Talia DeLeo

Music: “In Between Breaths” by SYML

Message from Talia:

whispered was the first piece I ever put on stage. when I was thinking of how to create it, I went through countless ideas and kind of tore my life apart looking for inspiration. I scoured pages of my journal, searched through photos on my phone, and approached every situation with the question of “can I make a dance about this” in the back of my mind. I had found a video from late summer that I had taken of heat lightning where the sky was purple and hazy, and a lightning bolt had lit a cloud from within, but there was no thunder. it struck me because lightning is almost always followed by thunder, so I thought this video was a good analogy for my personality – I’m aware that I’m never going to be the loudest in a room, and I don’t light it up because of my voice. the lightning bolt didn’t make any sound, but it still made an impact and drew a bright line in the sky. I wanted to paint that introverted and quiet quality of mine in a light where it would be portrayed as a strength when I had previously been told that it was a weakness. my quietness allows me to be observant, to be a good listener, to think deeply and carefully about the words I want to put out into the world. because expressing myself through speaking is harder for me, I have the unique ability to express myself through dance and choreography instead. I encouraged the student dancers in the piece to do the same, to think about the special qualities and aspects of their sense of self that they love and find strength in, and embody those characteristics as they performed. in this piece, I aimed to focus on the musicality and layering, with lines of dancers performing different movements up until one moment where they would dance in unison, and when they danced in sync it felt like a glimmer of little stars. it was really fun for me to create a piece that allowed me to take something that had been perceived as a trait that held me back, and embrace it and turn it into a positive experience.