This program series is being offered virtually through Zoom. In order to participate and receive the Zoom link, register by clicking the RSVP button above or by emailing carla@smithcenter.org.
You will receive the Zoom information no later than the morning of your program.
with Jodi Kanter, PhD
Body image may shift in cancer patients due to the presence of a tumor, breast asymmetry and size related to treatment and surgical intervention, changes in weight, or alterations of the skin. “Your Body’s Story” is a place to explore your relationship with your body in the past, present and future.
Our exploration will utilize a variety of creative media: improvisational movement, improvisational conversation, writing, and visual art.
Our goal will be to achieve a more integrated sense of our somatic experiences as they have changed and will continue to change throughout cancer survivorship.
Most research into trauma-informed approaches to wellness suggests that processing the trauma is central to healing. Expressive arts therapies provide aesthetic distance from trauma, even as they encourage representation of the trauma.
In particular, drama therapy allows us to intervene in our traumatic experiences in ways that were impossible at the time of its occurrence. Drama therapy also enables us to actively project into and thereby shape our experience of trauma moving forward.
Your Body’s Story is open to female-identifying cancer patients and survivors at any stage in their journey. The series will be offered as a 4-part program series on:
- Fridays, April 1, 8, 22 & 29, 2022, 1:00 – 3:00pm EST
Participants are encouraged to attend all four sessions. Please let us know in advance if you are unable to attend all sessions.
Suggested Donation: $10/session or $35/series
About Jodi Kanter
Jodi has been involved in theater since she was ten years old. She grew up acting and studying performance in American theater’s “Second City,” Chicago Illinois. She is currently a professor of theatre in the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University, where she has been on faculty for nearly fifteen years. Her academic work in theater includes her book, Performing Loss: Strengthening Communities Through Theatre and Writing (2007). Jodi’s focus on performance as a tool for individual and social healing and change has led her to create workshops, events and productions in a wide variety of settings including hospitals, schools, and prisons. Most recently, she co-created a four-month diversity and inclusion program for members of DC’s fourteen Neighborhood Village associations using the methodology of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Jodi holds a PhD. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in dramatherapy at Lesley University.
