Coming your way on Art Rocks the mesmerizing process of pottery making ballet performed with a modern twist and bringing the colors and flavors of New Mexico's cuisine to life.

These stories coming up next on Up Rocks West Baton Rouge Museum is proud to provide local support for this program.

On LP, offering diverse exhibitions throughout the year and programs that showcase art, history, music and more.

Baton Rouge Museum Culture cultivates and art rocks is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you Hello.

Thank you for tuning in for Art Rocks.

With me, James Fox Smith of Country Roads magazine.

I'd like you to meet Becky Nash, a Louisiana ceramicist whose graceful ruffles, waves, colors and layering techniques set her pieces in a class of their own.

But don't take my word for it.

Here's Becky to explain why she just loves creating in Clay My art comes from pictures that I have in my mind, and it's just how the clay starts to respond when I work with it.

It is typically characterized as being organic, very irregular shapes very unique.

I use clay because in all the experimenting when I was in school, it was my favorite as I took painting courses at LSU, I was totally frustrated.

I just didn't like it.

I think I'm more three dimensionally oriented I enjoyed the sculpture classes that I had, but the clay is just something that's just real forgiving, and I enjoy the forming process more so than the glazing just enjoy the clay because it just feels so good.

I love it.

I love on days when the weather's nice and Louisiana to go out there and to work in my carport and have nice music I like.

This piece right here is working on a song that I was listening to On Eagle's Wings and I felt that I made my basic shape and then worked on the wings and then made a series of those I work a lot with shells and use those to make texture.

I do different things to my wheelchair in pieces in order to make them look distinctive and unique.

And so after I throw part, then I use the shells to impress on a piece of clay, and I attach it or I use it to press into a bowl and then scrape away the glaze.

The final process for FEITO is probably the most involve process that I use.

I usually do it on wheels or in pieces, and I throw the piece and then I put normally a black.

Sometimes I use blue or sometimes green under glaze, and it is a flat sort of glaze.

It's done when the clays lather hard, and then I carve through it to show and expose the clay body underneath A lot of what I do is experimental.

I love to experiment, and I never do the same thing really over and over I change it up a lot Actually, I feel like there's a part of God within me and that this is his creative nature coming out.

So I look at each piece as something like that, and it can bring a portion of his character out, and therefore it can bring a blessing to the person who looks at it or receives it.

When we expose ourselves to the artistic perspectives of others, we get to see the world through a different set of eyes.

So here are some of our picks for notable exhibits and events in the arts coming soon to museums and galleries in your part of the world.

For more about these and loads more events in the arts.

Visit El-P dot org slash art rocks.

While you're there, you'll find links to every episode of the program.

So to see or to share any segment again, visit El-P being dawgs dogs the foundations of ballet can be traced back to the Italian Renaissance of the early 1500s.

But just a few years back, a dance company named Ballet Edge Detroit was formed in Michigan with a different approach in mind.

The goal to present dance routines founded in classical technique but delivered with an edgy, modern twist.

His ballet edges founders and dancers to show and tell us what they are bringing to the stage.

Ballet is not just an activity or a hobby.

It's a lifestyle I've always loved movement since I was a child.

I was actually more of a late bloomer when it came to ballet.

I started around the time of 13 years old, but I loved it since ballet is something that I have done my entire life.

It's just been this passion inside me, and I've always kind of wanted to get back to it.

So a a few years ago I got back into ballet.

When I first moved to Detroit, I felt like I really needed to find my passion and establish more of an identity for myself.

So I went back to taking dance classes and I realized how much I missed it.

And that's how I started meeting these wonderful dancers.

In class, meeting Angel.

Really, just the passion for ballet that we both had was our instant connection, and we didn't really see any ballet companies in Detroit Most larger cities do have ballet companies, and we thought that this would be a great chance to really try to bring that ballet, the art back to the city and we decided to start working together after class and learning choreography together, and performances started popping up for us.

So that's how Ballet Edge started.

All of dance just brings a different connection to people.

It's something that's expressive and people can come and just step away from all of what's going on in the world and just come and watch something entertaining and something fun.

Our mission is to bring a bold and innovative twist to ballet through using our trained classical technique, but putting more of a relatable modern twist on it so that all audience members can relate to our choreography.

We're really trying to bring a new, refreshing outlook on ballet to Detroit.

Our name is ballet educator, so we try to be edgy and different.

And, you know, we kind of try to break the mold of what people typically think of classical ballet, that it's just tutus and classical music.

We really try to bring something fun and unique so that everyone will enjoy it.

We were trying to attract all people to our performances, not just people who are really familiar with ballet.

So in order to attract all of Detroit, we need to have dancers that each audience member can relate to.

So maybe an audience member will say, Oh, I can relate to that, mom.

I can't believe she's dancing out there still.

She's she's got kids, but she's still holding on to her passion.

I think that it's very important, especially as women and for those of us who are mothers, a lot of times we put ourselves in our passions and are our dreams and our what drives us.

So we put those on the backburner to be there for our family.

So it's great to kind of reclaim some of that and kind of remember who you are.

Everybody just comes from different walks of life and everyone has their own little backstory before they come to Ballet Edge.

