About:

Sentenced to Dance is a creative arts program of Reentry Rocks that is free to previously incarcerated women. It is a course in which participants engage in movement as a form of self expression, empowerment, and healing. Participants have a safe space in which to explore their bodies, their histories, and the breadth of their own creativity.

At Reentry Rocks we utilize dance, theater, writing, and other forms of expression and storytelling as a means of healing from our past traumas. The work that we create is shared with the wider community to educate and increase empathy and understanding. In the first 8 weeks of this program we have 5 creative workshops and at least 3 rehearsals that result in a performance piece to be shared with the public.

Each workshop has a theme. With that theme in mind, we warm up our bodies, engage in an ice breaker activity to help us get to know each other, and then we use exercises to embody the theme and create our own authentic movements. Each week participants grow more comfortable creating movement, eventually creating movement that expresses aspects of their own stories. In the fourth week, we begin to piece together a movement compilation to be used in our larger dance piece.

All members of the Sentenced to Dance program have additional opportunities to engage in performance opportunities, participate in workshops inside correctional facilities, and engage in outreach activities to educate the broader community.

Why Creative Arts?

So many dynamic issues face our communities today and very often the most marginalized voices are not considered in the dialogue around these topics. Oftentimes directly impacted persons are the last people to be asked their views, opinions, or analysis. The truth we know is that those are the very voices we should be amplifying and listening to. Without their perspectives and lived experiences at the forefront, we are missing the most integral insights and contexts and can not truly prepare ourselves to begin the work of addressing the very real historical, political, and social problems we face.

Complex trauma survivors should be leading the global discourse on what healing is, means, and looks like in the face of ongoing trauma. In the midst of it all lives Sentenced to Dance. Diving into the unique and complex needs of supporting and advocating for criminalized survivors of intimate partner violence, folks who survived facing felony level charges and even charges related to their efforts to survive Sharon honed skills and learned and facilitated a variety of innovative, trauma-informed, anti-oppressive programming focused on the prevention of intimate partner violence (IPV); advocacy and healing for survivors and children impacted by abusive partner behavior; as well as training and education intended to increase awareness of the epidemic of gender-based violence; and advocacy and activist efforts designed to transform the rhetoric and institutions that sustain such violence. When she launched Sentenced to Dance it was with these survivors in mind, but Re-Entry Rocks became a sanctuary for women and non-binary people who had survived dynamic struggles. Her women are in substance abuse recovery, survivors of childhood sexual assault, homelessness, and state violence. Predominantly Black and Brown, they are women who have always existed in bodies that the world often disregards as having little worth. At Re-Entry Rocks “Sentenced to Dance” program they are shifting that narrative while healing themselves and eachother one day at a time.

Sentenced to Dance Mission:

To tell the story of women using their bodies to heal themselves, each other, and their communities. Survivors of mass incarceration, structural oppression, these women and girls spent years in the criminal legal system, and know first-hand the unique challenges faced by the formerly incarcerated and those directly impacted or marginalized by systemic and institutional barriers stemming from inequity and bias. Sentenced to Dance will share their viewpoints, while educating and entertaining viewers, and leaving them with a story of hope and healing.