After taking a few years off from hosting holiday dances, we’re excited to host a New Year’s Day dance in partnership with the Asheville Masonic Temple to benefit a wonderful community organization, Our VOICE. This dance is a little different than our previous holiday dances and has been a few years in the planning; many hands have worked together to create an opportunity for what we experience in dance to resonate in the world. And with so much happening in the world right now, what perfect timing.
How we are in the world, how we are in our home community, makes a difference. We are all affected by sexual violence in our community, and Our VOICE is working toward a community free from sexual violence. This New Year’s, your dance experience can contribute tangible and meaningful support for women, men, children, and families who are affected by sexual violence in our home community.
We are all connected; let’s dance like we’re connected.
Let’s dance together on January 1, 2016, New Year’s Day.
Show your support on Facebook.
Read more about Our VOICE at www.ourvoicenc.org.
Sharing Our Bodies Safely
Steven Jones, Events Coordinator
At Asheville Movement Collective, our three central guidelines are Awareness, Participation, and Permission. We like to imagine a world where these guidelines are observed in every place or situation; where moving together with responsibility and respect can be a model for how the world could move with responsibility and respect. Of course, we have a long way to go, but as far as aspirations go, it’s a pretty worthy destination.
Our VOICE imagines a similar world, one that is free of sexual violence. For so many victims, even years after being abused, our bodies feel taken from us, separate from us, the actual site of a horrible and traumatizing experience. I’ve spoken with so many in our community who are travelling along this path to healing, looking for ways to be held safely in community, but to be able to hold ourselves as well.
At AMC, we celebrate our bodies; we claim them; we are them. How better then to support the healing of so many in our community than coming together to dance in thankfulness for our own bodies, but also in celebration of a community where we strive to find safety and share there; on a New Year’s Day filled with the anticipation of a New Way.
Steven Jones
AMC Events Coordinator