fairy tales and folklore: dreaming with the body youth intensives

From July to December 2023, I will be hosting three youth intensives in association with my latest professional performance project, Dreaming with the Body. These intensives, Fairy Tales and Folklore: Dreaming with the Body, will invite young artists of any gender identity to examine classic fairy tales, ranging from The Little Mermaid to Beauty and the Beast and beyond, questioning the role of sacrifice as a necessary means for happiness. Through individual and group reflections and creative prompts, such as drawing, dancing and journaling, we will reimagine the tales' "happy endings" in favor of plot points that leave more space for autonomy, nuance, self-empowerment, and joy. Learn more about these intensives, and the performance project, below:

Worcester

Fairy Tales and Folklore: Dreaming with the Body (Worcester)
July 10-14, 2023 9am-noon at The Creative Hub Worcester Youth Arts Center
653 Main Street, Worcester MA
*drop off between 8:30 and 9, pick up by 12:30; snack provided

FREE and Open to Ages 11-14. Some dance experience recommended.

*This program is a project of Bodies Moving and is supported by a grant from the Worcester Arts Council, which was made possible with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funding from the City of Worcester.

LEARN MORE AND REGISTER BY JULY 3

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Wilmington

Details coming soon!

Westminster

Details coming soon!

dreaming with the body

This contemporary dance theater project will explore the themes of love, sacrifice, and violence depicted in fairy tales and lore from various cultures and traditions around the world to reveal through motion biases and assumptions embedded in mainstream culture.  

Fairy tales are stories that describe a society’s cultural morals. These morals become the lens through which society defines its boundaries and biases. The plight of women, particularly queer, BIPOC, and otherwise disenfranchised women, historically become cautionary tales in these stories. By exploring both classic and contemporary texts through movement, dreaming with the body seeks to convey more expansive, complex and nuanced depictions of character, conflict, and resolution that highlights and challenges accepted cultural biases.

Stories to be investigated include Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid”, “A Rose for Zemira” by Fred Crump Jr, and two selections from Carmen Maria Machado’s collection of short stories “Her Body and Other Parties” (“The Husband Stitch” and “Real Women Have Bodies”).

This project is made possible by the JMAC Worcester's Project Sponsorship grant program, administered in collaboration with the Worcester Cultural Coalition and funded by the Barr Foundation. The project will be presented as a full length production December 15-16, 2023 at the JMAC Worcester Brickbox Theater.