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A Reflection from Charlie Neshyba-Hodges, Class of 2009

Submitted by Lisa Kwak on October 20, 2020 - 4:32pm
CN-H receiving the 2010 Astaire Award
CN-H receiving the 2010 Astaire Award

Charlie Neshyba-Hodges is a dance and architecture alum who graduated summa cum laude, was a Mary Gates Research Scholar, and a Husky Promise Student. He is also a celebrated dance artist who received Best Male Dancer by the European Critics’ Choice Awards in 2003, and the Astaire Award for outstanding male dancer in Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away. After graduating, Charlie did a lot of work with underprivileged children  in CA and then entered the ArtCenter College of Design, majoring in product design with a concentration in design for social innovation. He has designed a new toy for 6+ year-olds that looks delightful. https://www.archamelia.com/

Read Hodge’s statement about the toy below: 

Archamelia; The House of a Thousand Stories

Exercising Creativity, Building Imagination

Inventor Statement:

The audience saw me as a dancer. They watched as I used my body to express for them what couldn’t be said with words. This was done in full view, with only one shot. They saw me chase perfection in everything I did, quietly agreeing that how I recovered from my myriad mistakes inevitably carried more weight. They applauded when I won the European Critic’s Choice Award as Best Male Dancer of the Year, and again when I won the Fred Astaire Award as the Best Male Dancer on Broadway. But for the audience, the experience was really a culmination sandwiched between a rising and lowering curtain. In truth, that single performance was born from hours, days, weeks, months, years of accumulated practice, perseverance, failure, and effort. 

If “home” is defined by the place where we spend the most time, my home is a dance studio. For 20 years I’ve lept, turned, and tripped through space. Through silence, I used my body to make believe, develop confidence, practice social empathy, exercise critical thinking, and build my imagination. And while my mind was ready for a lifetime in the studio, my body had unavoidable limits. Injury led to a hip reconstruction, replacement, three revisions, and (an early) retirement. It was time to pivot. It’s fair to say that I never quit dancing, I just changed my shoes! After two decades of crafting my body in space, I am now focused on exploring the design of the space around bodies. And through design, I see an opportunity to help others engage with their own wonder and creativity that was the dance studio for me. I believe everyone deserves to know a place that they can call home.

So I reached out to a local Fostercare Center to learn about what makes a house to a kid without a home. With additional help from a relocated Syrian refugee family, I learned that home is much more than four walls and a roof; It’s any place we feel safe, loved, courageous and creative. And in this rich realization, the seed was planted for what has become Archamelia, the House of a Thousand Stories.

Passionate about social impact and climate change, I designed this hand-assembled, sustainable, gender-neutral toy house made without plastic and in the United States, in an effort to bring open-ended and nutritious play to all kids. Open its doors to unfold an airplane, kitchen, shuttle, treefort, dancehall, hideout and pirate ship. And of course, there’s also a stage. Archamelia wants kids to grab their existing toys, or create their own, to tell their next great adventure. Like a dance studio was for me, Archamelia gives kids the space to practice becoming.

Please check it out at www.archamelia.com, follow us on instagram @archamelia, or on facebook @imagistoria.

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