When Dance and Storytelling Become Ceremony: The Origins of Story JAM

A Little Background

In 2021, a few years after moving to Minneapolis, I felt a nagging desire to share the challenging stories of my past with my new friends.

You see, the person I am today - the way I behave, the things I value, the choices I make - is a complete 180 from who I once was.

For the first time in my life, I had found real, authentic friendships, and I wanted to be seen in my totality. I needed them to understand the storms I had weathered to become the person they now called a friend. I knew some of the stuff I had to share would be shocking to them.

So I turned to the thing I always turn to when I don’t know what else to do: I danced. Have you ever seen those videos where someone holds up a series of poster boards with words on them, pulling each one away as you read along? I did a version of that! 

The pages told my vulnerable stories - about my childhood, that thing that happened to me when I was 12, that other thing when I was 21, the violently abusive relationship I was in for 5 years, and how I’ve moved through it all. I pulled back the pages as I danced around in my living room to my favorite songs, and shared a new story live on social media every day for 7 days.

---

My Discovery

I cannot explain to you the lightness and liberation I felt afterwards. I stood a little taller, I took more risks. It was as if I had shined a light on everything that once brought me shame, which broke me free from the emotional burden I’d been carrying my whole life. 

Two years later, in 2023, I felt the urge to take it further, bigger and bolder. I wanted to do it live on stage, to share space with people in real time and tell my stories on a larger scale.

So, with the support of my friends, I put on a one-woman show called Story JAM.

Once again, the experience was profoundly empowering. This time, I wanted to understand what was actually happening to me. Why was this so powerful?

As I began to research, I realized these moments weren’t just about dancing and storytelling, they were an act of ceremony. Ceremony! How cool is that?

I’ve spent this past couple years immersing myself in the study and practice of ceremony to learn all I can. 

*Click here to learn the fascinating basics of ceremony and how I weave them into my dance practice.