BAGGAGE is a theatrical dance work for film by acclaimed dancer and choreographer Jay Carlon with a live-score and sound design by musician Alex Wand. Developed on site in Union Station’s historic Ticketing Hall during a two-week residency by Carlon and Wand—the work celebrates origin stories and embodies the many histories of arrivals and departures at the station and in our lives. It is a personal family narrative of migration told in three chapters unpacked through music, dance, and memory inside the landmark historic space that has served as a gateway to the many individual and collective California arrival stories over the past eight decades.
Opening with the Phillipine proverb “A person who does not remember where they came from will never reach their destination” in Tagalog to provoke the question “How did you get here?”, Carlon channels the stories of the space through his personal family story. The film concludes with an emotional and physical release as Carlon lets go of family traumas handed down from previous generations.
