BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance is thrilled to be participating in Take Root 2022 on April 8-9 at Green Space in Long Island City. Our work this year is titled Continually Healing and we are having so much fun developing this new work after our COVID hiatus. As the choreographer of BodyStories, my work examines society’s darkest and brightest moments, moving audiences to perceive emotional and psychological aspects of the human condition. Social justice is a core tenet of our choreographic mission, and our work explores issues of the human experience while raising awareness on a local and global scale. BodyStories is committed to reaching diverse populations through performances, community engagement, and accessible education. Over the past two years the company fluidly transitioned to virtual and in-person performance and educational programming, working with an international roster of collaborators to focus on themes of social tumult and isolation.
Continually Healing continues research from a choreographic series that began in 2018, and has gone through many progressions, advancing my artistic inquiry into the management of trauma, violence, inaction, and eventual reconciliation through movement and creative expression. This work, in particular, will focus on the mental distress caused as a result of the pandemic. Through Continually Healing, we aim to explore the frustration caused by the isolation and separation from loved ones. This work intends to speak to traumas and healings experienced by a diverse range of individuals throughout the pandemic. Stories are extremely varied, yet our work seeks to uncover universal truths through a shared artistic experience. Choreographically, we worked on differing dynamics in phrase work to demonstrate the quick changes in mandates, variants, and social issues.
We also played with the contrasting qualities of isolation and demonstrating the varied experiences from person to person. This allowed each dancer to express their individual experience and a space to work through the feelings of isolation and longing for others through text to movement and pulling from that to develop our material. We hope that through Continually Healing the audience will feel invited to process their own feelings and emotions in a safe space alongside us.
The final form will be an evening-length performance integrating live dance with elements of video projection and audience participation. Developed choreography will be layered with video projections of rehearsal footage, as a means to represent the full arc of the work which would include integrated text and reflection. Bill T. Jones’ work, Still/Here, serves as a major source of inspiration. Using choreographic phrases and key imagery synthesized through prior research of current events, personal reflection, and shared stories, this work explores the process of healing and finding social equity through dance. Our music score was composed by Kevin Keller, Muriel Louveau, Kiernan Robinson, and John Yannelli. Performers include Kate Bishop (and Baby Siena), Nicole Kadar- Greene (and baby b & baby a), Emma Iredale, and Sabrina Petrelli.
“The “W” in the title stands for “world,” and Ms. Fellion and her colleagues do succeed in creating one.... John Yannelli and members of the SLC Experimental Music Ensemble contribute a richly textured, partly live score of drones, strings plucked and strummed, swelling distortion, and high hums. The choreography is action-packed with a strong flow, a current that is sometimes tidal, washing the dancers back and forth across St. Mark’s Church, turning the terrarium into an aquarium.”
-Brian Seibert, The New York Times
Make sure to follow BodyStories on Instagram (@bodystories_teresafelliondance), Facebook (@BodyStoriesTFD), and Twitter (@BodyStories_TFD) for updates and behind the scenes footage of our season!