Loose Leaf Notes

-The following appeared in The Floyd Press on October 14, 2020.

“Fearless, “inspiring,” a force of nature,” and “that was a Grammy award winning performance” were some of the reactions to Katie Wells’ recent performance of Love Letters to Humanity, her hour-long, one-woman show that blends dance and theatre, improv and comedy, spoken word and social commentary.

With just a stool and a pile of colored scarves for props, Wells performed Love Letters for a small, socially distanced group at Springhouse Community School. The performance was accompanied by the DJ music and lighting production courtesy of her partner Chris Angileri.

It was being professionally video-taped for an upcoming Embodiment Conference, a free online gathering of world-class teachers offering practical tools for times of turmoil, from October 14 – 25.  Wells’ performance for the conference is scheduled to go Live Sunday, October 25, at 4: p.m. at theembodimentconference.org.

A movement memoir of self-discovery, Wells wore three layers of clothing, representing the layers of protection and falsehoods that many human beings take-on, which were peeled off throughout the show. “She was able to see and name those layers, and take them off one by one with the compassion of holding them and then the self-compassion of letting them go,” audience member Joe Klein later said.

Wells, a teacher of dance and yoga, is the founder of Interweave Conscious Movement (interweave.love) classes and workshops and Conscious Dance Theatre, an interdisciplinary art form that inspires the inner growth of students and audiences. She has been featured on stages at Floydfest, YogaJam, Floyd Center for the Arts, Virginia’s Blue Ridge Music Festival, the June Bug Center, the Moss Arts Center in Blacksburg, the Lincoln Center in NYC and the Rosemont Theater in Chicago, as well as internationally.

The Radford University dance professor and the mother of a young son, holds an MFA from the University of Colorado and a BFA from Columbia University in dance with minors in theatre. She directs and creates productions, has performed to the accompaniment of symphony orchestras and bands, such as Lobo Marino, Leftover Salmon, and Desert Dwellers, and has performed in works by renowned choreographers.

Along with improvised movement and dance choreography, Love Letters for Humanity features characters, some with accents, acted out by Wells, a first-person shooter video game scene, a breaking news report, a carnival competition exploring male and female roles and more. I took over a year to create. “I think I have been training for this one-person show my whole life,” said Wells, who recalled imitating characters from Saturday Night Live as a girl.

Wells concluded the show with a spirited dance of freeing resolution, followed by an interactive making-connections experience with the audience, involving the weaving of a golden cord. “I hope the video we made of this performance will be seen by the larger world,” Wells said. “It’s universal to being human and relevant for these times.” – Colleen Redman

______Watch a trailer of the show HERE.