Puddy in your hands

The men in Mississippi asked us to write our own poems which after 8 years of dancing in prison - I had never offered to share my own poetry. Here’s to Mississippi!

Lucy’s Poem:

“I’m going to dance with men in prison Dad”

“What about the tornadoes?!”

I asked, “Are you worried about me dancing with men at all?”

He said “They’re gonna be puddy in your hands!”

Days before our workshop started while on a break from dancing with the women at Central, Mississippi correctional facility, Ms BR (our coordinator) said, “The men are going to be puddy in your hands!”

My father and Ms. BR knew like we all did that this was going to be a phenomenal experience.

Dancing with women in prison for the last eight years has been heartbreaking and heartwarming. Yet, to see men willing and eager to open up has been doubly heartwarming and heartbreaking!

The real and the raw we see on the inside keeps us going around the country. When people say I don’t know how you do this work, they don’t know what they’re actually missing out on. I wouldn’t do anything else with my life.

The Prison of the mind on the outside is real. Being with people who have lost everything and have faced the hardest of life’s struggles and challenges is humbling to say the least.

To dance with men that were robbed of a childhood and to see that innocence return is magic.

We thank you for showing us what freedom looks like!”

Marc Weaver’s Poem:

I am not in Prison.

But I have "bars" that stop me every day.

Pain, age, self-doubt, fear, obligations, eye-sight, beliefs, hearing, low self-esteem,

anger, inhibitions...

Yet twice a week I escape the confines of these "bars" by dancing to the

movements and music Lucy puts into her Dance To Be Free classes.

Music I would never have heard, movements I would never have experienced, and

joy I would never have had had I not joined Lucy's classes all those years ago.

I knew that dance was a natural way of expressing emotions, but I never imagined

it would be a way to express MY emotions.

Finding out that this form of "escape" was being taken into Women's prisons

turned me into a huge supporter of DTBF, at least as huge as my fixed income

would allow.

I would say- "DTBF should be a fixture in every Women's prison."

Have I been in Prison?

Yes, jail actually or 2 nights. Once for a DWAI and once when my wife invited the

police to our house when she was angry that I wanted a divorce and I was the one

who had been drinking.

And hundreds of times when I took an AA meeting in the Boulde County Jail.

Would DTBF work in a Men's prison?

Once again Lucy was asking me to go someplace I would not otherwise go- to a

Men's prison in MISSISSIPPI!

But, If men in the MS prison could get the joy from her movements and music that

I do- of course I'll go.

Seeing how easily you accepted expressing your feelings through movement and

the smile on your faces as you were skipping- I wouldn't have missed it for the

world.

When in an AA meeting , I would tell inmates- "If you find yourself in a hole, stop

digging."

Now I would add- "When you find yourself despondent, start dancing."

Lilly’s Poem:

In this room I imagine how he'd dance and smile

I can almost hear his laugh again

He was my baby brother

Childlike in spirit until the end

Your faces

Your leaps

Your voices

Your strength to show up to this class

To show up for your brothers

To show up for yourselves

This is why I am here

I find my healing in your fearlessness

Cynthia’s Poem

During our latest trip to North Dakota a woman shared her fears with the group about leading her peers in movement. She felt some pressure to get it right. She then wrote this beautiful poem:

She said it’s ok to fail

it’s ok to fall down

it’s ok to let it all go

but then I froze

I was stuck

I was rigid and unmoving

I was afraid of failure

afraid of not being perfect

afraid of not getting it right

afraid of not being ok

she said feel the music

make it up

be free

but I needed or thought I needed more instruction more guidance

I felt the music

I followed along

I was trying

I was trying so hard to get it right

I was stuck in my head

once I let the first tear fall from my eye

Then I understood that I could let go

then I could truly Dance To Be Free

Our 12th state, North Dakota

We just returned from our second trip to The Dakota Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Center in New England, ND. The contrast between facilities we visit is startling. So much of our success depends on the staff’s involvement. The staff’s involvement depends on the funding they get from the state; the more funded the state is the more resourced their staff are and able to provide programming for the women. The better funded they are, the more training the staff receives around trauma and criminal behavior.

