SHEDDING SKINS

a new work by Hannah Grace

During research themes of shaking, exhaustion, tension and release surfaced, and as I explored them I felt emotions shifting in my body. I also was held in therapy containers outside of rehearsals and slowly memories started flowing back to me of being sexually violated as a child. I began to piece together this performance was my body and my spirit's cry to be released from holding this trauma and tension for years. The piece's themes overwhelm, dissociation, sexual people-pleasing, and finally disintegrating show my own journey to finally shed these skins that systems of oppression and acts of violence can place upon. This isn't a nice little piece of choreography I thought of; this piece was a mission in and of itself. This piece gives a voice to the process so many don't even realize they're experiencing. This piece sheds some shred of light on to the utter pain, dissociation, exhaustion and excruciating stripped-rawness that processing this sort of trauma takes.

Over the next two and a half months of creation, SHEDDING SKINS was born. At the time it seemed a way for me to release conditioning from my body that had been placed there from growing up in a patriarchal, toxically capitalistic society. I felt a huge pressure on me, born into a female body, to be highly sexual. I needed to be sweet and nice but sexy and confident, but not too opinionated! My body needed to look good and I needed to work hard to get what I wanted, but never show signs of stress or wear.

SHEDDING SKINS is a visceral performance that allows the audience to witness the journey of two female-inhabiting people work through trauma and come home to acceptance and reclamation of their bodies. Through dance and song, audiences see the thawing of a body in fight/flight/freeze mode, the intense work of learning to allow feeling in again, and the eventual peace to be made with the past.
With comments on sexual violence and patriarchal systems of oppression that target bodies with vulvas and vaginas - this experience may make you wince in your seat, but it is an important and transfixing work which platforms progress, hope and gives voice to experiences that many undergo in silence.

SKINS came to me in a deep process of meditation and retreat December of 2021. I tested positive for COVID-19 on my way to Christmas Eve dinner and instead of going to have a meal with friends, I went into quarantine. I decided to use this opportunity of quiet time to go on an internal journey. I deleted social media and used the opportunity to go inward.
At the time, I was working on a the duet FRUITS THAT BLOOM IN WINTER (which you can watch on my 'Choreography' page) and thought I was going to continue exploring that work for the 2022 festival season. Instead, during meditation a new duet dropped into my being. It was fully formed, it was raw, and it combined different parts of my past into a performance that felt larger than me, and that would stretch my limits both as a creator and performer.

SKINS is being born through my unique experience and skill set because the world needs more understanding around the process of healing from sexual abuse. "Me too" isn't enough. Of course, we must claim our experiences. And after, we must move through all the tension stored in our cells to release them and free not only ourselves but generations to come. This isn't easy. This performance isn't easy. None of it is 'happy' but it is necessary and there is peace waiting on the other side. This I know, and this is the purpose of SHEDDING SKINS. If you have courage and capacity, journey with us.

SHEDDING SKINS & Coming Home: Embodiment Tools for Reconnecting are supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England & Westfield Eastbank Creative Futures Fund, funded by Westfield Stratford City and delivered by Foundation Future London. We are additionally supported by our community partners Ugly Duck, Rich Mix, Islington Arts Factory, The Baths, The Rose Lipman Building, The Vagina Museum, Kingsley Hall Community Centre, Alpha Grove Community Centre, & Create + Destroy Studios. If you wish to collaborate with or support the project in another way, please contact Hannah directly. If you're a theatre programmer interested in programming or viewing the work, please contact Hannah directly to be put in touch with the project producer.

About the work...

Birthing SHEDDING SKINS...

SHEDDING SKINS births Coming Home...

I KNEW FROM MY OWN HEALING EXPERIENCE OF DANCING THIS WORK THAT THERE WAS MEDICINE IN THE MOVEMENT, BREATH, & SOUND THAT DESIRED TO BE EXPERIENCED BEYOND MYSELF. I DESIRED TO CREATE A SPACE WHERE EMBODIMENT TOOLS INSPIRED BY THE PERFORMANCE COULD BE SHARED WITH MY GREATER COMMUNITY. THIS GAVE WAY TO COMING HOME: EMBODIMENT TOOLS FOR RECONNECTING. COMING HOME IS A SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN & WORKSHOP SERIES THAT SPREADS AWARENESS & OPENS THE CONVERSATION AROUND SEXUAL ABUSE & HOW TO HEAL ONE'S NERVOUS SYSTEM & RECONNECT TO THE BODY AFTER ABUSE. OUR LIVE WORKSHOP SERIES COMING OCTOBER 2023 WILL TEACH SIMPLE EMBODIMENT TECHNIQUES TO COMBAT DISSOCIATION & LEARN TO SET BODY-BASED BOUNDARIES. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE COMING HOME PROJECT HERE.

Learn more about Arts Council England & how to apply for funding: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/
Learn more about Westfield Eastbank Creative Futures Fund & how to apply for funding: https://future.london/article/year-4-of-the-westfield-east-bank-creative-futures-fund-is-now-open/