Vancouver dance artist Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg explores being in her own skin in Body Parts, May 3 to 6
Humour and movement merge in the deeply personal solo about body image
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, Body Parts. Photo by Wendy D
The Cultch presents Tara Cheyenne Performance’s Body Parts from May 3 to 6 at the Historic Theatre as part of the 2023 Femme Festival
“DID YOU GET your body back?” It’s a question that some women have heard several months after giving birth. Vancouver dance artist Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg has been asked it, as she shares—in her signature hilarious, intelligent, honest, physical, and theatrical ways—in Body Parts.
In a society obsessed with impossible beauty standards for women, the Tara Cheyenne Performance founder’s solo is about taking power back. It’s about to have its live world premiere as part of The Cultch’s 2023 Femme Festival.
The work’s genesis goes back a few years, to a time when Friedenberg was becoming increasingly aware of her relationship with her post-pregnancy body. Self-criticism of her physical appearance was nothing new to the veteran artist, with her background in dance, a field notorious for its focus on idealized looks. She started interviewing women as well as female-identifying and non-binary folks throughout B.C. about their own feelings surrounding body image. It became crystal clear that talking about such issues was exactly what was needed. For Friedenberg, so was creating, choreographing, and performing in a multidisciplinary piece.
A blend of stand-up comedy and dance, Body Parts started as a group piece, but that was pre-COVID. The work morphed into a film that was accompanied by online circle discussions around body image. Now coming to life in-person, Body Parts features music by Marc Stewart, lighting design by James Proudfoot, and creative collaboration from Kate Franklin and Josh Martin (outside eye) and Melanie Yeats (dramaturge/discussion moderator). Contributing artists include Bevin Poole, Kim Steveson, Caroline Liffman, Justine A. Chambers, Jamie Robinson, Lisa Gelley, and the late Zahra Shahab,