Sadly, the women suffer as a result. North Dakota Women’s Prison is an under-resourced facility. As such, the morale and conditions of the women were very poor.

We worked with the same women we danced with in June. They at first walked into the room without smiling; their stress was palpable in the air. After they vented about how difficult their summer has been, tears were shed and their stress was given over to the dance.

Once again, dance heals.

White Supremacy is not the elephant in the room - it is the room

Back from one of the largest women’s prisons in the country following the Buffalo grocery store mass shooting.

As one reporter said, “The Right will talk about mental illness and the Left will talk about guns and I’ll be reporting on another shooting this year.”

The shooting in Buffalo is an echo of our country’s denial.

It took me years to understand that white supremacy is not about skinheads or the KKK. It’s insidious; it’s the air we breathe…it’s not the elephant, it’s the room.

Tucker Carlson has been promoting ideas around the Great Replacement Theory - a belief system the maniac in NY bought into that people of color will replace White people in this country. This theory is supported while Critical Race Theory is challenged.

Why can’t our youth learn about the Tulsa Massacre, Emmet Till or Ruby Bridges? Why can’t we acknowledge our past?

I just learned that Black women in this particular prison are not allowed to have dread locks because they are considered unsanitary.

This is one example of the madness BIPOC (Brown, Indigenous, People of Color) experience on a daily basis. Whether it’s calling the police on a Black, male bird watcher to George Floyd - the madness continues.

When I started DTBF I was in my own denial about the extent of how race is related to mass incarceration because I was meeting so many white women in prison. I focused on trauma as the sole contributor to why one ends up incarcerated.

Every woman I meet has a story that is rooted in poverty, trauma, neglect and loss. The difference is that our White students did not experience trauma as a result of their skin.

Even having a regulated nervous system is a privilege!

Driving to prison, I listened to podcasts on nonprofit management, donor centric versus community centric fundraising and biased data collection - podcasts explaining how white supremacy shapes the whole nonprofit sector.

Vu Le blew my mind. Born in Vietnam, he moved to the US at 8 years old - and is now an author, blogger and keynote speaker. He is challenging the imbalance of power between donors, foundations and those in our communities who need their voices heard.

Seven years into this work - I would never have guessed that white supremacy was shaping the grants we’re applying for, the data we’re collecting and the voices at the table of my board.

We couldn’t do what we do without our fantastic board and incredible donors but when I step back we are all white people with resources.

We have expanded our board to include a formally incarcerated graduate but how do more of those closest to the problem have a voice at the table?

How do those of us who have access to resources (education, property ownership, generational wealth) once again - control those resources?

Quote: Nelba Marquez Green

Pushing edges . . .

A note from our founder, Lucy Wallace . . .

“Last weeekend, I took a dance workshop for the first time since the Soulsweat training in 2007. It was so important to be a student again!

I started following Galen Hooks a few years ago and have been mesmerized by her choreography, style and diversity of genres.

She is a true professional and the participants were just as lovely. It was in the heart of Manhattan and I had no idea what to expect in terms of the level of challenge and even how many people were attending.

I have not been in an environment where people are corrected and feedback was geared towards beginners versus advanced levels since my years in ballet.

I was intimidated, anxious and repeatedly left my comfort zone.

I got a real dose of what the women in prison must feel when they sign up for a workshop with DTBF. That lesson in another itself was worth the weekend!

Thank you to my Board of Directors for urging me to take this training!”

Check out Lucy in action at the workshop.

Lucy Wallacy | MA, Founder, Dance To Be Free

Introducing Mary . . .

“Dance To Be Free saved my life. It helped me to recover from addiction and trauma when nothing else would. It gave me compassion, empathy, and empowerment for myself as well as others. It is because of this program that I am able to be the person I have always wanted to be.” Mary, DTBF Alumna, La Vista Correctional Facility.

