The choreography and performance are an ISIS wing fusion belly dance inspired by true events.
By Sheri Deer
I was so excited to have a chance to do a photo-shoot with Jamie, a dancer I met at the new dance studio I recently joined. Jamie was popular in the community because she owned a well-known restaurant, she played the violin beautifully and she was teaching a dance class at Beverly’s dance studio. Unfortunately, I noticed that she was not teaching as much anymore and performing less and less all the time. I didn’t understand what was going on in her life, but hindsight is 20/20. Nevertheless, I became very good friends with someone that was extremely close to Jamie, and she talked and bragged about her all the time, but Lavita felt the same way I did and wondered why Jamie was backing away from her obligations. Lavita owned a photography studio and asked me if I would do a photo shoot with Jamie and her violin and me with my gold wings. I agreed and so she set it up for Thursday, a week from today. Tragically, this would never happen. On Saturday Jamie was reported as a missing person. She didn’t show up at her restaurant on Friday or Saturday, and that was very unlike her. So, the manager of the restaurant reported her as missing. The police started looking for Jamie and they started with her place of residence. They knocked at the front door and to their surprise, a man opens the door, he let them in to search with no resistance. Tragically, they found her in the basement beaten to death. He had lived there for 6 months, and she asked him to leave, this ended in her death. He was arrested and sent to prison for the rest of his life. Dreadfully, that does not bring Jamie back. So, the very day that we were supposed to do a photo-shoot together was on the same day and the exact location she had her memorial. I am sitting there with over 2000 people at this beautiful historical theater wondering Why? What happened? Where did we go wrong? This doesn’t make any sense. I think the signs were there, but unfortunately, we did not recognize them. She was backing away from dancing, teaching and performing and that is a big red flag. She wasn’t talking to her friends as much and she was isolating herself.
After this happened, I felt like I wanted to do something to bring honor to her and make people more aware of domestic violence. So, I found a great song that said everything I wanted to say and began to choreograph this dance. My hope and prayer is that it would be something to honor Jamie and bring awareness to others. I have performed this dance several times, and without a good introduction this dance can be misinterpreted. So, with a good introduction it is a powerful dance with a powerful message.
The biggest message I wanted to share was that we can be victorious no matter what the circumstances are, or how hopeless it looks. There are many ways to get out of a bad situation, we just need to make the decision to get out. Women are perceived as weak, but we are not weak, and that is what I want women to see, is their “Inner Strength”. So, like in the choreography the dance shows a black shadow behind me that is haunting and taunting me, and that is the time you make the decision to turn and face it and say, “NO MORE”. It may be scary at first, but the harder you fight the more victorious you will be, “find help”.
Lastly, the reason all my choreography's end with the “victim” being the “winner” is because that is my hope and prayer for anyone suffering from any type of violence or abuse. Your path is your choice! What will you choose?
If you or anyone you know is suffering from domestic abuse, please call the national hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text BEGIN at 88788.
Love, peace and rainbows!
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