By Jamie Erin Murphy
What is identity? What makes us what we are? What parts of our identity given or created? Why does discussing our identity make ourselves and others uncomfortable?

These are a few questions I have been asking myself while I begin down the path that is leading my creation of Me vs... I began this journey a few years ago when my artistic partnership with a good friend and collaborator ended. I felt lost as an artist, choreographer and person. Why did this relationship define my artistic voice and why could I no longer find a way to create. I didn't know who I was anymore. This lead to the works-in-progress piece Words on Lost that would be my initial step into the large world of exploring identity and my section of The Missing Peace.

Last week I hosted a creative day/open rehearsal for the dancers involved in my work, as well as, dancers from the community. We started the day with the question "What do you see about this person?". We judged each book by their cover and discussed how that made us feel as both the person being looked at and the people that had to do the judging. We started to notice that we avoided things such as race and gender or things that could "offend" anyone and talked more about each persons clothes, eye color and nervous tendencies. 

We moved on to a Post-It exercise where I gave a list of categories we get put into when discussing identity [Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Religion, Socioeconomic Status, Age, Physical Ability, Mental Ability, Profession] and anonymously wrote a word, short phrase or drew a picture for each one. We covered the mirror in these post-its and then walked around and looked at what everyone wrote. We started to find similarities between us that we didn't know that we shared. I found the post-it's to be moving, inspiring and eye opening in this process.

The next two exercises were movement based. We first lined up by the mirror of post-its as I read allowed prompts that would allow the dancer to improv across the room if it applied to them. If the dancers moved across the room they would then have to look at the dancers opposing them then walk back as a group to join the others. These 25 prompts spanned from "if you like the color red" to "if you have ever been judged by the color of your skin" to "if you find joy in who you are". Some of the more emotional questions made it harder for the dancers to move. They found connections with the other dancers moving with them and started to feel empathy for the dancers who moved as they looked at them from the opposite side.

Our second movement exercise was to build a phrase based off 10 statements that would lead the dancers to a sign with an identity category on it that were hung across the room. These statements ranged from "The part of your identity that is most difficult to talk about with people who identify differently than yourself is ______?" to " The part of your identity that garners you the most privilege is ______?". Some of the dancers said they had not thought about their identity in these way before. This exercise stemmed a lot of conversation of different ways we haven't viewed or categorized ourselves before.

We finished the day with our first exercise but changed the question from "What do you see about this person?" to "What do you know about this person?". It was a nice way to wrap up what became a very therapeutic creative day for myself and the dancers. We started to see that while we are all unique beings we can find common threads that sew us together. Finding someone to relate to helps us build community and support us through the difficult times. I'm excited to continue on this exploration with these wonderful, open artists!

​Check out the dancers wrap up thoughts below!!!!

By Shana Simmons

When I first created STOP as a solo, I wanted to challenge myself physically as a performer. As I delve deeper into the nature of depression and what manifests as thoughts, there is a natural expression of movement that continues to be abusive to the body. Though beautiful to watch (in my opinion), after this rehearsal my back was tight, I had bruises in odd places, and it seemed my left shoulder was inwardly rotated days later. As a choreographer, I have to assess what reads to an audience constantly and what sections I'm developing as we go. These first phrases are simply thoughts in my head right now that will start to become more concrete with what I'm trying to say through movement.

I've heard it described as a "spiral downward" when you're caught in your own thoughts about depression that can lead to suicidal thoughts. I tried to develop a phrase that captured this idea. We will play with timing and emotion to fine tune what I want it to express for the performance. It feels good to express and create through the body. There is nothing like it.

If you are struggling with depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

By Brady Sanders
What do I want to say? How do I want to say it? Will what I'm attempting to  say be communicated successfully and in an accessible and impactful way? These questions are vital to my creative process and are helping guide the development of What Remains.  

The WHAT and the HOW.
What Remains is inspired by my experiences with Alzheimer's Disease. I hope to embody not only my own hopes and fears for the future, but also personal experiences of care givers and others who have been impacted by the disease. This video clip is of the What Remains cast experimenting in rehearsal with flash lights and a movement phrase inspired by the words "mood shift", "aggravated", "aggressive", "frustrated", "unsure" and "confused".  I wanted to explore the idea of feeling completely lost; having no idea where you are, who is around you, or who you are.  Though I find it unnerving at times to workshop an idea in real time with the dancers, allowing room for experimentation has become an extremely valuable tool in the creative process and often leads to more unique, innovative and visceral choices. While I don't know how yet or even if this experiment with light and imagery inspired phrase work will be integrated into What Remains I do know that experimenting during the creative process informs what I say, how I say it and how it resonates with an audience.

If you have an experience with Alzheimer's Disease and are willing to share your story please contact me at [email protected]

Thanks for reading!