Wish 1: We continue this conversation in our relationships, homes and communities until body liberation is no longer a radical idea or practice.

Wish 2:  We dance and move in our beautiful bodies without judgment to access the joy that awaits us when we embody our divine nature.

This project has been a special part of my creative life over the last few years.  After each iteration, I feel more self-acceptance and self-compassion than the time before. I feel blessed to have performed with these brave and amazing women, and I appreciate that YOU are spending time with us today!

I was an audience member for the first iteration of this performance. It taught me so much, helped me unlearn more, and left me with hope for a world with body liberation. My wish for you all is to leave as transformed by this performance as I was when I was in your seat.

Being in this community and conversation has been so transformative. To really see (as in dance) and feel (as in dance) how entangled body control/autonomy is in oppressive and colonial ideals and standards has been revelatory. Unconditional love (of mangoes, dancing and me) has been one of the most powerful processes of unlearning that I’ve experienced, in part because it has bridged the intellectual and embodied. I hope you can feel it too.

I have been working at disentangling myself from diet culture for over ten years now. I have done so through reading, listening to podcasts, research, personal therapy, and even scholarship as a Library Faculty member at the University of Vermont. The opportunity to process concepts of patriarchy, misogyny, white supremacy, homophobia, ablism, capitalism and healthism in an embodied way through improvised movement, choreography and theater has been an enormous gift. I am grateful to do so in community, with these inspiring, smart, thoughtful, kind, fun, and creative women.

Being a part of this performance has surrounded me with these incredible and fiercely powerful people who have received the same messaging I did that taught us to play small, hide, be still, and feel ashamed for parts of ourselves. I’m painfully reminded about how these systems are created to keep us separated and fearful of each other, while those same systems benefit from our anxieties. Hearing similar experiences and knowing that they are so common ignited this passion within me to continue to seek community and common ground. This dance has challenged the commands of the oppressive system by asking us to take up space, witness humanity, and showing up big in order to heal the divide between our own joy, bodies, minds, and communities. 

Having the support of Middlebury College and of all my collaborators and co-creators moves me to tears. I have such deep passion for body liberation. Even so, I sometimes wonder if this is the best use of my energy, to make a show about my eating disorder, during this time of multi crisis and collapse. But then I remind myself that it’s about so much more than my pathology. It’s about our collective experiences, collective resistance, and the creation of a new way of being in relationship to ourselves and each other. I hope you feel included in this journey.