Her Body Speaks
Expression through dance is the poetry of movement language.
It is the foundation upon which JDPP’s work is built.
Giving voice, ensuring that those who are not listened to are heard, has been a central part of JDPP’s mission.
And the body is a clear place for us to start. Our bodies and the language of movement are so often overlooked and ignored.
As infants, the first ways we communicate with others, explore the world around us, discover what life is about, is through the body. Watching a baby play, touch, sense, feel the ground, understand another’s touch, is all through the body.
As verbal acuity, reading, and writing become learned skills, the body and its language are relegated to second place and often forgotten.
But the body speaks.
It is a way of knowing that exists in time and space—it is four-dimensional in its reach. It is a province of wisdom to be honored and celebrated. We receive its messages unconsciously, even when we are not noticing.
The body as a place of freedom and choice—a realm in which all human beings, women, men, and non-binary people, can listen, learn and choose—that is the voice that waits to be given to women.
My Body, My Body, was a piece created in 1993 that claimed that province for women; with movement and edgy humor it said “Yes” to a woman’s right to own her own body and to choose for it what is best—to not be beholden to the judgment of others in owning herself.
My Body, My Body has become a signature work of JDPP and has been performed numerous times with numerous casts of women. Sadly, in recent years, it has become even more relevant that when it was created.
On November 5th, we have an opportunity to consider a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body—an inalienable right in need of regranting.
Don’t miss this opportunity and make sure that others are there as well—
will she fly will she fly
no never with those wings
and she cries as she listens to the silence in her heart
as it tugs as the beating and purges her to start
find the whisper
find the whisper
find the whisper if you dare
find the whisper as it licks the vibrations in the air
it is urging
it is surging
it’s regurging her to say
It’s my body body body body body body body
It’s my body body body body body body body
It’s my body body body body body body body
It’s my body body body body body body body
—from My Body My Body over 30 years ago:
See you there!