Milling About with John J Zullo Dance/Raw Movement

Choreographer John J Zullo joins host Robin Milling to discuss the new season of John J Zullo Dance/Raw Movement featuring three works inspired by memory. A film student at American University, John saw Bill T. Jones Arnie Zane dance company piece Still Here and discovered the emotional impact dance can achieve.

Referring to the season as his Memory Suite, All What This Do Has You Happened See? Before is about perception and fragments of memory while This Equisite Diversion/Mysterious Skin is about blocked memories and the process of recovery. Six foot glowing plexi-glass panels play with perception as a metaphor for moving through corridors in the mind. The third piece Project XIII explores varying memories through 12 different versions of one movement.

This Equisite Diversion/Mysterious Skin was inspired by Scott Heim's novel Mysterious Skin about two young boys who are sexually exploited. John says, 'it had a really strong impact both in my own personal experiences having been sexually abused at a very young age and then dealing with that.' Also discovering one of his dancers was sexually abused when he was young drove the piece, interpreting moments of the book through movement. John insists it's not a victim piece, but more about navigating through a traumatic experience. The audience will experience it raw and real.