Beyond Performance: Manuel Rodriguez, Founder, La Fuente Sober Living Community
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Rodriguez today (Anil Patel, courtesy of Rodriguez)
As a dancer, Manny Rodriguez was athletic, handsome, and the life of the party. He brought his Puerto Rican feistiness to Ballet Hispanico of New York, toured the world with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and spent three years in Paris performing with Régine Chopinot’s Ballet Atlantique.
If someone had predicted that one day he’d be running a sober living community in Los Angeles, he would have thrown back his head an, with a twinkle in his soft brown eyes, laughed his infectious laugh. But at age 29, following a string of heartbreaking events—the loss of a job, the death of his partner, the need to distance himself from all too often despotic directors—he left concert dance.
The glamour of Hollywood beckoned and the excitement of Los Angeles’ nightlife drew him into the party-promoting business. His dancer discipline and work ethic fueled him. His theatrical background and artistic eye gave his nightclub productions the right flair. “My spirit will always be a dancer, and dancers do not shy away from hard work,” Rodriguez says. It was here, among the “party boys” and glitterati, that he gained business and marketing skills that would benefit him later. It was also where he hit bottom as the lifestyle took its toll. In 1993 he cleaned up his act. Done with drugs and alcohol, he became an advocate for a healthy lifestyle.
He went into real estate. “Three different people, on separate occasions, told me I would be good at working in treatment and should open my home to others,” Rodriguez says. “They saw something in me I didn’t recognize at first. Once we (as dancers) set our minds to something we can accomplish anything.”
In September 2005, with proceeds from his real estate commissions, Rodriguez opened La Fuente, a communal living facility for professional men that encourages long-term sobriety. Beginning with the purchase of two adjacent single-story houses, Rodriguez built up and out. The facility now encompasses a 6,000-square-foot lot composed of four interconnected two-story buildings, housing 16 at full capacity. Rodriguez is a proud “den mother” to a community of peers who support each other through the practice of sobriety.
Overseeing the operation of a sober living home, which requires training through the Sober Living Coalition, utilizes Rodriguez’s dancer patience and perseverance. “Like anything, a lot of it is trial and error,” he says.
While running La Fuente would be enough of an undertaking for anyone else, Rodriguez also continues to work in real estate. He says it provides balance and allows him to investigate properties to expand his mission. In August, Rodriguez celebrated his 17th year drug-free. “I will be eternally grateful for my life as a dancer,” he says, “and for the people I know because of that career.”
Originally published in Beyond Performance, a supplement to Dance Magazine and Dance Teacher, September 2010
