Press Room

If I Give You My Sorrows

Flyaway Productions successfully premiered IF I GIVE YOU MY SORROWS in October of 2023 in San Francisco. The project featured three rotating beds. What secrets do women leave in our beds? What wounds do we bury there? Hanging off the ground at the center of a large indoor space, the beds were transformed in real time. 6 Dancers activated the beds, shifting their shape and means of suspension, so that the choreography and each story revealed unpredicted physical and political perspectives on who women are. The project extended the work of The Decarceration Trilogy, by focusing on the prison bed. It featured narrative material from 1 currently and 2 formerly incarcerated women. The piece unfolded in 7 sections and ran for 60 minutes. Choreography included a response to one’s childhood bed, prison bed, and bed upon returning from prison. The choreography was 90 percent off the ground and built into the performance space as site specific dance.

The project accomplished the creation and performance of original choreography that embraces off the ground dance, apparatus-based dance, and dance that tells a politically relevant story. It focused on women’s bodies and in particular on the experiences of women who live in incarceration and who have returned back home. Beneficiaries included project partners the Museum of the African Diaspora and Empowerment Avenue and their constituents; featured activists Lisa Strawn, Betty McKay and Tomiekia Johnson; members of the trans community, as we featured the experience of a trans woman in men’s prisons; people who have a loved one who is currently or formerly incarcerated; people who care about women in society, and general audiences who look to art to help them understand the world more fully. Approximately 25 percent of the audience identified as someone who is impacted by prison systems, either via their own experience or that of a family member. The work experimented deeply with the integration of narrative and suspended apparatus. We believe the piece advanced the field of aerial dance via these experimentations. The project also gave a living wage to 6 dancers, 3 designers, 3 composers, and 5 crew.

The visual art exhibit adjacent to performances was an integral part of the project. 5 art pieces sold. The online exhibit continues at MoAD through February, 2024. Titled The Only Door I Can Open: Women Exposing Prison Through Art and Poetry, the exhibition features work on paper by six artists and three poets, all of them serving time or recently paroled. The show was curated by Tomiekia Johnson – with Johnson serving double duty as one of the curators and a central activist in the performance – and Chantell-Jeannette Black, an accomplished painter working mostly in acrylics and mixed media. The curators of the exhibition are vocal in wanting to present an honest view of life in prison, especially the life of women. The Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla where Johnson and Black are incarcerated is the largest women’s prison in the United States, and the United States leads the world in its population of incarcerated women. The curators note that life in prison provides little to no privacy, but one’s bed or bunk provides some solitude – or at least the “illusion of privacy.”

Read Press Release Here

Read Program Here

Download High Resolution Photos Here (Photo Credit: RJ Muna)

If I Give You My Sorrows in the Press

Your Call/KALW

SF Chronicle

SF Examiner

Jen Norris Blog Review

A Peoples Review: More Than A Bed

What Audiences Said

“Both the exhibit and performance were powerful and empowering. They hit me in my solar plexus.”

“I wish more people could see this piece and others like it. I like the various calls to action that are provided as it gives the opportunity to do more than just watch.”

“Last night I was honored to accompany my friend Lisa Strawn to the premier of Flyaway Productions’ IF I GIVE YOU MY SORROWS, a dramatic apparatus-based dance depicting the effects of long term incarceration on women. Lisa was interviewed and her story as a trans woman who spent over two decades in San Quentin was one of three featured in this spectacular show. While on the inside Lisa was a trailblazing activist, writer and change-maker fighting to improve conditions for trans women in the prison. Today she continues to inspire me with her vision, sense of humor, and activism.” (Roma Roma)

A Gravity-Defying Dance for Girls Everywhere

“We need to start believing women, believing that our experiences have value,” says Kreiter. “Belittled, pushed aside and assaulted, all these things that every women goes through, we’ve had enough of that.”

Read KQED’s Article about Flyaway 

A Dancer’s Daring Breakthrough

“With her company, Flyaway Productions, she pushes the boundaries of aerial dance by performing in untraditional venues and addressing social justice issues. Her risk-taking performances take place over alleyways and on rooftops, building walls and fire escapes. Jo’s hope is that by communicating a political statement through the spectacle and innovation of aerial dance, she will inspire people to create change.”

Read Rainin’s Article about Flyaway 

Jo Kreiter’s Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of Flyaway

“Being asked to reflect on 20 years of dance making is daunting. So I have decided to write in the second person. Adrienne Rich, one of my favorite poets and a crucial 20th century political thinker, wrote some of her strongest poems in this narrative voice. I choose to honor her influence on me in this way, with the additional preface that I am truly a Bay Area artist, self- taught and supported by the amazing choreographers who live here, and who have generously allowed me to learn from them.” – Jo Kreiter

Read SPEAK: A Slim Corner of the World here