Sasha Soreff Dance Theater: The Shoelace Project

“Through dance, music, soulful introspection, and creative writing, Sasha Soreff clearly gave these patients and families the message: you are validated, you are creatively unique, and don’t lose sight of your future aspirations.  It seemed evident that the audience got the message; they were riveted.”

            -Judy Aiges, LCSW, North Shore-LIJ Health System

The Shoelace Project

What are your hopes? What are your fears?  These are the essential questions of the Shoelace Project, an interactive performance piece and workshop that can be shared in a variety of community and educational settings, including senior centers, hospitals and schools. The Shoelace Project promotes a deeper understanding of ourselves and each other, while fostering creativity and individual expression.

Shoelaces represent a powerful, and nearly universal symbol: they tie us up, trip us up and hold us up.   They have a personal resonance for me: a structural foot problem makes it necessary for me to wear special orthotics and sneakers all the time.  As “the dancer who wears sneakers,” I have a profound appreciation for things that help us overcome limitations, including, in my case, shoelaces.

The Shoelace Project is comprised of two components, performance and workshop, both of which have participatory elements. 

In the performance portion, we ask the audience to participate from their seats by writing their hopes and fears on ultra-wide shoelaces that become part of the show.  SSDT performers read the audience’s hopes and fears aloud and dance with the written-upon shoelaces, getting tangled and untangled, bound up and released.  Every show is thus singular, distinctly reflecting any given audience’s collective aspirations and dreads. 

The workshop provides a safe, supportive setting in which participants engage more deeply in the artistic process with opportunities for individual expression and collaborative artmaking. In addition to the performance elements described above, activities are tailored to the abilities and comfort level of the attendees and can include:  

• Learning basic dance steps.  This can include a warm up executed from a seated position.  It can also include dancing with shoelaces when appropriate.
• Creating a script of hopes and fears by and for the participants, and reading it aloud. 
• Translating hopes and fears into movement/gestures.  The movement will be appropriate to the levels, range of motion and abilities of the participants and can be experienced from seated or standing. 

To date, the Shoelace Project has been shared at nearly a dozen venues, including Dixon Place, the Harlem Children Society’s annual festival, the Long Island Jewish Health System (patient/caregiver retreat), Soundance, the Governors Island Arts Fair and the FIGMENT festival.   While each performance/workshop uniquely reflects its audience, there is always an inspiring sense of shared humanity. 

Shoelace Project excerpts can be found at:

• http://vimeo.com/9818246 (large cast/stage performance)
• http://vimeo.com/21764448 (outside festival)

Full DVD available upon request.