Ho m a ge is inspired by the work of Janina Fisher about dissociation - a state of broken awareness and memory that is often experienced after psychological trauma.
Janina Fisher says:
“We don’t survive trauma as a result of conscious decision-making. At the moment of life threat, humans automatically rely upon survival instincts. Later, we may pay a price for these instinctive responses: we have ‘made it’ without bearing witness to our own experience. We are left with an inadequate record of what happened, no felt sense of it being ‘over’ and little awareness of how we endured it. Dissociation of traumatic experiences allows a person to live with conflicts that would otherwise be irreconcilable.”
Choreographer and performer Sylvie Bouchard says:
“Through a multi-sensory voyage, Ho m a ge attempts to reconstruct the self by assembling hidden and compartmentalized childhood memories through the mind of both the young child and the adult. The work looks at how the psyche continues to respond and protect, even after the trauma has passed. With Ho m a ge comes the desire to unveil complex relationships, particularly with my father and his addiction to alcohol which made him violent and sadly unable to flourish, and to make sense of a broken picture, like a puzzle that demands to be seen as whole.
Ho m a ge is driven by my ongoing studies in psychotherapy and by my lived experience. The work plunges into layers of childhood trauma, dissociation, addiction, and resilience, and brings a personal story into a universal lens. While Ho m a ge deals with themes that are not light in essence, the work and performance bring forward energies of love, care and fortitude that continue to be part of my journey, surmounting these traumatic experiences.”
CREDITS
Choreographer and Performer: Sylvie Bouchard
Understudy: Sierra Chin Sawdy
Composer and Cellist: Morgan Lovell
Visual Artist: Ed Pien
Director: Anne-Marie Donovan
Dramaturg: Denise Fujiwara
Lighting Designer/Technical Director: Mateo Barrera
Costume Designer: Nalo Soyini Bruce
REPERTOIRE