I'm a huge advocate for following your dreams, regardless of where you are age or stage in life.

I think one of the things that makes us different and perhaps mature is that many of our dancers have done other things in their lives, such as work or gone to college, and those experiences make us very comfortable with who we are and made us realize how much we love dance and make us come back to dance.

So we are experiencing the best of both worlds.

I think it's so cool to go to my job and people are like, Oh, what are you doing this weekend?

And I'm like, Oh, I've got a five hour ballet rehearsal.

And they're like, Wow, that's so amazing and it is amazing.

But I think it's inspirational because now other people don't see they can do that too.

Not only with dance, but whatever your thing is, you're never too old or too busy.

The situation is never too chaotic for you to remember who you are This group of women is incredible.

They show their personality, whatever the musicality or the artistry calls for, whether it be sad happy, serious, exciting, they can do it.

And you'll be able to see that in all of the pieces that we showcase.

We're going to be getting ready for our show.

We've got some larger pieces.

We've got some small group pieces.

We're going to be cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

We just finished learning all of the choreography.

So now we make sure everyone's looking the same way and everyone's arm is the same way.

So it's going to be kind of a wide range of things.

Angel Ivory does a lot of choreographing.

She's really open to listening to everyone and making sure that we all feel comfortable in the dance because, you know, that's how we're going to be the best that we can be, as if we're all comfortable with what we're doing.

Angel is a great choreographer.

I think she has really interesting ideas when it comes to choosing music.

I pick out the music first.

I listen to the music over and over and over again, and I see the choreography in my mind and that's how I choreograph.

We try to portray what the music is trying to tell.

So, for example, we do a piece called Embrace, which is to Vivaldi's Winter, and that is more about friendship and our relationship together as a company.

We all get along and we truly embrace each other's presence.

We've done a piece to Game of Thrones, and that's really to portray the the theme of that wildly popular show.

It's very serious.

It's about battling and trying to be in power.

We have a piece currently to Beethoven's for release, and these are all songs that the majority of people will recognize.

And they they get drawn in, they get hooked in and they end up enjoying the pieces.

Failing is very challenging, requires a lot of discipline.

We've all been training for 15 plus years We are all top professionals and we work really hard.

Ballet dancers have great stamina.

They have great flexibility.

They have the discipline to come to class, to stay in shape.

And I think that the talent that's assemblage is just phenomenal.

It's unbelievable.

Honestly, to me to know that there are so many talented, like amazingly talented dancers that are right here in the city.

Typically, when people see a ballet company in Detroit, it's it's a ballet company that passes through Detroit and leaves.

And we are making ballet accessible to Detroit neighborhoods.

We keep our pricing affordable for everybody to come see us.

We are homegrown and we're proud to be Detroit.

I'm so grateful for Balayage.

I think that it's so great for so many different women to be able to come together in the name of ballet and put together something so professional and something so unique and something so entertaining.

Long term goals for Balayage Detroit is really just to continue growing the ballet company.

You know, we would love to have more dancers and really be able to put on more shows.

I think that the time that Detroit is making right now really all is missing is symbol.

So I'm really excited that Ballet Edge is right there growing with the city and making the presence of ballet known in that growth Ever looked at a piece of art and simply wondered how on earth did they do it?

The Corrales Art Studio tours in New Mexico offers visitors the opportunity to visit Participating Artists Studios to gain a deeper understanding of exactly how creative inspiration makes the leap from idea to canvas.

Come take a look oh my goodness.

You can't throw a stone without hitting an artist and corrals I love the tour, the Corral Art Studio tour, because it's a great opportunity for the public to connect with the artists.

This is my first year during the studio tour and Corrals.

I've been a patron of it for gosh, for as long as I've been growing up.

My mom and I would come to the garden tour and we would do a studio tour just about every year.

There's nothing to not like about corrals.

Art is a is a frame of mind, you know?

And if you can relax and let that energy come out and you're an artist, no matter what your medium is, you're going to create something that's really cool.

And people feel that when they come to corrals, it's a great place to be an artist.

There are so much support.

Corrals has a long and deep art and cultural history.

The San Isidro Church was built in 1868.

These historic facilities still today host a hub of cultural and artistic activity.

I think that's part of what drives me is a need to connect with others.

And the way I do it is through my art I've heard before a phrase that you can't take the arts out of the artist or the artist state of the art.

And I think back to when I was a little girl and my aunt Vera, who I love dearly, was we were taking a walk and I did something not nice.

I don't know what it was.

And she scolded me and said, you were a very bold young lady.

And I said, Vera was this bold me.

And she explained and and I remember saying, yes, I am bold.

And I think that comes through in my artwork.

I look at colors and I exaggerate them a little bit.

Even though my colors aren't realistic, there is red in a green tree.

There's blue and a green tree.

Not as much as I put in it.

So I tend to exaggerate.

I'm bold and I'm loud.

And basically my house is my studio.

I have my studio in the middle of the living room.

And then if they the people have access to my house, they have access, not just my studio, I not my life.

It's open your space and open a little bit of you to other people.

