HRDC |
HRDC is short for the Hollins Repertory Dance Company, but we like to go by HRDC. We are a student run club at the magical Hollins University in Roanoke, VA. Thanks for stopping by <3 |
this past wednesday, members of hrdc joined together for a slow walk that led up to Take Back the Night, an annual event for the hollins community sponsored by CASA. slow walks are a ritual that have been a part of hollins dance for a long long time, something that i believe was originally initiated by donna faye and students for a fellow student’s birthday. (don’t quote me) now, we continue this ritual and each time i participate in this communal action, the meaning and the experience shifts.
on wednesday, we walked for Take Back the Night. something that always happens for me in the slow walks is the shifting of time, of how my body passes through time. that maybe time actually does slow down, even though the clocks we’ve constructed to measure time keep ticking. i feel lucky to have been involved in a slow walk before entering into the sacred and shared space that is Take Back the Night. i was thinking that in future years, it would be nice to invite anyone who wants to participate in the slow walk to join us. something about that shift in time allows me to feel more present and more connected to the people alongside me as we collectively find our own way of moving forward together. i feel that this practice, in so many ways, embodies the spirit of Take Back the Night. the idea that through speaking our experiences together, we can take back our bodies together. in slow walking, i can feel the strength of moving forward, of that simple action of taking a collective step in a single direction.
for those of you who don’t know what Take Back the Night is, i encourage you to look it up. Gaby Soto-Lemus has also written a really beautiful note on her facebook about her experience there, which I also really encourage you to read.
in wrapping up this post, i am reminded of something donna faye would always say, “the ontology of hope.” what constitutes hope? there is something about being together, about the feeling that resonates between the bodies when we walk, when we sit huddled in front of the steps of the cocke building. in the spaces between all of our experiences and in the closeness of our embraces, i can feel hope.
-lauren
