Theatre Review: Made to Dance in Burning Buildings Is Theatric Healing
In many ways, trauma can strip us of our humanity, and put us on a clear track to self-destruction. Who wants to feel after someone hurts you and obliterates your very definitions of love and kindness? Yet, feelings are the core of humanity, and Anya Pearson’s Made To Dance in Burning Buildings is her personal journey to feel again after being brutally raped at 15 by 4 of her boyfriend’s best friends as he watches.
In this world, we approach life as if we are bodies with spirits and not spirits with bodies. By defining it as such, rape feels like a mutual invasion of body and soul; an evil person has entered your being, and it is going to take a lot of work and healing to get them out. Seizing this point, Anya Pearson as The Lady of Utmost Perseverance, cracks herself into five beings that become her voice, her thoughts, and her body movements throughout the play. Romance, Despair, Madness, Perseverance, and Missing You are played by Shannon Giles, Jamal Shuriah, Jordon Waters, and Darnell Williams. Directed by Jamie M. Rea and choreographed by Emily Bufferd, each perform lyrical/contemporary choreography and piercingly, devastating poetry/ rap as Anya is moved by them; confused as to how she can live in such pain. When someone hurts you physically, you can heal, but a spiritual wound can command a thousand surgeries. Drugs, toxic relationships, cutting, suicide attempts, and a complete mental breakdown are all approached by The Lady of Utmost Perseverance.
It is hard to place into words the power of Made To Dance in Burning Buildings, and how it impacted the crowd in Joe’s Pub. A snazzy lounge filled with good drinks and food, it felt like the blessed were watching a young woman learn that she is not cursed because that is what a rape can feel like: a curse from the Heavens to show you that you have been abandoned. Such a feeling explains The Lady of Utmost Perseverance constant self-blaming and shame. She fell in love with a man that made her hate herself, and used her trust as a weapon to hand her over to the most heinous of acts. The verses and ways Romance, Despair, Madness, Perseverance, and Missing You speak of The Lady of Utmost Perseverance go from painfully cruel to absolutely enlightened, but that is what happens when you are transforming your traumas into self- love and wisdom.
Though ready and willing to kill herself, Anya/ The Lady of Utmost Perseverance realizes that she cannot leave the mother who has loved her through her breakdown, and made sure every piece of herself she tossed away was caught by her maternal love. It is a powerful message, particularly, because I believe no one leaves this earth without, at least, one person having showed them love. Yet, it is Anya Pearson’s humility at seeing that, which helps her to go from feeling like a victim to feeling human again. Made To Dance In Burning Buildings is gorgeous, stunning, and important because it shows that victims become survivors by healing their heart.
