Part 2: We Build Cocoons
A butterfly builds a cocoon when it’s ready to make its most dramatic transformation. Before this, it stuffs itself, taking in whatever the environment provides with little to no thought as to what it’s intakes. Eventually, it gets to a point where it becomes so stuffed it can barely move; it’s forced into becoming something different, something with more ability and beauty. It then builds the cocoon to undergo this change.
In my case, the cocoon was a test run of a type of live performance I wanted to put on. I had grown my fill of seeing dance competitions, conventions and the like. And pining for YouTube views didn’t appeal to me either. I’d done those things during the first part of my dance career; I needed a drastic change. I decided what I wanted to do was something a bit more intimate. I didn’t want to just “dance at people” I wanted to display my dancers in a way that allowed individual expression within a whole. I wanted the audience to get wrapped up in the personalities of each performer; viewing them with all of the beauty and unique expression I viewed them with. And since no such opportunity presented itself, I created one; The Twisted Cabaret.
I think of this show as a sort of cocoon because this is where I got the first glimpse of what The Purple Lemonade Collective would eventually become. The Twisted Cabaret would be a cocoon that would also change more than just our performance style. I believe this experience allowed everyone to evolve to the performers they wanted to become.
Sometimes you’re not fully prepared for the changes that occur as a result of life in a cocoon. However, that doesn’t make them any less beautiful. The Twisted Cabaret performance would be the last time this group of performers as a whole shared the stage together. Only 5 of the performers in this piece would go on to be a part of The PLC, leaving ten spots open for the current line-up of artists. But it’s amazing to reflect on this experience and its effect on all of us, even though we all evolved into very different expressions.
