Christine Bonansea in A, MY NAME IS… Photo by Gaia Squarci

Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Aaron Davis Hall at The City College of New York

The Moving Memory Project is a new festival devoted to memory and forgetting, co-curated by choreographer Stefanie Nelson of Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup and bestselling author David Shenk (The Forgetting). The inaugural event featured Stefanie Nelson’s A, MY NAME IS…, a dance piece inspired by a family experience with dementia, along with the selection of short films from David Shenk’s Living With Alzheimer’s Film Project. Nelson and Shenk’s vision for this festival is to bring together artists, caregivers, and seniors, to create a community of care surrounding issues connected to memory loss, and to destigmatize the diagnosis of dementia with the ultimate goal of increasing awareness to increase funding until a cure is found.

A, MY NAME IS… was performed by Christine Bonansea, Becca Loevy, Cameron McKinney, and Emily Tellier, with additional ensemble dancers. Additionally, Nelson brings together a team of international collaborators: the work features a stop-motion video with photos by Elisa D’Amico (Italy), original music by composers Sahand Rahbar (Iran/Canada) and Jonah Kreitner (US), with light design by Kevin Scott (US).

Interview with Stefanie Nelson on Sandi Klein Show

A, My Name Is… is centered around loss. However, the end reminds us that with a change of perspective, something lost is also something else gained…We must value our everyday, because life is too short to not do so. If anything else, as a gift to the rest of the world, we should live fully and openly. Because even if we don’t remember what we do, somebody else will.” – Jimmy Barr, Bodies Never Lie

“Nelson and her fine collaborators, committed to the poetics of their ravaging subject matter, engage our imagination and inspire understanding and empathy…many of the attendees, caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s, were moved to tears.” – Christine Jowers, DancEnthusiast