On the ground floor sit heavy industrial sized blacksmithing machines, anvils, and tools to flatten, twist, and turn the scraps of metal stacked on the shelves on the outer edges of the open air room. The space, and all of its occupants, wait to hammer red hot metal into some new form with the remnants of a ballet studio (ballet bars, a piano) surrounding. Up the wooden stairs to the left is a huge room where waterfall-like aerial yoga silks stream down from their cathedral ceiling anchors. They wait, as well, for students to arrive who will gracefully entangle their bodies in a mid air choreographed dance that that is two parts wellness and one part performance. In both spaces the sounds of the wind whispering through the landscape sings alongside the cicadas and muted cars driving by up on the road that connects Vernon, NJ and Pine Island, NY. Eve McClanahan is the reason both of these spaces exist; the one who teaches and creates in these worlds rich with the act of forging through movements that seek to fulfill a vision. In each, there is a purposeful dance that is founded on good technique, dedication, and effort. We discuss her life as a dancer and budding blacksmith, growing up in New York City, becoming a student in the one top ballet schools, her time studying filmmaking and later dance at NYU, her family's move to Warwick, and how a lack of dance education in the local public schools led her to open her own dance studio. Now semi-retired, Eve has dedicated herself to spend at least one full day a week learning the art of blacksmithing in her downstairs studio and several other days expertly teaching private dance lessons upstairs.
