Dance Presentations
Have a conference, awareness event, or corporate training related to mental health coming up? Our dance company provides one-of-a-kind trainings on a mental health related topic of your desire. Each training or seminar contains a short lecture, one or more dance stories created specifically for the intended audience, and a Q&A. Our director and creative team work diligently to best understand the current needs and intricacies of the mental health topic, then design a series of dances to highlight the most complex and invisible aspects, allowing audiences to experience the material in deeper and more meaningful ways. Check out our past work below, and contact us to see how you can utilize an educational dance performance for your next event.
Invisible Recovery: The Story of a Young Stroke Survivor
This training aims to illuminate the internal emotional and mental recovery that often gets forgotten and/or minimized when one endures a major physical recovery. Through the lens of a young stroke survivor, we show the juxtaposition between the external being, who often feels a need to match everyone else's expectations and make a quick recovery, and the internal being who may be experiencing a complex array of emotions including grief, hope, guilt, depression, and/or anxiety. What happens when a person seems to have fully recovered from a physical illness, yet continues to live in a body and soul that has been changed? How should we respond as a support system? Though we utilize the story of a young stroke surivor, the implications relate to anyone experiencing a new normal as they recover from a physical illness.
Trainer: Nicole Phelix, MSW, Young Stroke Survivor
Choreographer: Lisa Linger, MS, NCC, Director
Performances
June and Nov 2018: Carilion Stroke Conferences
Oct 2018: Dance Series event in downtown Durham, NC.
Nov 2018: UNC Allied Health Sciences Awareness Week
Dec 2018: Traumatic Brain Injury Support Group
Doorways of Change
This event was held by Karen Carter Fine Arts at Market Gallery 202 in Roanoke, Virginia. Karen Carter created original paintings and several installations depicting various doorways to draw the viewer into their own experiences of change and transition in their life. Lisa Linger, founder of Mental Health in Motion, created and performed two solo story pieces to coincide with this message. The first story represented the period before realizing change is possible, facing that possibility, wrestling with fear and inhibitions, and increasing motivation for change to a point of action. The second piece demonstrated a narrative of moving forward with change despite lack of clarity, facing doubts and criticism, developing internal growth, and finally gaining the self-confidence to experience freedom and peace in this new place of change.
Performances
Nov 2017: Roanoke's Art by Night
March 2019: Arabesques for Awareness
October 2019: Movement Art Gala
November 2019: Fundraiser Night at Pure Barre
Living with HIV: A Visual Storytelling
This training explores the impact that carrying a diagnosis of HIV can have on an individual by displaying various responses to the question - if you could take your diagnosis out of yourself and put it in front of you, what would it look like, what would it be doing, and how would you relate to it? Through this demonstration, we see the various ways people cope, learn, and ultimately persevere. As individual stories develop and intertwine, we also see the value of community and mentorship for those affected by HIV.
Performances:
Dec 2019: World AIDS Day Awareness Event
Our Shades of Grief
Many have come to know some version of the phases of grief. But when tragedy of any sort strikes, it's likely that we don't experience grief exactly in these "phases". Grief can be cyclical, it can linger in a phase for a long time, and it can sometimes take a completely different form altogether. Drawing on our own personal experiences, we demonstrate our many shades of grief to help normalize the nuances and experiences of our audience members.
Performances:
Nov 2018: Fall Movement Art Gala
Through Her Eyes: The Story of a Young Refugee
This training was performed for providers who serve refugee populations. Told through the eyes of a young refugee trying to navigate through the resources of a new country, it highlights the struggles of both the refugee and the providers tasked with serving them and asks the question "how do we best care for this vulnerable population?"
Performances
Sep 2019: LINK Refugee Conference
Oct 2019: Roanoke City Schools Professional Development Day
Family Systems and The Process of Change
This training, set to an educational monologue, is a true visual representation of family systems theory, homeostasis, first order change, and the process of moving into second order change. We take a look at several examples of systems and nuances that may arise. Being able to visually understand these processes allows audiences to relate it back to their own life and families and begin to better understand their systems, areas of conflict, and reasons for change.
Performances:
May 2020: Mental Health Awareness Day Event
Rumination: Experiencing PTSD
This training takes a deeper look into the mind of an individual struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. By displaying the stopping of time, the flashbacks, and the rumination, we start to unravel the twisted web that takes up one's mind after developing this disorder. After being stuck in ruminating thoughts, we also see potential for triumph though corrective experiences that work to shift the individual's cognitive beliefs back into reality and safety.
Performances:
May 2020: Mental Health Awareness Month Event
Martha Graham
“Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body. The body says what words cannot.”