BREAKING BARRIERS Artists for Hope was presented at Fred’s Theater in February of 2018. Local Fredericksburg Artists came together to raise funds and awareness for Loisann’s Hope House. Thanks to the Fredericksburg Arts Commission for funding this event.

Festival 2019 Workshop teachers

DMC in HOME

The story of homelessness in 3 sections

It Can Happen to Anyone / Stages of Grief / Learning to Trust

PERFORMING GUEST ARTISTS

DMC’s children’s performance PEOPLE OF CORN A dance-theater ballet of the Mayan creation story

Emerging Artist performances

Festival 2018 Workshop teachers

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Performing Artists

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For this fundraiser we chose the Friends of the Rappahannock, and were joined by many local performing artists and selected student performing arts groups.

DMC Performances

GUEST ARTISTS

The following local artists joined us for this event…

STUDENT ARTISTS

THE RIVER WITHIN was produced in February of 2020

by DMC and the Fredericksburg Arts Commission

as a fundraiser for the Friends of the Rappahannock

DMC with support from The Fredericksburg Arts Commission was proud to produce BREAKING BARRIERS, a collaborative performance event by DMC and 6 contributing guest artists from the Fredericksburg area. The event was presented on February 10, 2019 to raise funds and awareness for Loisann’s Hope House for all the great work that they do finding homes for families.

The theme of the performance was; Homelessness/Strong Women/Overcoming Adversity.

Thank you to all the amazing artists who participated, and to the FAC and other private donors who made the performance possible.

I’ve been reading a lot about stress lately.

I have been learning that the stress we feel today is complex and difficult to deal with. Our bodies react as if we are running away from a saber-toothed tiger….but since we are not actually running away or bracing for a battle, our system gets quite confused. Not knowing what to do with all those physical and mental results; hormones, enzymes, thoughts, worries and fears, we store them away, where they can eat at us secretly.

I am trying to learn to release my stress, but I am only just learning what stress is to me. There are no saber-toothed tigers in my world. My stresses are; trying to figure out how to make a slideshow on i-movie when I don’t know how and getting frustrated when I press the wrong button and loose 4 hours of work….. or, waiting for an email come, which never seems to come, even though I have told the sender how important it is that I get it ASAP….. or making a long list of all the things that need to get done for a production I am staging and realizing that I can’t possibly fit everything into the time I have left…..

OK, now I am stressed…..

Just thinking about all of that made my chest tighten and my breath quicken.

Give me a minute I need to breathe…..

Three cleansing breaths later, “in for 4- hold for 4-out for 7”, I feel better.

I am on my deck. There are so many trees in my backyard I can almost believe I am in a forest. There are so many birds singing me a lullaby I can almost feel like a part of it all.

Wait…..I am a part of it all! That’s what I sometimes forget, I am not an isolated “me” standing in the world. I am one part of the whole, perfectly aligned, totally connected.

Now, if I can only get that damn i-movie to play……