When Nannette Brodie began working on what has become her magnum opus to date, about the lives and times of veterans and the military experience, she was just looking for dance space to rent.

The American Legion had a studio in Westminster that Brodie was interested in subleasing.

As she inquired, as sometimes happens with artists, something so seemingly mundane morphed into something profound.

Before she quite realized it, Brodie was talking about movement classes, Tai Chi and yoga at the Veteran Affairs facility in Long Beach and she was launched on her path.

“It motivated the idea,” she said. “My husband began doing things at [Long Beach Veterans Affairs]. I went along and it kind of grew from there.”

Two years later, after numerous interviews with veterans, Brodie unveils “Every Soldier Has A Story,” Saturday at the So Cal Dance Invitational at Cal State Long Beach’s Martha Knoebel Theater.

In bringing the story to the stage, Brodie also pays tribute and honor in a very personal way. Her husband, veteran John Brodie, passed away in August and Charles Wilson, a central figure in the piece who appears via a video interview, died in 2017.

“It adds even more emotional resonance,” Brodie said, noting that she was glad that her late husband was able to see iterations of the piece before his death. Wilson passed away in 2017 just months after his interviews with Brodie.

While admitting that the memories of her husband and Wilson “add depth to the story,” she said, “it’s really about honoring all veterans, regardless of how you feel about the military. They’re not honored enough.”

Brodie, who taught dance at Golden West College for 43 years and chaired the department, has choreographed at least 75 dances over the years and directed countless more student productions. But ”Every Soldier” is a different piece, telling a much larger story and deeply personal as well.

At 28 minutes, the piece is an expansive dance narrative. With choreography help from colleagues and dancers Stephanie Maxim and Erica Villalpongo, it fills the stage with a dozen dancers clad in olive-green and camouflage, with flags and banners and music and video interviews of veterans. Collectively the piece tells a story of veteran service; opening with induction, the dance proceeds through basic training, deployment, battle and the aftermath of “having served” and concludes with a video interview of Wilson, a Long Beach veteran.

Wilson was something of a muse for Brodie as she worked on the piece, as was her husband whom Nannette accompanied to the Long Beach VA where both volunteered.

One of the dancers with a special connection is Dennyl Green, 21, the youngest of Brodie’s dancers and grandson of Wilson.

“He came from a sharecropper family,” Green said of his grandfather. “I appreciate that his story is being told.”

That Green gets to be a part of the stories and “to live them through dancing,” is a bonus.

Fellow dancer Evyn Davis seeing and hearing the words of Wilson and the others helped add to the authenticity of the work.

“It makes it nice to feel you have a real, raw, emotional thing that you can get out to the audience,” said dancer Jennie Suslaita,

Maxim, who choreographed a duet in the show, said it is important for those who watch the dance to realize that it is not meant to represent all military experience.

“We know there are way more experiences, we’re just showing one,” she said.

“Every Soldier” is divided into six segments.

It opens with the pledge all military take to enter the service, then on to processing, where the recruits shuffle papers and experience the “hurry up and wait” aspect of joining until they bust loose. From there it is on to basic training and boot camp.

In “Depart to Base at 06:00,” the story explores getting ready for deployment to the Middle East, including clips of an interview with an Egyptian-American veteran. It also includes a dramatic duet between a married couple dealing with the emotions of forced separation. The piece goes through conflict and death and ends with a segment called “Reflection,” about the aftermath of service, including PTSD, and concludes with the Wilson interview.

Brodie said Wilson struck the right chord for her as a coda to an occasionally wrenching story.

“He was so positive,” Brodie said. “Some of the interviews were very dark.”

“He had a lot of Jesus in his heart,” Green added.

“The idea is that even though we have all this craziness, there is still a brotherhood,” Brodie said.

So, what may have started as a curiosity became so much more to Brodie.

“It would never have thought I’d go in this direction,” Brodie said of the work. “It’s so emotional and so interesting to put into my movement vocabulary.”

So Cal Dance Invitational happens Saturday, March 23, 8 p.m., at Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theater, 6200 Atherton St.

Tickets are $20 – $25. For more information click here.