SITE-SPECIFIC PERFORMANCES CREATED COLLABORATIVELY WITH YOUTH GROUPS
“Written on the Body” Kairos Dance Theater in collaboration with the Medicine Wheel Youth Performers
A site-specific performance piece made in conjunction with Michael Dowling’s 17th Annual Medicine Wheel Installation in honor of World AIDS Day. Inspired by Dowling's creation of the Paper Project, "Written on the Body" asks the question, “What is your truth?”. A single sheet of hand made paper 600 feet long and 12 feet high will be the focal point of this year’s medicine wheel installation. Created by thousands of people using entirely recycled materials, participants wrote hopes, fears, dreams, prayers and truths onto paper, which was broken down and reconstituted into one continuous sheet of earth colored paper, weaving the thoughts and prayers of many, into the fabric of one. Prayers for peace in the world, for an end to violence in our neighborhoods, for a job or an end to personal suffering, will all come together as a single human prayer. DeAnna Pellecchia and Ingrid Schatz perform inside the installation with eight brave medicine wheel youth bringing to life the conflicting prayers and desires that are literally written side by sideon the walls, bearing witness to the human condition without the fraught emotions we attach to it.
Reservoir 'The Ressie' Co-Choreographed with Ingrid Schatz In Collaboration with Medicine Wheel Youth Performers
"Reservoir" explores the power and importance of water, or lack there of. Guest artists from Bennett Dance Company perform with the teens; movement assumes the elemental qualities of water and centers around a copper well designed by visual artist Michael Dowling. The sculptural urban landscape of 'No Man's Land' becomes a character all its own in this performance as movers portray the co-dependent relationship between water and the land we stand on. "Reservoir" was funded in part by the Boston Now Program, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Threshold 'The Mythology of Beings' Co-Choreographed with Ingrid Schatz In Collaboration with Medicine Wheel Youth Performers
"Threshold" transverses the gardens, fences and stone paths of 'No Man's Land', while incorporating spoken text, dance, gestures and partnered lifts. Movements, derived from original poetry written by the teens, symbolize passageways that mark significant transformation through the course of our lives. A work about personal and communal metamorphosis, "Threshold", illustrates the ever-changing world we live in through the eyes of young adults. "Threshold" was funded in part by the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Boston Now Program, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Turf Co-Choreographed with Ingrid Schatz In Collaboration with Medicine Wheel Youth Performers
"Turf" is a piece about boundaries. Inner cities continue to be hot spots of ethnic, racial and political tension where youth are sometimes assumed to be unaffected by their cultural climate. "Turf" marks the first year of a performance component to the art-based program at No Man's Land. Movement inspired by physical tasks performed on the land and poetry derived from sometimes heated discussions with the teens, reveal true feelings about the city they live in, lines they cross everyday and hopes for making their neighborhood a better place for the future. "Turf" was awarded the "Boston Peace Party Community Star Award" from the City of Boston for outstanding work in fostering peaceful neighborhoods.
