Dancing in the desert.

Story of Amargosa Opera House or how important to see small light in the dark of nowhere.

It was nearly 4 years ago, my first trip around United States. The night road in the Death Valley and nothing around for many kilometers. In the distance, flashed lights and it became clear that i need to stop for the night.

Old hotel on the crossroads of Death Valley. Inside everything was very modest but the atmosphere was simply mesmerizing. Painted walls, old furniture that reminds theatre and many things about ballet around. Having settled, I decided to google about this place and it turned out that it had very interesting story)

The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad ran through the valley from 1906 to 1940, for borax mining operations. In the village of Amargosa, there were about 350 people, all of whom were employees of the Boer Extraction Company. In the village was modest twenty-three-room hotel, built in the Spanish style in the middle of a hot desert, also included an annex with a stage for meetings, film screenings, celebrations and funerals.

By the sixties the village had disappeared. The hotel with the abandoned meeting room stood, and it is not known how long it would stay. One day New York dancer Martha Beckett found it while her companion was busy with a broken car. From this moment begins the amazing story of the Amargos Opera House.

Taking the building for rent, Martha turned it into a theater with velvet chairs, heavy curtains and exquisite interiors, which she herself painted, showing also the artist's talent. The theater is one actor, as well as a dresser, decorator and director, that is, herself, with regular performances for rare hotel visitors, and more often - for anyone. Somehow, in order not to feel in an empty hall all alone, Marta drew the audience on the walls.

Once the famous science fiction writer Ray Bradbury came to the theater. In the documentary "Amargosa" published in 2000, there are two quotations that cannot be omitted here:

1)Martha Beckett says of herself: "In the desert there is still nothing but accidentally sprouted flowers. One of them is me. "

2) Ray Bradbury: "When I watched her performance, there were tears in my eyes. Marta showed me the real spirit of a person, the spirit of the theater, the spirit of creativity. "

Years passed, Marta became more and more difficult to dance, and then her performances began to represent either reading poetry or pantomime. The last performance took place in 2012, and then it turned out that the ballerina has fans from around the world who also gave performances in her honor. There were even followers who decided to support the tradition. Now in Amargos several days a week gives performances of a ballerina from California, who at the age of six Martha live for the first time.

Martha Beckett died at the age of 92 in her home, in a postal address that is not named anywhere, there is no word "Amargosa", but there is only "a crossroads of the Death Valley".

During many of my traveling’s road lead me to very interesting and unexpected things on my way. I had very special feeling staying in Amargosa Hotel. This place and story of Martha Beckett touched my soul and remind me how important to go your way create and see small light in the dark of nowhere.