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Santa Calif. My solo starts off with my arms out-stretched towards the sky, trying to touch the rafters, stretching on tip-toe, reaching, head up to the sky. Terry Sakamoto Jr., is describing a dance he calls “The Mountain.” He wrote the choreography from his bunk while in Covid lockdown last spring at the California Rehabilitation Center, a medium-security men’s prison located in Norco, Calif., about 65 miles from my home. Before March 2020, when the state prison system shut down all programming and visitation due to the coronavirus, Terry was among the folks inside the prison with whom I had the remarkable opportunity to dance, make dance, and converse every Monday night for years. The project, called Dancing Through Prison Walls, began in December of 2016. The work took many forms, whether teaching credit-bearing college courses or Rehabilitative Achievement Credit workshops, collaborating on choreographies, bringing in guest artists, or simply spending h ....
“Undanced Dances” showcases written choreography of incarcerated individuals Apr. 14, 2021 at 6:00 am Dance: Local artists interpret prisoners’ written choreography as recorded dance performances. Suchi Branfman When the pandemic hit prisoners’ already limited freedom became even more constricted, but through a unique film initiative, Suchi Branfman has brought the imagined dances of incarcerated individuals to life. Due to Covid-19 inmates have been isolated in their dorms and lost all access to group programming. Branfman, who previously taught dance inside a Norco state prison, realized that even under these new restrictions incarcerated individuals could still write down dances. Her project, entitled “Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic”, features 11 professional artists enacting dances written by prisoners in the California Rehabilitation Center. On April 16 at 6:30 p.m., these performances will be screened over Zoom and narr ....