Made to Dance in Burning Buildings by Anya Pearson
Directed by Jamie M. Rea
February 15th - March 16th 2019

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The showcase production of Made to Dance in Burning Buildings recently played to a sold-out house at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater in New York City. Join us at Shaking the Tree for the World Premiere and see the show New York Theatre Critic, Anthony J. Piccione, called a "standout."

​Made to Dance in Burning Buildings by Anya Pearson is a fusion of poetry, theatre, and violent and visceral contemporary dance, which poses the question: how do we heal from trauma?

It's about Ava, a young black woman, who is raped by her boyfriend's friends while he watches; she develops PTSD as a result. Metaphorically, she fractures into five different women who each represent a different facet of her personality (Romance, Despair, Madness, Perseverance, and Missing You). Poetically, these women narrate her journey through PTSD while she, her first love, and her abusers explore through dance the trauma and the events leading up to it. 

Based on a true story, and inspired by the original choreopoem, Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls, this play seeks to revolutionize the theatrical experience by combining poetry and breath-taking and gut wrenching contemporary dance to tell an all too familiar story in a brand new way.  

For the play, Anya is the inaugural winner of the $10,000 Voice is a Muscle Grant from the Corporeal Voices Foundation which is run by best-selling author Lidia Yuknavitch. The grant recognizes a writer of color from Oregon who demonstrates exemplary merit and a passion for social justice. 

"It is told in a fresh, highly experimental way that makes it feel unique and modern compared to other shows that deal with similar subject matter."
Anthony J. Piccione, New York Theatre Critic

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Made to Dance in Burning Buildings is generously supported by our season sponsors: Ronni Lacroute, Jessie Jonas & Ellyn Bye. Major support is also received for this year's season by AGE (Advanced Gender Equity in the Arts) 
We'd also like to thank members of Shaking the Tree's Board, as well as many other individual supporters. To support this show, or any others in our season, please click for more info.