Made to Dance in Burning Buildings
By Anya Pearson
Joe’s Pub, Spring 2018
Made to Dance in Burning Buildings by Anya Pearson is a fusion of poetry, theatre, and violent and visceral contemporary dance.
It's about Ava, a young black woman, who is raped by her boyfriend's friends while he watches; she develops PTSD as a result. Metaphorically, she fractures into five different women who each represent a different facet of her personality (Romance, Despair, Madness, Perseverance, and Missing You). Poetically, these women narrate her journey through PTSD while she, her first love, and her abusers explore through dance the trauma and the events leading up to it.
Based on a true story, and inspired by the original choreopoem, Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls, this play seeks to revolutionize the theatrical experience by combining poetry and breath-taking and gut wrenching contemporary dance to tell an all too familiar story in a brand new way.
Directed by Jamie M. Rea
Choreography by Emily Bufferd
Production Stage Manager: Bleu Zephra
Special thanks to community partners Blue Panther Productions and Shades of Truth.
“Made to Dance in Burning Buildings by Anya Pearson is one of the most creative and visually stunning examples that I’ve seen recently.”
Produced by Urban Haiku in association with Experimental Bitch Presents.