Somewhere in the middle of the Death Valley is a road junction featuring a dilapidated motel and an opera house. 400 people used to live there, now only 2 do. I found it curious that this nowhere place in the middle of the desert has an opera house. The story goes that in the 40's or 50's (I don't remember) a popular ballerina from New York named Martha Becket got a flat tire there and while waiting for its repair she walked into the building and saw an old theater and fell in love with it. She put a $1 down-payment and started painting it. It took her her whole life to paint the theater as well as the motel and all of its rooms. She still performs in the theater, although she cannot dance anymore. The service desk person at the motel lobby left for a moment and so I took the opportunity to walk through the empty building and into all the rooms that were open taking these photographs. The paint and stucco are slowly peeling and falling off. There is mold that the two caretakers hide in vain. The paint reflects the deterioration of the dancer's body. But I am sure when the old lady walks on stage she is transported to an older time when she was young and pretty and the world was at her feet.