When I start to make pieces on the wall, I this cover that the wall was part of my piece, not just the place where I hang the piece in composition even it's part.

And then that wall represent or boundaries cross the boundaries.

Try to be free.

Try to express yourself One principle bother for me as a Coltrane transition, then my country to this country to discover that each human is different universe and we need to cross our fears and try to express ourself and discover that other people think maybe similar but is different than other ways.

Important.

Try to be transparent or try to cross that wall, emotional or cultural wall for really know each other I love the studio tour because there's that opportunity for the direct relationship with people that come in.

Curious to see how you work, where you work, and what you have This is the art of everyday life.

Gratification for me comes from handing the bread wall to say, You know, I can think of specific people, mother sort of things for their daughters.

And, you know, when you go to a museum somewhere in the world, oftentimes you're looking at pottery And I like to think that at least some of my pieces will make it 100 years, you know, and that will be, Oh, my great grandmother made this recipe of bread in this bowl.

It's so, you know, sacred thing.

These objects that get passed down from one generation to the next often are made from clay I like to work in series, and the one that is exactly like the drawing and the vision is usually not my favorite piece.

It's the one that went off from that.

You know, the inspiration comes from working for me.

It's about this mystery that happens when simplifying the landscape that it kind of allows you to you to wander within it.

I like capturing landscape because I get to experience it again in a way It's, you know, when you're in the studio making you kind of remove yourself from that.

So it's it's amazing to have a piece and be able to take that landscape with you, especially in a more non representational way.

For me, this series particularly is I've noticed I make a piece and there is no scrap to making these.

There is a piece that can be utilized again, that is a different a different type of landscape.

They almost seem to have been generating themselves For me, it's therapy.

I think it's there's not enough to build for me.

I never want to stop building.

And I love I love what happens when something new comes along from working with your hands.

It brings me a great deal of satisfaction.

That's why it's important for me to be an artist.

The crowd is art and studio tour is a great venue for artists.

It brings everybody together in a exceptionally well organized event, an advertised event.

It brings together our best artists.

I mean, a top notch people who who really produce and corral us and for two days, you know, art patrons get to come to corrals and experience corrals and go from venue to venue and see artists in there in their space.

Right.

And they get to see what comes from that artist in in that space and it's just so cool because, you know, the weather's really great usually, and everyone has a great time.

The patrons and the artists will stay in New Mexico today to spend a little time with Jonathan Pena.

He's the executive chef at Campo, a restaurant located at Los Blancos Historic Inn and Organic Farm in Los Ranch, US to Albuquerque.

Their chef, Pono, is using fresh seasonal ingredients in ways that truly celebrate local cuisine and color.

Let's watch Rio Grande Valley cuisine tastes like New Mexico.

It's the sky.

It's the air.

It's everything that encompasses this state and that river and this culture that designs here.

That's my main thing.

I mean, I'm from here.

So that's important to me.

And I just believe in what I do and I believe in the nutrition that it provides.

I believe in knowing that if you eat seasonal, you're tend to be more healthy because everything is at an optimal peak in nutrition and taste and everything The story of the food starts from the people that produce it.

I'm just the guy that gets to play with it.

It's honest with you, and I get to carry that story on.

I get to enhance what they do.

So I'm like part of their story.

And then the people that really get the full story are the guests.

So I'm just a facet of the process of the story, and my whole thing is to be connected.

That's the whole thing.

If it's through an individual relationship, either with a person or with a food product, they're the same.

They deserve the same attention and they deserve the same level of respect.

The challenge of local food is that you have to be ready to change We have to be willing to change as people.

It's going to be nice for them.

More because if you can't change as an individual, it's going to be really hard to change when you get a a curveball because you're eggplants didn't manifest the way you wanted them to.

So what are you going do?

You're going to be upset?

No, you're going to make adjustments.

Or if we have a huge bumper crop, what are we going to do?

So all of a sudden the creative juices just start flowing and you're thinking, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.

And you've got one thing and you're coming up with half a dozen, a dozen different things that you can start creating out of this.

One thing the things I love about food and what inspires me about it is always being surprised because you just never know until you apply yourself either.

If you're a diner and experiencing something you've never had before, or if you're a cook and you're being presented something you've never worked with before and you have to work through it.

Those are the surprises.

Those are the things that look forward for you because they're always there's always it's always rewarding no matter what you I just invest myself into the into the product.

And I hope that when people order these dishes that me and my team create that there is invested in eating it as we are prepping it and creating it, that that completes the cycle to me and to feed people.

Well, I think that's that's that's that's huge because you're you're interacting with somebody that you don't even know and you're interacting with them on kind of an intimate level.

And that'll be that for this edition of Art Rocks.

But remember, there are plenty more episodes of the show to be found at LP B dot orgs Art Rock.

And if it's arts and culture, your after Country Roads magazine makes a fine resource for discovering inspiring stories in the arts events and destination all across the state.

So until next week, I've been James Fox Smith, and thank you for watching.

West Baton Rouge Museum is proud to provide local support for this program on LP, offering diverse exhibitions throughout the year and programs that showcase art, history, music and more.

West Baton Rouge Museum Culture Cultivated Art Rock is made possible by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you and