By Tess Brown
Horizon Community Foundation
“Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it.”
–Augusto Boal, Games for Actors and non-Actors (1992)
Pones transforms society in buses and parking lots, at grocery stores and airports, on the street and across school gymnasium floors. All ages, all abilities, all backgrounds, all people- friends and strangers alike. A community of performers that truly reflects the community around it.
Pones transforms through dance and movement.
The Covington nonprofit creates site-specific performances through a fusion of movement and dance with other art forms. Pones’ accessible and participatory performances have been seen in over 90 Greater Cincinnati locations, as well as Indianapolis, and Chicago. Ongoing programs are available year-round for artists and art groups, schools, and businesses.
Each one of Pones’ community partnerships is intentionally facilitated to transform through movement.
For example, once a week, at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center, the group works with the treatment, recovery, and activity center (TRAC) program to bring dance movement therapy to more than 20 veterans.
Dance movement therapy allows our veteran neighbors to reconnect with their selves and bodies and brings a sensory experience that can bring much-needed healing. This partnership and others like it are part of Pones’ Laboratory of Movement collaboration with the Cincinnati Arts Association for their Arts in Healing initiative.
Pones also brings a Youth Focused Laboratory of Movement programming to our community’s schools through any combination of their four curriculum-based workshops.
From healthy self-expression to dancing through the water cycle, students use movement to build skills. These classes are also available to teachers, business professionals, and others across our community at a very low cost to cover Pones’ operational costs.
With such a wide reach of programs, Pones leans on its collective of performers.
Each month, the organization sends a list of the above opportunities, and more, to its group of 50 or so performers. There is no obligation to participate, and likewise, no limit on participation.
Follow Pones’ movement on Facebook and Twitter, and be sure to take a look at their website for programs and opportunities.
Who knows, maybe you’ll catch yourself dancing along.
