VAVA
Elaborate murals hide amongst the alleyways, street musicians occupy every corner, and the neon lights hover above the huddled bars, shining bright against the dimness of dusk. Nashville has an organic magic that seems to magnify at night. My senses are heightened and the evening has only just begun.
There’s a bar up ahead where music pours from its doorway, hypnotizing my friends and me, drawing us inward. We make our way down a winding stairwell, a single black light guiding us through a smoky haze and untethered art on the walls to a small room just big enough to fit a stage, a bar, a colorful dance floor, and a VAVA 4k Projector. There’s a band none of us have heard before in the middle of their set, so my friends and I make our way to the center of the dance floor. I can feel every sensation in my body as the music begins to crescendo and the drums push forward in a driving rhythm. There’s more beat than lyrics and my body responds to every shift in rhythm. The inevitable movement begins to stir. All at once the VAVA displays the most beautiful arrangement of colors and shapes that perfectly align with the band’s beat. The screen hypnotizes me. Reds seem to penetrate every part of my soul and yellows radiate making the glass bottles above the bar shimmer in the light
The beat starts in my hips as they begin to sway back and forth as the projector changes images. Music coursing up through my arms and hands as they make intricate designs in the air, and then down to my toes where it stays, feet unable to stop moving, it’s just me and the striking images of the VAVA. The single light beating down somehow distances me from the present moment. My friends have vanished behind the white light beams and I am alone with deep ocean blues and mesmerizing purples. I am floating amongst the clouds with nothing but guitar rifts and drums pulsating through my body; the lead singer’s voice guides me through the sky and the images created by the colors of the VAVA validate my existence in the Nashville scene.