The three women are in a whirl, dealing with jobs, children and the daily rush of life. Suddenly a voice cuts through the air. “Is there someone there with you? I think you had better sit down. Your test results were positive. You have breast cancer.” The women stop, stunned.
Collaborative Dance Event
That is the opening of an interpretative dance piece by Laura Johnston, Kathy Gee and Catherine Bauer that will be a portion of an upcoming concert, “Dancing in Pink!” planned for Sept. 18 at 2 and 8 p.m. at the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre at the Warner Theatre in Torrington. Tickets are $27, and $3 from every ticket sale will go toward Are You Dense, Inc., the Woodbury-based breast cancer advocacy group, and Breast Cancer Action.
Are You Dense, founded by Woodbury resident Nancy M. Cappello, Ph.D., is dedicated to informing the public about dense breast tissue and its significance in the early detection of breast cancer, while Breast Cancer Action, based in San Francisco, Calif., carries the voices of people affected by breast cancer to inspire and compel the changes necessary to end the breast cancer epidemic.
“Dancing in Pink!” is a collaborative dance concert focused on the many perspectives of women’s experiences living with breast cancer. Judith Ehrman-Shapiro, a dancer and choreographer from Litchfield, is working with Ms. Johnston, Ms. Gee and Ms. Bauer, all breast cancer survivors, to create an original piece from their point of view. Joan Kunsch, associate director of The Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, will premiere an original dance drama featuring Nutmeg faculty member Victoria Mazzarelli, also a survivor, who will appear with her longtime dance partner Tim Melady.
Kellie Ann Lynch, a member of Adele Myers and Dancers and co-founder of the Elm City Dance Collective, will also debut a new solo piece, and Anthony Manuel, a Los Angeles choreographer and current artistic director for the Island Inspiration All-Stars performance company, will exhibit an original work of choreography featuring himself and Brattleboro, Vt., resident Emily Wolfman. Ms. Wolfman is also a member of the Kiva Dance Collective.
Performers include other members of the Kiva Dance Collective, the Clark Dance Theatre and Dance Connect.
The program was first conceived by Lacey Byrne, artistic director of Salix Productions in New Hartford. She said the inspiration came in 2009 when she was teaching a course on women and health at the University of Connecticut campus in Torrington. “We were doing a section on breast cancer,” she recalled, “and were reading ‘The Breast Cancer Diaries’ by Ann Murray Paige, a journalist from Portland, Maine. We got to the part about making a breast cast before a mastectomy, and I thought, ‘I think I see a dance movement here.’ The more I thought about it, the more ideas I had, until I had 15 or 20 [concepts]—personal and political … . I started talking to people and things just sort of fell into place.”
What evolved is a dance concert of some 11 pieces, of which “Courageous Journey, Finding the Pink Lining,” created by the three cancer survivors and facilitated by Ms. Ehrman-Shapiro, is perhaps the most intensely personal. “Everything from the sound score to their costumes they imagined and created,” said Ms. Ehrman-Shapiro.
Her work with the three novice dancers was a natural outgrowth of her role as founder of the Kiva Collective, whose 13 members do all their own choreography, and her work as a dance therapist. “We are not about one vision,” said Ms. Byrne, and this concept was applied to the development of “Courageous Journey.”
The three cancer survivors came forward to create the piece after Ms. Byrne approached Brave at Heart, a Waterbury area support group for women dealing with breast cancer. “We wanted to find survivors of breast cancer who were not dancers,” she explained. “We contacted the Harold Leever Cancer Center in Waterbury, where Anne Pringle runs a support group. We said we were looking for survivors and she sent e-mails to the 30 women there. These three women responded. I think three is a good number because the piece can be more intimate.”
Intimate it is, growing out of the individual experiences and feelings of the dancers. All were strangers to the others before they met in the beautiful contemplative garden at Wisdom House in Litchfield for their first session. There they walked the meditation labyrinth together and, under the guidance of Ms. Ehrman-Shapiro, shared the deep feelings they had about their common experience. Later they worked to turn those feelings into dance movement.
