HEALING IN MOTION

Sometimes we all need an avenue for release — especially in a year of uncertainty, isolation and unrest. And for the founding members of Black Box Dance Theatre, that release is often best expressed through movement.

Together, the founding members of Black Box travel near and far, all over the world, spending time with both experienced and beginner students, teaching them to access healing and selfexpression through the power of motion.

They’ve worked with students of the arts, students with special needs, seniors with limited mobility, military veterans with PTSD, people with physical and mental disabilities, and, in their travels, there’s often a language barrier between the dancers and their students. Even so, they always find one thing in common: Movement is a universal language — capable of breaking down barriers, communicating thoughts and ideas and releasing endorphins through physical activity, big or small.

“It’s different every single time,” explained Ronald West, founding member of Black Box Dance Theatre. “We’re taking notes continuously and always adapting our methods to meet people where they are. We use a lot of humor to make people laugh and get their guard down. Then we pay attention, listening and watching, to see what each person is capable of and use that to allow them to grow in whatever direction they need to grow in.

“Especially right now with COVID,” he continued, “people want their kids to be happy, so they force this curriculum on them to be like, ‘You’re going to dance, and it’s going to make you happy.’ But when we get there, we sometimes see that, right now, they maybe just need to be sad. And they need it to be OK to be sad — or to be mad — and to release that and get through these roadblocks so that they can eventually be happy. And we’re with them. We use those emotions as a jumping off point to connect, refocus and create a unique experience.”

Black Box Dance Theatre, the Wortham Center’s Artist-In-Residence for the 2020/2021 Season, currently offers a variety of virtual and in-person workshops for students, families, classrooms and individuals in the area — with the goal of connecting, learning, experiencing and creating in a year with fewer opportunities for self-expression.

Prior to arriving at the Wortham Center, though, West and Black Box’s other founding members, Artistic Director Michelle Pearson and Kathryn Auman, spent time in China as cultural diplomats, using dance as a universal language to connect with groups and individuals of mixed abilities. The trip was funded by the U.S. State Department’s Cultural Democracy Mission.

“One of the places we visited in China was a hospital where all the students were adults who had either had a stroke or had some other neurological issue, and their children or caretakers were there with them,” West recalled. “It was a lot of parents that didn’t recognize their children, and everyone in the room looked like they were just trying to hold it together and get through the day — and, on top of that, most of them didn’t understand anything we were saying because translation can only do so much.”

The three dancers quickly realized they needed to come up with an activity that would not only be beneficial and enjoyable for both parties, but would also bring them together.

“The funniest thing was: We asked them to take a newspaper and roll it up with their hands — just to work on utilizing their muscles — and then we had them turn this newspaper into different things: It’s a baseball bat. It’s a fishing pole. It’s a flyswatter,” West continued. “So in the middle of this, you’re seeing caretakers, children and their mother or father who may not always remember them, swatting each other with baseball bats — and it’s hysterical. We open up this dream world where they’re no longer in a hospital worrying about their memory, worrying about taking their pills. They’ve escaped to a place where they’re just having fun. We try to get people to a place where they’re no longer worried about judgement and can just be present with the people around them.”

2020/2021 Artist-In-Residence, Black Box Dance Theatre.

In 2019, Black Box Dance Theatre partnered with the North Carolina Arts Council and the USO to begin creation of their newest work, “Patriot,” an emotionally charged living memorial that examines the service and sacrifice of U.S. veterans, active duty military and their families. Through multimedia dance, theater and storytelling, “Patriot” uses the stories and experiences of real military veterans — many of which they gathered through their involvement in the nationally recognized Warrior, Spouse and Family Reset Programs.

“We’re taking the stories of not one person but every single person, both in the company and from people we have met along the way,” West said. “It’s a true representation of real events — it’s a dramatization, but we’re not making up material. It’s all real, lived experiences.”

The company’s work with Resets supports military service members and their families through movement, dance and storytelling workshops, helping them deal with the ongoing mental wellness challenges of military life and giving them an avenue to process their emotions through physical movement.

“We’re trying to get people to open up and feel a response,” West said. “If trauma is the story that we need to tell, that’s what we’re going to tell. And it’s important to remember that ‘healing’ doesn’t always mean ‘happy.’ Healing is about being able to release whatever it is that you need to release and not putting a timeline on it. We experience that with veterans all the time. They’re used to being physical but not talking, and dance is great for being physical and releasing all of that angst, which is an understandable effect of military life. It’s anything but a self-serving job.”

Stay tuned to the Wortham Center for more information on a future performance of “Patriot,” and, in the meantime, read about or schedule a free virtual or in-person workshop with Black Box Dance Theatre at worthamarts.org.