SACRED AWAKENING is a multifaceted project which researches the physical and energetic functions of the female body. This project consists of dance films, a live dance work and a touring workshop. This phase of the project supports the live work and touring workshop. Living In Season is the touring workshop, which teaches participants about the hormone function of the menstrual cycle, and what food, exercise and lifestyle habits are most supportive during each of the four hormone phases. It shows participants that many of our culture's behaviors are rooted in patriarchal systems that don't support the female anatomy. It then proposes an alternative option to living in main stream, conditioned culture. It promotes body literacy by helping participants understand what menstrual symptoms could mean inside their body, and ways they can better support themselves through accessible changes in things like diet, rest and movement. This Is Not My Skin is the corresponding piece of choreography.

What we'll deliver:

• Teach workshops on the menstrual cycle and female hormone cycle
• teach workshop participants how they can best support their female bodies
• teach non-female participants how to support female loved-ones
• Illustrate the entire process through art!

Why it's a great idea:

This project enriches the arts community of Tower Hamlets through the performances of This Is Not My Skin, a piece of choreography which illustrates the process of breaking free of patriarchal conditioning and reclaiming the female body and pleasure senses. Performing this piece in Tower Hamlets will enrich the art community here. It will also provide cutting-edge education to the community, which most people in the world are not aware of yet! This knowledge of menstruality has the power to change the lives of people for the better, by allowing them to support their own physical, mental and emotional bodies (if they are female) or to support those around them better (if they're not female). These practices can help reduce or eradicate symptoms like PMS, infertility, anxiety, feelings of unworthiness and more. They empower female-bodied people to live in harmony with their bodies and themselves, and can empower male-bodied people to support their female loved ones in doing the same.

Steps to get it done:

• Putting together the workshop presentation
• rehearsing with myself and my dancer
• meeting with the costume designer
• researching the menstrual cycle with FAM instructor, Isobel Ripply
• organizing workshops in schools
• organizing workshops in local venues
• organizing the performance in a local theater
• performing This Is Not My Skin
• teaching Living In Season workshops

This proposal asks for the funding of This Is Not My Skin to be produced, and for Living In Season workshops to be taught in schools and across public venues in Tower Hamlets for free access to the public. In this way, the people of Tower Hamlets will have access to this information free of charge regardless of financial status! As the choreographer and director of this project, I will also receive the funding needed to produce the project to the degree it deserves to be delivered with. Finally, Tower Hamlets will also be enriched artistically through the presentation of This Is Not My Skin at a venue in the borough.