“In some ways, Dworin represents the Connecticut dance scene today, sailing in many different directions, finding voice and purpose in uncharted territory.”
Past Works
Brave in a New World
Through arresting visual and sound design, “Brave in a New World” conjures images of confinement and separation as shadows of the past loom., The courageous voices of children with parents in prison are haunting, woven with their loved ones who have served their time. The work features women and men who have re-entered society from prison dancing with the Ensemble members.
Lighthouse
In Lighthouse, the interplay of ladders, nets and striking movement images lead a group of shipwrecked survivors on a path toward enlightenment. NYC based composer/performer Robert Een, poet/novelist and human rights activist Marjorie Agosín, set designer Marcela Otéiza, and lighting designer Blu collaborate for this mystical exploration of the undercurrents of meaning and connection in life.
In My Shoes
In My Shoes raises the voices of women in and outside of prison in spoken word, dance and song, asking audiences what it would be like to be ‘in my shoes’. Performed by women who have reentered the community after incarceration, with members of the Ensemble, the work is a provocative walk to prison and back that considers what it means to be truly free.
Meditations from a Garden Seat
Meditations blends movement, images and text to present the unreachable world of incarcerated women. Nourished by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s historic voice of emancipation and interfacing with contemporary women who are both in and out of prison, Meditations is a dance of discovery that challenges our notions of freedom and justice while offering hope for a greener, kinder and more conscious world.
In This House
Winner of an Award of Merit from the Connecticut League of History Organizations. This is a multi-arts collaborative project that probes the question of race through the interior spaces of a historic house in the heart of a largely African-American neighborhood in New London, CT. It explores the generational shifts in race relations exemplified by the Hempsted household and its surrounding community: beginning with enslavement it develops into Abolitionist fervor and finally into an integrated, interracial neighborhood.
Dreamings
Dreamings came about as the result of the third year of the collaborative arts residency between JDPP and York Correctional Institution. It explores how prison is not just a phenomenon that affects those that are actually incarcerated, the ripple effects are huge for their children and families as well. Dreamings explores the complexities of these resonating outcomes - the separation, the loss, the fantasies, the sense of absence and presence that awakens in our sleep.
The Witching Hour
Winner of a National Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History. The Witching Hourbrings Connecticut’s 17th century witch craze to life through the untold stories of women who were accused, tried and convicted as witches. Bridging the gap between the 17th and 21st centuries, The Witching Hour explores community dynamics when difference becomes dangerous, and folk culture–as practiced by herbalists, midwives, women landowners, and indentured servants–clashes with Puritan authority.
Time In
Through a mix of story, song and dance, Time In shares the humanity of women behind bars and the complex tapestry of feelings they experience - including anger, pain, regret, despair and glimmers of hope. JDPP’s first collaboration with the women of York Correctional Institution and its most widely toured piece, Time In explores their reflections on time from behind the razor wire.
¿dónde estás?
This dance/theater piece introduces the courageous women who protested the disappearance of their loved ones in Chile and Argentine during the military dictatorships of the 70’s and 80’s, based on interviews Judy Dworin conducted in South America. The Ensemble presents their intense struggle for truth, and to let the world know of the hidden atrocities through dance, puppetry and the poignant text of human rights activist and poet Marjorie Agosin.
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JDPP, Inc. is a 501c(3) organization.