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AUDIENCE REVIEW: Creative Performances presents "Our Bodies! A Protest in Dance!"

Company:
Creative Performances

Performance Date:
April 5, 2023

Freeform Review:

On Saturday, April 22nd 2023 at 5pm, I had the pleasure of attending a performance presented by Creative Performances: “Our Bodies! A Protest in Dance!” It was produced and curated by Sangeeta Yesley who put together a lovely evening of dance sharing their voices through utilizing our beautiful bodies to address the pressing issue of women's bodily autonomy. Within the 5pm program, there were five beautiful pieces demonstrating the effects of the reversal of Roe. 

The show opened with Dance Visions NY’s “Dialogue”, which did a very effective job of showing how this is a generational issue by utilizing dancers of different ages, and how the effects aren’t just felt in the youth, but also those older, as they feel that their voices are silenced the same. 

The next piece by Alli Bradley entitled “How Long Does it Take?” shared the history of women’s rights over their bodies from Roe v. Wade in the 70s to the present day. The dancer begins moving to the 70s like music showing how we are regressing in the rights of women’s voices. It was powerful in utilizing the music to explore how there was progress and then with overturning Roe last year the regression and going backwards in history. 

The third piece “Unowned” performed by Chutzpah Dance was a strong piece demonstrating the stereotypical everyday feminine activities or what society has deemed as feminine. It was a strong dance piece portraying through gestural movements and strong dance dynamics the physical demands of women in society and what they give up. 

sarAika movement collective presented a piece “I choose myself,” which was strong in eye contact between dancers sharing that human connection described within the description of the piece. The piece was strong in contact, improv manipulating each other in ways society almost manipulates women. There was a strong connection between the dancers that made this piece so powerful and dynamic in addressing the societal issues of the present day. 

The evening ended with “Expecting Expectations” by Anthony Alterio. The choreographer described this piece as a more satirical work differing from the more serious dance pieces prior. The timers were a strong aspect of the piece, that when each one went off, it was portraying that even when feeling like we are going back in history we have to keep using our voices to advocate for our rights. Time does not stop. 

As a whole this evening presented many different explorations of the societal impacts on the female’s autonomy over their bodies and advocate for reproductive justice. Each piece stood out in their own excellent, different way and left their impact on the audience. I will definitely be following along on what these choreographers and companies create next as well as going to another performance hosted by Creative Performances. Sangeeta is a true professional and I thank her for putting together an impactful evening of dance and utilizing the creative brain to share our voices in such an important social issue of the present day.