Ms. Bauer, who is on the board of Are You Dense, described the piece in an e-mail as an effort to “portray this awful experience without a happy-ever-after ending … moving through it in, hopefully, a beautiful, telling way to the strong, spit-you-in-the-eye [cancer] ending that is our reality. It is a beautiful, emotionally cathartic experience.”
The women laughed when asked if they were members of the Kiva Collective. “We are not dancers,” responded Mrs. Johnston.
“This is our maiden voyage in dancing and appearing onstage in tights,” added Ms. Bauer with a smile. But the women concede that what they can bring to the program is the intimate knowledge of what breast cancer is like and what it does to a person. “There are a lot of little details no one would think of who hadn’t gone through it,” said Mrs. Johnston.
“When you are going through it, you keep on your happy face, and people just don’t know what it is like,” explained Ms. Bauer.
And many people don’t want to know. Another lengthy piece created by Ms. Kunsch of Nutmeg Conservatory for the concert, “Watch with Me,” addresses the problem cancer victims face when the support of their friends dry up. “When you are first diagnosed, people come out of the woods to be nice to you,” said Mrs. Johnston. But later that support fades, often just as the cancer victim needs it the most. “When you really need them, they are not there,” said Ms. Byrne. She said the piece is based on the disciples who slept while Christ prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Four women from Brattleboro, Vt., will present their interpretation of “The Waiting Room,” and the Clark Dance Theatre of New Haven will present a healing piece. Continuing the positive energy of the program, Chloe Carlson of Dance Connect will do a piece on joy.
Ms. Ehrman-Shapiro praised Wisdom House for its generosity in making its facilities available for the rehearsals. “Wisdom House has just been wonderful,” she said, commenting that it has provided a sunny meeting room for rehearsals and access to its meditation labyrinth.
“Dancing in Pink!” will be staged Sept. 18 at 2 and 8 p.m. at the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre at the Warner Theatre, located at 68 Main St., Torrington. Tickets are $27. Group rates are available. For tickets, call 860-489-7180, or visit www.warnertheatre.org.
Collaborative Dance Event
That is the opening of an interpretative dance piece by Laura Johnston, Kathy Gee and Catherine Bauer that will be a portion of an upcoming concert, “Dancing in Pink!” planned for Sept. 18 at 2 and 8 p.m. at the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre at the Warner Theatre in Torrington. Tickets are $27, and $3 from every ticket sale will go toward Are You Dense, Inc., the Woodbury-based breast cancer advocacy group, and Breast Cancer Action.
Are You Dense, founded by Woodbury resident Nancy M. Cappello, Ph.D., is dedicated to informing the public about dense breast tissue and its significance in the early detection of breast cancer, while Breast Cancer Action, based in San Francisco, Calif., carries the voices of people affected by breast cancer to inspire and compel the changes necessary to end the breast cancer epidemic.
“Dancing in Pink!” is a collaborative dance concert focused on the many perspectives of women’s experiences living with breast cancer. Judith Ehrman-Shapiro, a dancer and choreographer from Litchfield, is working with Ms. Johnston, Ms. Gee and Ms. Bauer, all breast cancer survivors, to create an original piece from their point of view. Joan Kunsch, associate director of The Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, will premiere an original dance drama featuring Nutmeg faculty member Victoria Mazzarelli, also a survivor, who will appear with her longtime dance partner Tim Melady.
Kellie Ann Lynch, a member of Adele Myers and Dancers and co-founder of the Elm City Dance Collective, will also debut a new solo piece, and Anthony Manuel, a Los Angeles choreographer and current artistic director for the Island Inspiration All-Stars performance company, will exhibit an original work of choreography featuring himself and Brattleboro, Vt., resident Emily Wolfman. Ms. Wolfman is also a member of the Kiva Dance Collective.
Performers include other members of the Kiva Dance Collective, the Clark Dance Theatre and Dance Connect.
