Choreographer, Interpreter,
Video Editor
June 2022
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Flesh Memories was created through the support of Dancers’ Studio West and the Grand’s Creative Residency. It was also presented at Dancers’ Studio West’s Quick and Dirty Festival 2022.
What are we but flesh?
Souls… but, souls incarnate in flesh. We do not exist without this messy conglomeration of tissue, sinew, fat, fluids; a glorious innerworking of our wellbeing, dis-ease and life’s storage vessel of experience. There is a rising sensitivity within my body as I’ve grown older, adding layers to my journey. I have lived the richness of transformation that has come through the growing of humans within me and the nurturing of these humans without. There is an innate wisdom gained within the very flesh of my body through this experience. This work is an invitation to 6 artist/mothers to explore and share that wisdom.
“Flesh memories” evokes for me the mystery of the information in our cells; the experiences our flesh stores through our embodiedness in the world. If my flesh could speak, what stories would it tell?
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Cells - a container of stories untold
Your flesh, my lens.
I see me through you until you become
opaque.
Suddenly I'm left sorting flesh from flesh; your cell or mine, that shine
I remember from the before time, will it fit? Will it stretch to meet my
need for covering
a heart that used to know itself.
Or did it? Beat for now, surrender, let go. That fire ring, my turn,
becoming.
Flesh of my own flesh
again.
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The work was created by inviting colleagues who are also mothers to listen to their bodies’ memories and the physicality of motherhood while I held space with the camera as witness. I spent a couple of hours with each woman, breathing together, relaxing into our bodies, entering a dark, womblike space with curiosity to allow our bodies to speak.
Research suggests that a woman’s brain chemistry is forever changed after birthing children. The child’s dna is stored within her own cells; not only does she birth a new life, she births a new form of herself. In role and identity, yes, but in physiology as well. At a cellular level, she will never be the same. This research was also a chance for this “new self” to be expressed and integrated.
Another element shaping the research and gathering of material for this piece was a commitment to a radical acceptance and celebration of our flesh. The artists chose clothing that felt vulnerable yet powerful, slightly beyond our comfort zones as a way to celebrate being seen. Acknowledging our bodies’ capacity, power and wisdom through a lens of motherhood and the practice of movement.
The film editing sought to explore this notion of being seen, both by ourselves and by others who hold us in their deepest care and compassion. A layering of stories that are both shared between us, yet specific to our own journeys.
CREDITS
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Lead Artist - Deanna Witwer
Movement Artists - Kyrsten Blair, Megan Gole, Sheanne Keinick, Whitney Monson, Kyla Wallace, Deanna Witwer
Music - Alessandra Enns
Outside Eyes - Mike Czuba, Elaine Hileman, Krista Marushy
Supported by - Dancers' Studio West and The Grand’s Creative Intensive Residency, Dancers’ Studio West’s Quick and Dirty Festival