NEW ART performs segments of We Are What We Eat for a Health Fair in front of the Downtown Public LIbarary. Sept. 2008
We Are What We Eat is a series of workshops and performances about what we eat and the systems that feed us.
A collaboration with the Community Food Bank, the project uses modern dance and personal and community stories to reveal how food connects us to each other, our environment, and our everyday lives. We Are What We Eat performances explore topics such as the industrial food system and food miles, the joys and benefits of gardening, overeating, waste & compost, harvesting native mesquite pods, cooking and recipes, breastfeeding, and grapefruit gleaning.
Co-directed by Kimi Eisele & Amanda Morse, the project was created in 2007 and engaged some 150 Tucson community members—middle- and high school students, Pascua Yaqui seniors, Mexican and Mexican-American adults in Family Literacy classes, and members of the general public—in a “moving” dialogue about food issues through interactive workshops using movement and creative writing exercises. Of these participants, 14 went on to perform with NEW ARTiculations in the premiere production, which incorporated participants’ stories and movement phrases collected during the workshops.
We Are What We Eat premiered at the Community Food Bank and the Tucson Botanical Gardens in April 2008.
We continue to offer workshops and performances for audiences at schools, fairs and festivals, neighborhood centers, health conferences, and food-related conferences and events.
Please contact us for more information about booking workshops or a performance.
Read more about We Are What We Eat at www.newartfoodproject.blogspot.com.
Watch a documentary about the project:
Nourishing Gestures from Jamie A. Lee on Vimeo.
PRAISE for We Are What We Eat:
I found the pieces charming, funny, sad, and uplifting. The venue at the botanical gardens was superb. The whole evening was quite magical. -Sallie Marston, audience member
Combining the spoken word, movement and yes, politics … was a perfect match for me. Women of different abilities moving, passionately offering the history of their recipes (and in one case, cookies) moved me, too. There was a focus about what was important in life. What we eat, what we say, how we move can ground us. -Sheila Wilensky, audience member
I now understand and can appreciate dance more fully than I did before. Having to confront my own fears and insecurities gave me a sense of confidence to try other forms of dance and know that it can be fun and not so scary!–Michelle Kuhns, Community Food Bank staff and community cast member
[I gained new] knowledge about food transport and all the great people that live close to me that are trying in their small ways to impact our lives by growing healthy food in their own back yards. –Amy Barr-Holm, NEW ART dancer