The program was first conceived by Lacey Byrne, artistic director of Salix Productions in New Hartford. She said the inspiration came in 2009 when she was teaching a course on women and health at the University of Connecticut campus in Torrington. “We were doing a section on breast cancer,” she recalled, “and were reading ‘The Breast Cancer Diaries’ by Ann Murray Paige, a journalist from Portland, Maine. We got to the part about making a breast cast before a mastectomy, and I thought, ‘I think I see a dance movement here.’ The more I thought about it, the more ideas I had, until I had 15 or 20 [concepts]—personal and political … . I started talking to people and things just sort of fell into place.”
What evolved is a dance concert of some 11 pieces, of which “Courageous Journey, Finding the Pink Lining,” created by the three cancer survivors and facilitated by Ms. Ehrman-Shapiro, is perhaps the most intensely personal. “Everything from the sound score to their costumes they imagined and created,” said Ms. Ehrman-Shapiro.
Her work with the three novice dancers was a natural outgrowth of her role as founder of the Kiva Collective, whose 13 members do all their own choreography, and her work as a dance therapist. “We are not about one vision,” said Ms. Byrne, and this concept was applied to the development of “Courageous Journey.”
The three cancer survivors came forward to create the piece after Ms. Byrne approached Brave at Heart, a Waterbury area support group for women dealing with breast cancer. “We wanted to find survivors of breast cancer who were not dancers,” she explained. “We contacted the Harold Leever Cancer Center in Waterbury, where Anne Pringle runs a support group. We said we were looking for survivors and she sent e-mails to the 30 women there. These three women responded. I think three is a good number because the piece can be more intimate.”
Intimate it is, growing out of the individual experiences and feelings of the dancers. All were strangers to the others before they met in the beautiful contemplative garden at Wisdom House in Litchfield for their first session. There they walked the meditation labyrinth together and, under the guidance of Ms. Ehrman-Shapiro, shared the deep feelings they had about their common experience. Later they worked to turn those feelings into dance movement.
Ms. Bauer, who is on the board of Are You Dense, described the piece in an e-mail as an effort to “portray this awful experience without a happy-ever-after ending … moving through it in, hopefully, a beautiful, telling way to the strong, spit-you-in-the-eye [cancer] ending that is our reality. It is a beautiful, emotionally cathartic experience.”
The women laughed when asked if they were members of the Kiva Collective. “We are not dancers,” responded Mrs. Johnston.
“This is our maiden voyage in dancing and appearing onstage in tights,” added Ms. Bauer with a smile. But the women concede that what they can bring to the program is the intimate knowledge of what breast cancer is like and what it does to a person. “There are a lot of little details no one would think of who hadn’t gone through it,” said Mrs. Johnston.
“When you are going through it, you keep on your happy face, and people just don’t know what it is like,” explained Ms. Bauer.
And many people don’t want to know. Another lengthy piece created by Ms. Kunsch of Nutmeg Conservatory for the concert, “Watch with Me,” addresses the problem cancer victims face when the support of their friends dry up. “When you are first diagnosed, people come out of the woods to be nice to you,” said Mrs. Johnston. But later that support fades, often just as the cancer victim needs it the most. “When you really need them, they are not there,” said Ms. Byrne. She said the piece is based on the disciples who slept while Christ prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Four women from Brattleboro, Vt., will present their interpretation of “The Waiting Room,” and the Clark Dance Theatre of New Haven will present a healing piece. Continuing the positive energy of the program, Chloe Carlson of Dance Connect will do a piece on joy.
Ms. Ehrman-Shapiro praised Wisdom House for its generosity in making its facilities available for the rehearsals. “Wisdom House has just been wonderful,” she said, commenting that it has provided a sunny meeting room for rehearsals and access to its meditation labyrinth.
“Dancing in Pink!” will be staged Sept. 18 at 2 and 8 p.m. at the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre at the Warner Theatre, located at 68 Main St., Torrington. Tickets are $27. Group rates are available. For tickets, call 860-489-7180, or visit www.warnertheatre.org.
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Good luck with the dance and I thank you for spreading the word on breast cancer awareness... And for watching my film! Ann Murray Paige, The Breast Cancer Diaries
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