Arts Activities Support

The most significant outcome of this project was the emotional impact it had on both the veterans and the artists of our company. As one veteran expressed to a staff member, “I was sad when I came in, but I feel better now.” And another commented, “That was spectacular!” This new project, Tours of Duty, was enormously successful both artistically and organizationally. The project was implemented as described in the grant proposal. After completing the Planning Process in September, Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater presented a series of Life Stories workshops for veterans at the VA Adult Day Health Care Center in Richfield. These workshops invited the veterans to share their stories and experiences of wartime and returning home. Their stories were then translated into movement to capture the emotional impact of the experience. The participants represented a broad spectrum of veterans from Iraq/Afghanistan to Viet Nam to Korea to WWII. Although these conflicts had very different historical contexts, the commonality and comradeship between the vets was extraordinarily evident. As many of the vets were present for a number of the workshops, we were able to build on the material we had developed with them previously. Eventually, we wrote a song combining images from their stories and created lyrics set to the melody of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. All of the veterans and staff learned the song and helped to create movement for it. The project concluded with the company creating a “theater” in the VA Day Center with the use of pipe and drape, lighting, and sound equipment. On the final two days of the project, the company presented performances for the vets, their family members, and staff. The performances represented selections from Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater repertory including Sentry, the company’s critically acclaimed work which illuminates the life of a soldier. Both performances concluded with Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater’s Talk Piece, an audience/performer discussion. The overall response to the entire project was overwhelmingly positive, both from the veterans and the staff. For all of our company members, it was extremely powerful emotionally. These men, who had experienced and seen events we can only imagine, opened their hearts to us and could not have been more appreciative of our time with them and our interest in their stories. There is only one thing we would do differently, if schedule and funding allowed. That would be to extend the project over a longer period of time. It was very difficult to say “goodbye” on the last day and many of the veterans asked when we would be returning. As we had anticipated, the populations we reached through this project are underserved by the arts for a number of reasons. Many of the vets are dealing with a number of mental and physical disabilities including PTSD, memory loss, hearing loss, amputation, or dementia, among others. Further, many live alone and have little access to transportation, furthering their social isolation. And, sadly, many are living below the poverty line. We designed this project to be entirely accessible to all of the participants, and we were very successful. Many of the veterans are transported to Adult Day Health Care by Metro Mobility or family members, helping mitigate that barrier to participation. Because of the diversity of abilities, the workshops were conducted with all participants seated in chairs. Those who were able to stand were assisted by Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater company members to ensure their safety. We made use of microphones and sound equipment to address issues of hearing loss. Also, because we worked with many of the veterans over a number of workshops, we built a vocabulary of movement exercises which assisted those with memory loss. We also engaged the staff during these workshops, many of whom commented about how much they had learned about their clients as result of our project. Finally, as we had previously determined, access to the theater is very limited for all of the reasons mentioned above. Therefore we brought the theater to the veterans. We rented pipe and drape, lighting instruments, and sound equipment to create a theatrical experience in the Adult Day Center. The vets enjoyed watching the company set up and transform their space almost as much as seeing the performance. The company presented two performances on site which included selections from Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater repertory. One of the works, Sentry, was particularly significant for this population as it is a work that sheds light on the life of a soldier. Many of the audience members were brought to tears by the performance. We concluded both performances with our signature Talk Piece in which we engage the audience in a discussion about the work. The veterans, family members, and staff were enormously grateful for this project and our time spent with them. Over the course of Tours of Duty we engaged an average of 30 veterans and 6 staff in each of the series of workshops. The performances, which we presented on site, reached an additional audience of the veterans’ family members. We also offered the veterans and their families, as well as the VA staff, reduced-price tickets to Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater’s Twin Cities performances in February at the Cowles Center, although we don’t believe there were any takers, due to the barriers discussed above.