Between The Waves
Choreography and Direction: Jessica Madden
Choreography and Performance: Danica Clayton, Erin Evans, Michael Landez, Juliet Remmers, Jensen Steinbronn
Text: Danica Clayton, Michael Landez, & Juliet Remmers (with reference to a line from W.S. Merwin’s “Separation”)
To a world in need of recovery: this work is as much for you as the process of making it was for us. It is my hope that as you receive it, you might feel seen, and a little less alone. May you be met with listening ears and empathetic support on your journeys.
“We help our clients move forward by acknowledging their pain and helping them see that grief, like all powerful emotions, comes in waves. We remind them to look for relief between the waves, reassuring them that the pain will not go on forever. It is important to help our clients to learn to accept support and to care for themselves.”
- from "Treating Complex Trauma and Dissociation: A Practical Guide to Navigating Therapeutic Challenges" by Lynette S. Danlychuk and Kevin J. Connors (70)
Rehearsal Photos
First and foremost, I’d like to thank my cast. This piece would not exist without your creativity, your artistry, and your willingness to be vulnerable and delve into your stories. It was an honor for me to witness and share in your journeys. To my committee: Rebekah, Kristin, Jennifer – thank you for supporting me, for holding space for my processing, and for encouraging me to challenge myself and push my work further. To Evan: what a miraculously wonderful journey this has been! Thank you for your beautiful music, your openness to working in a new realm, and for the first of what I hope will be many creative collaborations to come! And Elizabeth – thank you, not only for 20+ years of friendship, but for sending me one of Evan’s compositions last year, just for fun because you thought I’d like it (I did!). To Katie: thank you for sharing your expertise and artistry with me, and for capturing my work in a way that still connects, despite this season of no live audiences. I am forever grateful. To Ailey: thank you for three years of sharing – your insights and sources in our shared areas of research, your time and wisdom in offering feedback, your ears when I needed to process, and your snacks. To my parents, Meg and Karl: thank you for your tireless, endless support! For the millions of phone calls to process – tears, rants, self-doubt, celebrations, and everything in between. For your willingness to show up, despite the distance. Dad, for reading and editing every paper of significance over the last three years – you deserve an honorary degree. Mom, for your tireless enthusiasm, and for consistently covering me in the prayers of a whole community of women (to all my long-distance prayer warriors, thank you, from the bottom of my heart). To my local support system – Julia, Anna, Sam, Ethan, and my beautiful community of fellow grads, both present and graduated – I wouldn’t have made it without you. And to my community of long-distance supporters – Michael, Kacie, Elizabeth, Alexis, Rahs, Tink, Miss Janet, Sarah, Pam, and so many others – thank you for being there through all the twists and turns. And finally – for me my creative work is an extension of my faith. Without Christ, and the ways he’s worked in my life, this piece would not exist. Lord, thank you for the ways you’ve used these three years to shape and grow me, and for giving me a heart to support and come alongside people in recovery.
Jessica Madden is finishing her third and final year of graduate studies as an MFA candidate in dance (choreography) at the University of Iowa. Originally from Frederick, Maryland, Jessica received a BA in Dance and BS in Elementary Education from Slippery Rock University in 2012. Upon graduation, Jessica moved to Chicago where she worked for five years as a Teaching Artist for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in their Education, Youth, Community, and Adaptive Dance Programs. From 2017-2018, Jessica also had the privilege to expand her teaching to include Lookingglass Theatre and Chicago Ballet Arts. Since coming to Iowa, Jessica has focused her research on dance as a catalyst for human connection and empathy, most recently grounding this research in processes of recovery and resilience. Looking to the body as a site of embodied memory and experience, her work investigates the role of personal narrative, specificity, and vulnerability, in creating empathetic connection in both process and performance. Outside of her own creative research, while at Iowa Jessica has had the opportunity to be a part of the process and presentation of works by Ailey Picasso, Stephanie Miracle, and Melinda Jean Myers, in both Iowa and Chicago.
Evan Olds grew up playing music with his family in southern West Virginia. Self-taught, Evan started playing the bass at a young age, but quickly picked up other instruments lying around his childhood home. Evan writes music by ear. Evan's family bands, The Spanglers and Marguerite, perform and travel across West Virginia and surrounding states, playing original music. Currently, Evan practices law and resides with his wife Elizabeth and son Llewelyn in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle.