Grass-Covered Truck of Dancers to drive around Goat Farm

On a quiet, moonlit night, waifish beauties will dance and twirl on patches of bare earth like fairies fluttering through the air.

No, it’s not a scene from the Nutcracker.

It’s the Dance Truck’s upcoming performance called PLOT at the Goat Farm July 28 through 31. 

For those unfamiliar, the Dance Truck is a member of Atlanta’s ever-growing mobile revolution. But instead of pedaling popsicles or BBQ from their truck, they drive dancers around the city.

Malina Rodriguez founded Dance Truck in 2009 to bring dance out of the theater.

“For us, it’s a way of bringing dance to an unsuspecting audience,” Rodriguez said.

The native of Portland, Ore., said it was difficult to find affordable performance space to rent in her hometown. So she had to resort to unconventional methods for putting on dance shows.

Her creative idea? Use the back of a truck as a stage. 

“Any way I can help artists get an audience I am willing to help," Rodriguez said. Dance Truck is "different than putting on a production in a theater. People have more interest because it’s mobile.”

The upcoming show PLOT teams Rodriguez with Miami native and choreographer Blake Beckham. It's unusual performance even for the Dance Truck.

While most of their shows are performed in the bed of a truck – usually a 26’ box truck – PLOT dancers will perform at the Goat Farm on a grass-covered truck bed that will move the audience around the venue.

“It started with a single image,” Beckham said in a release. “The truck bed filled with sod, which in my imagination was instantly transformed into both garden bed and funerary bed.”

This particular show will use a Scout truck filled with sod that will lead the audience around the Goat Farm while displaying dance, visual art and video.

“The work explores different areas of the Goat Farm," Rodriguez said. "The truck will be the tour guide for different locations around the Goat Farm. After the performance, the sod in the truck will be planted at the farm.”

PLOT is a significant piece for those involved. It marks the first time the Dance Truck has hosted a production by a single choreographer.

And it's the first time Dance Truck will charge for a performance. Tickets are available online for $20 general admission or $14 for students and artists. The dance group wants to raise $8,500 to pay performers.

The Goat Farm is located in West Midtown on 1200 Foster Street and is an ethereal place itself. A labyrinth of decaying brick buildings and shadowy lighting make it the perfect place to host an event such as PLOT. (The Westside venue also recently of contemporary dance group gloATL). 

PLOT is one of many upcoming projects for the Dance Truck. Rodriguez is putting together a tour of the “Dirty South” as well as preparing for a 10-day festival that will take her and the truck back to Portland.

“We have incredible support and momentum,” she said. “We are getting offers to go all over the place. People are very interested in what we are doing.”