catalyst cata·lyst (kat′ə list′): An Ofrenda for Olivia

Rebekah and daughter, Imix

We are always helping preschoolers learn how to share. We coach them through in their play and general social interactions with peers. The goal is to help young children grow up to be inclusive, patient adults, right? Like most learning, the skills of sharing, patience, kindness, openness and listening are best acquired by doing. Our Dodge community got a great hands-on lesson in sharing last week with the help of some special visitors. Danza Mexica joined us for a series of performances and interactions, and now our Dodge community is a bit bigger.

Rebekah Crisanta is a lively member of our Dodge community, our larger local Twin Cities community and of the Ce Tempoxcalli community, a non-profit promoting interculturalism and community action. We first met Rebekah and her family last year, when her daughter, Imix, joined the Spruce Classroom. Before the year was out, the Spruce Room blossomed into a very diverse and very exciting little community. Many families shared a bit of their family life with us throughout the year, including Imix's family. Rebekah, Imix and Danza Mexica Cauuhtemoc joined us for dancing and sharing of Mexican heritage and culture, and their visit and involvement was so enlivening and enriching, we asked them to join us again this year. This time, all the kids at Dodge got to share some time with Danza Mexica, and to participate in a very special activity: making an ofrenda for Olivia Dodge.

Danza Mexica's first visit:
Imix's little sister
was dancing then too!

The late Olivia Dodge, 1918-2009, or "Mrs. Dodge," was the founder of our Thomas Irvine Dodge Nature Center. It is Olivia who gave us the big gift of the land that we all enjoy here, day in and day out, year 'round. She loved this land so much, she named it for her son. It is Olivia who made it possible for all kinds of young children to have access to developmentally appropriate, land-based education. Olivia made it possible for us to perhaps cultivate and nurture the Olivias of the future. And, for Olivia, Rebekah Crisanta, graciously and ingeniously invited us to practice a little bit of interculturalism and a whole lot of sharing, by making an ofrenda. In Mexican tradition, an ofrenda is constructed for a beloved elder who has become an ancestor, someone who has died. The ofrenda is composed of tokens that represent the elements of life, and the details of the ancestor's life. Rebekah and Imix shared with us the ofrenda of a family member who was a farmer; it contained corn and representations of plants among other things, and a marigold, or cepoal-xochitl, whose potent scent calls the ancestor to the party. The party is El Dia de los Muertos. El Dia is, of course, a traditional Mexican holiday, when the ancestors are celebrated and remembered by their loved ones. The ofrenda is the centerpiece of the holiday, recalling and calling the ancestor back to us. So, together, we made an ofrenda for Olivia.

things they love; things Olivia loved

Olivia's ofrenda

Kids hiked and collected things they love, like leaves, feathers, sticks, rocks and bark. These items were also things "that Olivia loved." We know that Olivia loved this earth. She loved the birds in the trees, the frogs in the pond and the animals in the pasture. And Olivia also loved kids, and a good party too. So we had a good party, with lots of kids and tokens of the things she loved from the land. We gathered in our big meeting room here at the Preschool and Rebekah and Danza Mexica danced and drummed while children constructed a makeshift ofrenda for Olivia. Rebekah spoke eloquently and simply about Mrs. Dodge and honoring the earth. Then Danza Mexica danced and drummed their souls out. They performed an Honor Dance, an Eagle Dance (because the "eagle is an elder, an ancestor with his white hair, like Olivia") and a Deer Dance. Imix drummed along with the master drummer and little sister, Xochitl, rocked along in her car seat as the rhythm thrummed through the entire room. Kids were riveted. Rebekah and her apprentice dancers told stories of the earth with their bodies, crouching, spinning, balancing and whirling in their beautiful finery and impressive pheasant feather headdresses. The stories were very powerful, electrifying. Rebekah became a deer in the Deer Dance-- listening, leaping, stamping, startling. It was a thing of beauty and awe-- like interculturalism between people and deer! They taught us the Monkey Dance and the Snake Dance. We wound our way through the entire school, head coiling upon tail, with the snake eventually consuming itself in a melee of fun, a giant circle of life.

Eagle Dance

sharing Danza

The power of this special interaction was infectious. One of my students reported to her mother, "Mom! There were dancers in the Morning Bunch Room! They danced about LOVE and NATURE!" When our class returned to the Spruce Room after the event, the kids immediately ran for musical instruments and began leaping and spinning, shaking rattles and telling their own stories with their bodies. We got out our big drum and went at it. Eventually, we made our own turkey feather and necktie versions of those impressive headdresses. In the Oak Room, children set about illustrating and writing stories about dancing and feathers and snakes. My colleague, Kristenza, shared with me that her Willow Room students had a long and engrossing conversation about life and death as they hiked to collect gifts for departed Olivia. One child mused that Olivia rises in the morning and sets at night, like the sun, "going in a circle, over and over again." A circle, like a snake. Another child shared his thought that winter was the season of dying and wondered if Olivia had died in winter (she did!). These things cannot really be taught, can they? They have to be experienced and lived. The kids got to live as much of these matters as they could, in just the right way, just because someone else was gracious enough to share their experience with them-- Olivia made it possible for us to share Dodge, and Rebekah and her friends make it possible for us to share Dodge too. Olivia's circle keeps getting bigger.

sharing the experience

El Dia de los Muertos is a celebration of life and memory. Less to do with Halloween, and much more to do with a true idea of giving thanks, or "Thanksgiving" (not the Columbus/Puritan kind, by the way).

We give thanks to Olivia, and we give thanks to Danza Mexica for their great generosity of spirit.

Danza Mexica transported Olivia's ofrenda to the Wellstone Center last weekend for an even bigger party. Olivia's memory was celebrated at their Dia de los Muertos community event and stood alongside other ofrendas, witnessing much happiness, an Aztec ceremony and lots of dancing. The circle gets bigger and bigger.