Owen/Cox and Gilda’s Club enlist dance, music, and poetry to address cancer’s impact 

Dance is in many ways an ideal art form for expressing big emotions, for putting forth ideas that start where words fail. The human body itself becomes a messenger of fear, joy, pain, or trauma. Thus it felt entirely natural for Gilda’s Club Kansas City to approach Owen/Cox Dance Group for its project, Collective: Our Stories of Cancer, a multidisciplinary work of that interweaves music, poetry, and dance to confront the realities of living with cancer. 

“There is a certain type of expression that is unique to dance, because we all have bodies, we all live within our bodies,” said dancer-choreographer Jennifer Owen, co-founder of Owen/Cox, a powerhouse of a company that has taken on a number of serious topics throughout its 18-season history. 

“And dancers can represent how we interact with the community, how we rely on each other, and how we support each other.” Because people with cancer are often forced to pay a great deal of attention to their bodies, dance feels like a natural recourse. 

Collective received its premiere in March 2018, and this March 14th through the 16th it is being revisited by its creators — featuring the original poetry that Frances Story crafted from actual stories told by members of Gilda’s Club. It includes all new music by the original composer, Stacy Busch, who has set the poetry to song and at times allowed it to be spoken, as the dancers move. 

“The arts can touch people in special ways, and can raise awareness about cancer,” said Siobhan McLaughlin Lesley, executive director of Gilda’s Club since 2016. “Cancer can be isolating, yet the reality is that one in two men, and one in three women, will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lives.” 

By embracing the storytelling that is at the core of Collective, those experiencing cancer “are being empowered, are being able to talk about the emotions of cancer diagnosis and treatment,” she added, “which can be very freeing, very therapeutic.” 

Gilda’s Club Kansas City is part of a network of more than 50 non-profit cancer support groups around the country. Its aim is to uplift and strengthen people with cancer; to offer support, education, and community to family and friends; and to break down barriers to care. 

An affiliate of the nationwide Cancer Support Community (which also has a network of more than 100 associated groups), it is named for Gilda Radner, the late Saturday Night Live cast member, who died from cancer in 1989. In the wake of her death, her husband (actor Gene Wilder) and others founded the first Gilda’s Club in New York City. 

The concept quickly spread through the country; Kansas City’s club became a full affiliate in 2011. The emphasis is on the psychosocial aspects of cancer: A five-pronged approach stresses education, healthy lifestyles, counseling and support groups, community-building, and resource services. In its early days the chapter served around 800 individuals annually, and now it regularly tends to the needs of some 3,000 men and women. 

Hard research shows that people who have their psychosocial needs met, “are more likely to adhere to treatment protocols … and they use the healthcare system less and thus cost less,” said Siobhan, an advertising executive with long experience in marketing, communications, and development — and a lifelong interest in the arts. 

But every cancer story is different, “and that’s why sharing these stories is so helpful,” she said. “There is a strong trajectory to this piece: It kind of hits you in the face at the beginning, with the reality that cancer is not a joke. And there’s some sadness, and then it becomes very uplifting and hopeful.” In the final analysis, the text, music, and dance “really do combine to suggest hope, and the need for a new normal.” 

Frances’ poetic renderings of these real-life cancer experiences are powerful, raw, and at times heartbreaking. “I cried an ocean of tears, because you cannot drown in the company of love,” runs one man’s Gilda’s Club story, which is used for the opening number of Collective. 

“I learned how to brace myself, how to hold my breath without closing my eyes. It’s all in your attitude. And who you love. And who loves you. And believing you will, in fact, survive.” 

Another account describes a series of ghastly symptoms. “They gave me high-dose chemo. And I had ALL the side effects, and no knowledge of what could and would come. … I have forgotten where I live, I have forgotten how to add. I had a blistered face — not everybody gets a blistered face. Can you imagine how disfiguring that is? Besides being bald, I lost all my nails and all of my toenails … bandages covered every digit.” 

The most difficult part of making these stories into “art,” the collaborators agree, is in striking an honest balance between realism and hope. “These are very vivid descriptions of cancer, and of living with cancer,” said Stacy Busch, a gifted local composer and frequent Owen/Cox collaborator, whose music is performed live onstage during Collective. 

Yet the goal is to “create a show that is uplifting and empowering,” she added. “Obviously there are moments of the dark, difficult side, and that is important. But the larger takeaway is that we’re celebrating these people, celebrating their stories. … The poems have a lot of rawness, so it’s a challenging balancing act.” 

Setting any text to choreography requires a peculiar kind of alchemy. A mixture of solos and ensembles (there are five dancers in Collective) permits the choreographer to express both the solitude of cancer and the all-important sense of community that is the spirit of Gilda’s Club. 

Inspiration for dance can grow from stories, music, or both. “First of all, music inspires the movement,” Jennifer said. “The feelings in the story, the emotions, the sense of what might be going in internally in the text, also motivates certain movements.” 

At times the dancers themselves provide inspiration, “representing different aspects of the story … either literally or figuratively.” 

Expressing feelings that can find no words is, after all, the essence of dance. And creating beauty and joy out of pain and heartache is what all kinds of art strives to do.

“That’s what the arts are for,” Jennifer said. “What we are able to accomplish with the arts is give that sense of beauty and hope and appreciation for each individual, and to celebrate that. That’s what the arts should do.” 

— By Paul Horsley

Collective: Our Stories of Cancer runs March 14th through the 16th at H&R Block City Stage at Union Station. For tickets, visit owencoxdance.org. It features composer-singer Stacy Busch, singer Neal Long, and dancers Emara Neymour Jackson, Sam McReynolds, Emily Mushinski, Christopher Page-Sanders, and Laura Wallner.

For more information about Gilda’s Club, visit gildasclubkc.org. For the individual web pages of the Collective collaborators, see stacybusch.com, iamfrancesstory.com, and nealdlong.com.  

To reach Paul Horsley, performing arts editor, send an email to paul@kcindependent.com or find him on Facebook (paul.horsley.501) or Twitter/Instagram (@phorsleycritic).