CHOREOGRAPHER/NYAH BANKS, 2016

The name of my piece is "Break the Silence". The song itself is about rape victims finding their voice and overcoming what happened to them. Although my piece is not about rape specifically, the song sends the same overall message to "break the silence", which means something different to each dancer on stage. The dancers all have their own story and situation that they must overcome and find their voice in. Each dancer has a piece of tape over her mouth to symbolize the obstacles that keep them from finding their voice. When I choreographed this dance, my focus was on my own situation and how it felt to keep everything bottled up. Creating this dance was my way of finding my voice. Throughout the piece, each dancer overcomes her own situation through movement. The piece ends with the dancers finally able to remove the tape from their mouths and vocalize their individual stories. In this, they conquer their silence. 

-Student Choreographer, Nyah Banks, 2016