Performance at Bedford Hills Correctional Institution

On March 1-5th Avodah dancers Sarah Zitnay and Meredith-Lyn Olivieri joined me in leading a week-long residency at Bedford Hills Correctional Institution for women in Bedford Hills, NY. In December 2009, Regina Ress and I led a workshop for the participating women including "The Body Poem," a series of movements based on Tai Chi that include imagery and visualization. The women created drawings with markers based on their experience with The Body Poem. Later in March each woman built a movement mural using their drawing and the rest of the participants as part of their palette. One woman broke through a human chain, another woman represented being called to action through sound, some depicted memories, while others worked with more abstract images. The dance included choreography by Sarah Zitnay and a large group phrase that we built altogether--purely movement based. The 15 minute piece featured seven women from BHCP (Bedford Hills College Program) and was performed at "Crossing Borders III," the third academic conference held at Bedford Hills Correctional Institution. If you'd like to read an article about the event go to: http://www.mmm.edu/cgi-bin/MySQLdb?MYSQL_VIEW=/news/view_one.txt&newsid=1546