kimi eisele

“We Are What We Eat” is a series of workshops and performances about what we eat and the systems that feed us. I co-directed, choreographed, facilitated, and performed in the project from Oct. 2007-April 2008.

A collaboration between NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre and the Community Food Bank, the project uses modern dance and personal and community stories to reveal how food connects us to each other, our environment, and our everyday lives. We Are What We Eat performances explore topics such as the industrial food system and food miles, the joys and benefits of gardening, overeating, waste & compost, harvesting native mesquite pods, cooking and recipes, breastfeeding, and grapefruit gleaning.

From October 2007 through March 2008, NEW ART dancer and Food Bank gardener Amanda Morse and I engaged some 150 Tucson community members—middle- and high school students, Pascua Yaqui seniors, Mexican and Mexican-American adults in Family Literacy classes, and members of the general public—in a “moving” dialogue about food issues through interactive workshops using movement and creative writing exercises. Of these participants, 14 went on to perform with NEW ARTiculations in the premiere production, which incorporated participants’ stories and movement phrases collected during the workshops. We Are What We Eat was first performed at the Community Food Bank and the Tucson Botanical Gardens in April 2008. Since then, NEW ARTiculations has continued to offer workshops and performances for audiences at schools, fairs and festivals, neighborhood centers, health conferences, and food-related conferences and events. Please contact Katie Rutterer or me (newarticulations@gmail.com) for more information about booking workshops or a performance.

Read more about We Are What We Eat at www.newartfoodproject.blogspot.com.

 

In the media:

Tucson Weekly, Pick of the Week. April 24, 2008

 

I found the pieces charming, funny, sad, and uplifting. The venue at the botanical gardens was superb. The whole evening was quite magical. -Sallie Marston, audience member

Combining the spoken word, movement and yes, politics … was a perfect match for me. Women of different abilities moving, passionately offering the history of their recipes (and in one case, cookies) moved me, too. There was a focus about what was important in life. What we eat, what we say, how we move can ground us. -Sheila Wilensky, audience member

I now understand and can appreciate dance more fully than I did before. Having to confront my own fears and insecurities gave me a sense of confidence to try other forms of dance and know that it can be fun and not so scary!–Michelle Kuhns, Community Food Bank staff and community cast member

[I gained new] knowledge about food transport and all the great people that live close to me that are trying in their small ways to impact our lives by growing healthy food in their own back yards. –Amy Barr-Holm, NEW ART dancer

I had always thought that I was making good choices about what I ate, but I realized that there were many other things that I had never considered before – like how far does your food travel? I thought it was good enough to eat organic, but I’ve now learned that local is better. -Katie Rutterer, NEW ART dancer

I’ve found I like to dance: it’s how I can tell people who I am. -Maggie Barnes, Community Food Bank staff and community cast member

I had fun learning that I could pick up somebody that I didn’t think I could pick up. -Gabriella Enos, high school workshop participant

It made me think about where my food comes from. -Anonymous, high school workshop participant

I thought about the interconnectedness between food and our bodies—how food fuels our bodies so we can move and create dance and poetry and creatively express ourselves. -Anonymous, Community workshop participant