Mary single-handedly sustained the DTBF programming at LVCF during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Check out this video where Mary shares more about her experience with DTBF inside of prison where she choreographed over 100 of her own songs. Make sure to watch to the end to get a sneak peak of her in action.

Dance To Stay Free

We’ve created a new program!

We’re in the process of building a new program where formerly incarcerated Dance To Be Free grads teach dance in their own community. We are employing and empowering our graduates to spread the healing power of dance to other marginalized or disenfranchised communities by partnering with non-profits at the local level. DTBF grads will be working with local jails, homeless shelters, youth programs, etc. Stay tuned for the launch party for the Dance To Stay Free Pilot Program!

How we’re making our prison programming even better.

Dance To Be Free is offering a revised curriculum designed to support the women in prison even more deeply. The first workshop (Phase 1) is open to all, regardless of skill level or interest in becoming a teacher, and Phases 2 & 3 are offered to women who want to become a Dance To Be Free Instructor. This eliminates any pressure or potential fear of taking a “Teacher Training” from the first workshop. And it allows DTBF to take an even deeper dive into the instructor training with a smaller group of committed women. So our original three-day training has evolved into three, separate 2-day trainings.

Covid restrictions the past two years have limited our ability to get inside and dance with the women as much as we did pre-pandemic and we’re thrilled to announce that we are converting the Phase One training into a recorded asset that can be shared on DVDs with the women in prison when we aren’t able to be there and to use as a teaching tool for our existing in-person trainings. One of our amazing supporters has volunteered to take on this project for us!

So stay tuned for some sneak peeks into what a prison training looks like! Filming is scheduled for April inside the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women (NCCW).

We have a Phase One Training scheduled in the La Vista Correctional Center (LVCF) in March.

We’ve been approved for three trainings in June, July and August in a brand new facility—Dakota Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Center—in New England, ND. Woohoo!

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to get back into prison in Mississippi and we’re getting warmer! We are optimistic DTBF will be inside by fall of 2022.

Thank you for partnering with us so we can keep changing lives.

The DTBF Team and our incarcerated sisters

Goals Baby!

Here’s what we’re up to in 2022.

Giving Tuesday and Colorado Gives 2020 Impact

Thanks to your $20,000 worth of donations for Giving Tuesday and Colorado Gives Day in 2020, in 2021 we were able to provide our in-person 3-day training to prisons in Hawaii, Arkansas and Nebraska—our first time in prison since pre-covid.  

Due to COVID-19 and the inability to dance with the women in prison, DTBF implemented a program in 2020 to donate Media Kits which include a TV, Speaker and DVD player with a wheeled shelving system. These mobile media kits give the prisons flexibility to move them wherever space they can use, which keeps the women dancing. 

In 2021, we were able to purchase and ship media kits to 4 prisons. With these media kits and trained instructors who have completed our teacher-training program, women in the general population in prisons across the US are experiencing the healing power of dance on a regular basis. 

In 2021 We launched a new website—the very one you’re on right now! It includes an online dance subscription service so you can dance with us wherever you are, and we launched our line of DTBF merch. 

Amazon Smile

You can donate .5% of every purchase you make at Amazon by going to Amazon Smile and choosing Dance To Be Free as your organization of choice and using Amazon Smile every time you shop.

Dance To Be Free is Growing!

Dance To Be Free is hiring a Managing Director and you can help us grow. Learn more.

New Studio Home!!

Dance To Be Free has a new studio home! Lucy will be teaching every Saturday from 11 am to noon, MST, in the Tango Room at the Avalon in Boulder. $20 at the door. Class packages available, and we will be honoring packages from Lucy’s classes at Block 1750.

The Avalon requires proof of vaccine, so to attend class and expedite your check in please e-mail us a copy of your COVID-19 Vaccination card.

Save the Date

Mark your calendars for the 2nd Annual “I Dance For her” DANCE-A-THON—Sunday, October 3rd, 2021 at the Avalon in Boulder. In-person and virtual tickets on sale soon!