude,  to the person who buzzes people up while preparing to go onstage  —this has been literally a community effort.  A real coming together of minds and hearts…..for nothing more than the chance to create and be a part of concentrated, non filtered, irreverent at times, exhausting and sacred….ART.

The Rover has become this brand new baby in my house, one that I wasn’t sure I wanted, one that I wasn’t prepared for, but yet I’ve grown to love…That’s what we do when we have babies…We watch them grow up and turn into….smart adults?

Here’s to hoping that The Rover becomes one hell of a smart adult.

Sincerely hoping you come and check out my new baby,

Rani

Be Bold, Be Passionate, Be Inspired..