I made it to Machu Picchu, but my shoes didn't.

Things fall apart, it's true.

I made it to Machu Picchu, but my shoes didn't. After 325 days of living out of a bag, I'm not surprised.

Travel is expensive, and it's always way more expensive than you imagine.

Sometimes it's simple things like:

I need new:

Shoelaces $5

Zippers for both boots $40

Soles and heels for boots $45

The weather is getting cold, really really COLD and I need to buy:

Warm jacket $45

Sweater $20

Gloves $10

Warm socks$25

There are unforeseen fees, unexpected plane rides, taxi rides, visas, reciprocity fees (up to $160 per country).

Things fall apart, my camera lens has dust stuck in the focus, my computer will only charge if I hold the cord with my hand and the mouse only moves in one direction, my external drive is full of data of the places I've been and the dancers I've met and my FCBD® sweat shirt is divorcing me one fiber at a time.

If there was ever a time to support this project, now is the time, help a dancer out, throw me a few bucks,  whatever you can give, and get those laces on my boots and some new soles under my feet.

Remember, your donations will help me focus on what I set out to do: document ATS® around the world. So come along for the ride!

Ready to donate?

Just click the fancy little bubble below, give to mail.kristineadams@gmail.com, and thank you!

Just click the fancy little bubble below, and thank you!

ATS® in Chile

There is something undeniably magic about the bond of ATS®. 

After 276 days and 15 countries plus 10 odd years in the FCBD® studio in S.F I am still awed by the way this brings people together. I've never seen anything like it, the silent ties that will always be wrapped around your heart, once a dance sister, always a dance sister, or a sworn enemy, it could go either way.

The ATS® scene in Santiago, Chile is amazingly strong. I can say the strongest and most advanced troupe that I've seen so far.

The group itself is lead by Victoria Vasquez, the group is called Banjara and they have a school in the coolest (as in artsy not cold) part of Santiago with classes almost everyday of the week. In addition to that Victoria also teaches ATS® in prison once a week. I'm fascinated by ATS® being taught in prison and really wanted to go but access was denied.

We just filmed the group dancing in Santiago yesterday and we have a busy couple of workshops coming up this weekend in Santiago, next weekend in Conception and Valdivia, Chile. Thank you ATS®ers for giving me a home, for at least a little while.

The land of leftovers

Uyuni is a land full of leftovers, every piece of forgotten and conflict resides here. As a child when it was time to clean my room I would always stuff the odds and ends under my bed and then my father would come in with his garden rake and pull them out. A single pile of the forgotten, and what to do with it, where to put it.

That's Uyuni to me, great salt flats that act like snow, mountains and mountains and volcanos, freezing nights and days, a little bit of night sky hidden behind a mass of stars, rock formations that can't decide if they're coming or going, and creatures stuck together by a child's imagination roaming the landscape. 

FYI I want to live here: 

Sucre to Uyuini

I spent some time in a pretty little colonial town in Bolivia called Sucre, it's famous for dinosaur footprints and that's about all.
The buses in Bolivia are about on the same level as the chicken buses of Central America, I have to say though I enjoyed their ingenuity of transporting my bag from check in to actual bus.



The ride was long, 9am-6pm and bumpy, there were no toilets just breaks along the way where you could chose your piece of flat land for a pee, or try and hold it till you got to your destination.

When we were within seeing distance of my destination, Uyuni my bladder rejoiced until I saw this:


What is this but a good old fashion road block, a tiny line of stones that the bus "couldn't" cross, so what was there to do, everybody out, packs on and walking it is. Here's what I have to say:

"I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself."
- Mikhail Baryshnikov