We asked for the feedback of this year’s participants in this year’s choreopoem training intensive. Yes, we ask for logistical feedback so we can continuously improve the design and content of this training. However, the open ended feedback offers wonderful insight into the communal experience the group creates together. And, this, helps us continue to craft a good invitation to play.
What will you take away from this experience?
I took back the concepts that when dealing within our communities we get the opportunity to hold the truth of peoples stories without sanitizing them. Systems and data driven information want things to be summarized and short, but human healing cannot be treated like data. People sharing their stories also gives me the responsibility of cherishing and honoring the energy and healing it takes for a human to express what often words cannot. This was an amazing modality of healing and play that felt not only do able but truly requires us to be in a good space as leaders before we take on this responsibility. It was amazing to go through conflict in real time.
There were so many elements that I took away from the workshop, namely that Art/Facilitation is sacred revolutionary medicine. The way the facilitators modeled how to be in the tension/tender moments of the work was beautiful and healing. More than just the technical aspects of how to facilitate and create a choreopoem, I have taken away that I can do this work and I have a strong rooted lineage. Having Cynthia, Ola Omi, and Dia as teachers and guides is more than a blessing.
I will take away the ability to turn my writings into a choreopoem. How to use my creativity as a way to connect with others, connect with myself, and communicate the stories of those who were not able to speak them.
I will take away a heart full of deep surrender and relief. I am so honored to have been there and truly learned the rhythm of community and true human feeling as the instructors moved emotional MOUNTAINS for us ❤ It was a joy, it was a dance, it was intuitive and transcendent. The permission to write myself into my storytelling is priceless. The permission to heal and be healed by the work I want to do is priceless. I will incorporate elements of play, structures of peace-building and the joys of uplifting and transformational writing and collaboration into everything I do. I now know how to recognize true authentic relating, what it really means to hold someone– to not let them stumble and fall. I have strengthened my interpersonal acuity and understanding of relationship, and feel and breathe the depthful wisdom that was and is Cynthia’s choreopoem lineage. I am happy to learn and grow, and am overjoyed to know what I know now.
Elements I will incorporate into my work: – using rhythm, voice, movement together and in response to one another in storytelling – using circular storytelling and writing without fear or an overactive editor’s brain! – the voice I found those two days – frameworks of healing, resilience, and healthy emotional composting when things get tough – a spirit of forgiveness for myself and for others always – a release of the shit that smokes the air and clogs our systems, inhibiting us from doing the work we need to do ❤ – many many notes on love, Afrofuturism, joy, and the prioritization of ascending upwards towards better futures!
I will take from this workshop the technologies we learned to become world builders. I will break myself from the norm and start writing myself into stories.
The workshop helped me see how storytelling, movement, and poetry can be combined to express complex emotions and lived experiences. I will take away the importance of trusting my own voice and allowing vulnerability to be part of my creative process. As someone who often writes about identity, disability, and the layered experiences of being a Black woman, the choreopoem structure showed me new ways to blend narrative, rhythm, and reflection. Moving forward, I plan to incorporate more poetic storytelling, intentional pauses, and emotional honesty into my writing and spoken word so that my work not only tells a story but also creates space for others to feel seen and understood. Also, learning to be less palatable and more real and authentic. Sharing my thoughts openly and unapologetically. Trusting myself to not seek external validation in my craft.
I will take away, embracing natural flow and surrendering to the divine plan of things while also accepting help from others.
I took away the importance of creating a space that allows participants to share their raw truth. The facilitators cultivated a space through example of safety and vulnerability.
I am taking away so much, it feels like I am still downloading. Some things that rise to the top are word-building, the power and importance of creative space, and the elements of Choreopoem.
Other Feedback?
It was affirming to be in a space with artist, a variety of intellectuals, and healers. That wisdom was shared in a space that made it accessible and relatable. I wish that the workshop could have been one more day to allow more gaps in between to process some of the information that came up. We as practitioners had received a crash course of something you would take a community through over the span of weeks or months. So as more complex emotions came to a head it would have been nice to have more time. I am grateful to have been apart and I’m still processing everything I learned. Grateful that art has the ability to liberate and heal.
There’s so much generative space this workshop broken open in me, I think in very subtle ways. To be honest, I’m excited to see what will be birth from this experience and the communities that will be built from it.
I felt very seen and safe as well as learned very valuable information that I will use in my own creative process.
These three women opened up centuries of healing for us all. Through their clarity, their voices, and the movement and rhythm of laughter and sacred libation we healed incredible amounts of held and potential suffering. These women built architectures and technologies of truth, security, community. This was ubuntu– “humanity to others,” often translated as “I am because we are” with interconnectedness, sharing, compassion, and community responsibility” at its very core. This was trust-building in the most safe, structured, and intuitive way with such care and tenderness given to the planned and unplanned parts of the weekend. I truly felt like it was medicine every step of the way and that all three instructors were the most conscientious I’ve ever had. There is earth in Cynthia’s teaching. There is play. There is joy, beauty and phenomenal lessons in the human spirit. Thank you to Cynthia, Dia and Oleomi for an experience I’ll never forget! Please offer this workshop in the future!
This was an amazing life changing experience. There is not one moment where I was thinking about being anywhere but in that moment with those people. These 3 ladies did a phenomenal job and took teaching to a whole different level I didn’t know could exist.
The workshop created a welcoming and reflective space where participants could explore their creativity without feeling judged. I appreciated the opportunity to engage with different forms of expression and to reflect on how personal experiences can be transformed into art. It reminded me that creative work does not have to be perfect to be powerful. Workshops like this are important because they encourage people to share their stories and connect through art in meaningful ways. For me, someone wrote down the words rage and grief on the white board and that had been major sources of conflict as a Black disabled woman who constantly has to advocate for herself in doctor’s appointments, at school, and in so many other spaces where I often feel defensive. Feeling the weight of being a marginalized population x 3 and being able to channel those feelings into my poem was enlightening and refreshing. It felt like I no longer had to keep carrying that pressure alone. Instead, I was able to release some of those emotions in a way that honored my own narrative and was intentional to my story, rather than shaped by the way others choose to see me. I had challenges with transportation and second guessing showing up at first but being there was necessary. Community is art. Thank you for welcoming a space to feel belonged and with such openness and for everyone in the room to feel valued, appreciated, and empowered!
I really enjoyed this two week workshop and wish it was longer
This was a true experience in working in community. I wish there could have been more diversity in the participants or a clear understanding that this was to be solely from a Black female perspective.
Thank you for this space. I feel held and moved. If honest, it has been hard to go back into the real world this week because the space was such a reminder of the worlds we are building.
Healing Waters Productions 