Embodied Truth

Finding Ways to Move Together

Embodied Truth: Finding Ways to Move Together honors the blessings and the burdens of being a parent by examining gender and race through the lenses of parenting.

 

The project

Daniel Burkholder and Kimani Fowlin have been friends and colleagues since they were undergraduates together in the late 1980s. Now they are both parents (he a white, married man with a daughter, and she a mixed race, single woman with a son) and concerned about what the future holds for their children. Over the course of conversations they decided to launch Embodied Truth: Finding Ways to Move Together, which explores personal stories about raising children in this #metoo and #blacklivesmatter world through workshops and performances, using spoken word, storytelling, and dance.

Embodied Truth: Finding Ways to Move Together first was presented in spring 2019 during a one-week residency at the Kenilworth East Gallery in Milwaukee, WI offering multiple workshops, an informal performance, and a panel discussion. In 2020 Burkholder and Fowlin will create a formal theatrical performance with parent-artists in Milwaukee, with the support of Cooperative Performance, a performing artists presenting organization. Upcoming events include facilitating workshops for parents at DreamYard in NYC, and participation in the International Dance Day Festival in Lebanon. 

Embodied Truth: Finding Ways to Move Together is designed to support a communal space that allows for community reflection, discussion, and action. The project is available for short-term residencies, and long-term collaborations. 

Possible activities include: 

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  1.  A series of workshops for parents which ask them to reflect on their experience parenting and being parented in relation to race and gender through group sharing, movement activities, and rituals. 

  2. A duet performance by Burkholder and Fowlin which explores their personal experiences as parents - and their differences of race, gender, marital status, and geographic location. This work combines spoken word, dancing, video projection, discussion, and audience engagement. This work can be presented in formal or informal settings. 

  3. An evening length group performance which can be presented as a stand alone event within venues of many sizes. This work can be presented with dancers from the established cast (to be premiered Spring 2020), or reset on local dancers which would include their own personal stories of being parents and being parented. This work includes spoken word, storytelling, and dance with original music and video projection.

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For more information or to schedule an event for your organization please contact daniel@danielburkholder.com.