Victim of Silence premiered in our Evolution Concert in 2008. It, by far, received the largest reaction from our audience that year, both praise and criticism. Either way, we felt it was an important issue to address to raise awareness, open conversations with adolescents, and
encourage change.
So what topic did we tackle this time? Abuse.
Victim of Silence originally depicted the abuse of women, historically inflicted by men. For Breaking Bounds, we take the gender element out of it and instead focus on the cycle of abuse. Victims become perpetrators, who then create more victims and more perpetrators, and so on, and so on. It’s a unending cycle unless we do something different. We change. We choose not to hurt others. We choose to move forward.
What spurred the desire to create such a piece? Honestly, the movie, Taken, was a serious call to action for me. It kick started the desire. With the combination of my own experiences of my own friends who were stifled by abuse and fought to free themselves and my continued research of the historical abuse of women, I created the original version of Victim of Silence to Imogen Heap’s: The Moment I Said It.
It’s one of the most important statements I have ever made, one of the most challenging performances for the dancers, and one of the most memorable pieces in the SIDEWAYS repertory.