By Anya Pearson

Directed by Jamie M. Rea
​Choreographed by Jeff George
February 15th - March 16th 2019

Tickets to our Thursday Preview (on 2/14) are half price
Shows run Thursday - Saturday Evenings at 7:30
and Sundays at 2pm
​*All our Sunday matinees are free to all low-income: patrons, communities of color, and survivors of sexual violence. You can reserve free Sunday matinee tix online through the "Book Tickets" link, or by calling the box-office.
Each Sunday show will be followed by a talk-back.
 
​Running time: 90 Minutes

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What people are saying:

"Deeply powerful and poetic"
"Exquisite, powerful and uplifting"
"Profound, poignant, painful, powerful & rhapsodic with hope!"
"The choreography and dancing were nothing short of extraordinary"
"The most powerful expression of trauma I’ve ever seen. Courageous and intense, Made to Dance in Burning Buildings gives audiences a unique opportunity to witness precisely what it means to be a Survivor. To see this production is to see Us. Congratulations to Anya, cast, and crew, on an astonishing show."

"This is not a love poem." These words are repeated throughout Made to Dance in Burning Buildings, a dreamlike fusion of dance and theater written by Anya Pearson and directed by Jamie M. Rea. It's a fitting refrain. While there are moments of romance throughout the play, its focus is one black woman's story of surviving rape and battling PTSD." Bennett Campbell Fergudon, Willamette Week
​READ MORE HERE
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"The use of an unspeaking dancer as the main character stands out as Pearson’s most promising innovation in performance, thanks in large part to Bates’ captivating presence. Two scenes stand out in my memory: a gentle duet by Bates and George, with flirtatious leaps giving way to a wrenching apart, and the final solo, in which Bates, her chest thrust forward and hand at her back, performs a stamping shuffle. It’s a dance that refuses to be diminished by fear." -Ben Waterhouse, Oregonlive
READ MORE HERE

Onstage, the slap of flesh as dancers hit the floor, rise, and pull each other through movement is a percussive counterpoint to the cadence of the characters’ spoken words." ~Fiona McCann, Portland Monthly
​READ MORE HERE

Photos by Gary Norman

Cast

Dancers

Amber Bates
​(Ava)

Jeff George
​(First Love)

Minon Minniewether (Ringleader)

Malik Delgado (Sidekick Assassin 1)

Ian McBride (Sidekick Assassin 2)

Actors

Emily Hogan (Official Lady of Missing You)

Tonea Lolin (Lady of Intoxicating Romance)

Shani Harris-Bagwell (Lady of this Crippling Despair)

Nicole Accuardi (Lady of this Uncertain Madness)

Anya Pearson* (Lady of Utmost Perseverance)

*Member of Actors' Equity Association

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Creative Team

Scenic & Costume Design: Jenny Ampersand
Lighting Design: Trevor Sargent
Stage Manager: Natasha Stockem
Assistant Stage Manager & Front of House Manager: Jennifer Wyant
Technical Director: Ted Gold
​Master Carpenter: Kyra Sanford
​Intern: McKensie Rummel
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​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 breathtaking and gut-wrenching contemporary dance to tell an all too familiar story in a brand new way.  

For the play, Anya was 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 recognized a writer of color from Oregon who demonstrates exemplary merit and a passion for social justice.

Photo by Gary Norman

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Made to Dance in Burning Buildings is generously supported by the Collins Foundation, and 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.