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Dance Of Dissonance And Validation

Dancer Kakuti Davis Lin in "Dissonance" by Dr. Misty Borst and Full Circle Dance Co. Credit: Aster Lobel

The arts provide a way to make tangible — feelings and thoughts that otherwise seem too abstract, or even too frightening to acknowledge.

Dr. Misty Borst, a psychiatrist and choreographer, felt an urge to wrestle with the trauma of 2020. In the dance video ‘Dissonance,’ she uses confession-like thoughts and feelings from pandemic health care workers as the soundtrack for dance moves that echo the pain, love and grief of their words.

"The main point of this is to validate what they are all going through. It’s important to validate it. Because I think if we ignore it and just assume everything is normal again, then we’re just doing a disservice to people.”

Dissonance is an "Official Selection" of the New Wave Film Festival

Links: 'Dissonance' Video, Full Circle Dance June 6 event 'The Healing Project'

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Melissa Gerr is a Senior Producer for On the Record. She started in public media at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn., where she is from, and then worked as a field producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland. She made the jump to audio-lover in Baltimore as a digital media editor at Mid-Atlantic Media and Laureate Education, Inc. and as a field producer for "Out of the Blocks." Her beat is typically the off-beat with an emphasis on science, culture and things that make you say, 'Wait, what?'