Therefore I Am: The Young Fathers of Winton Hills

Ten sessions were dedicated to experiencing and expressing, through motion, the unfolding of the sacred longing and intention of each Young Father of Winton Hills. The movement emerged from the feelings, stories, images, gestures, patterns, and sounds stored in the reservoir of their bodies.

We explored:
• What moves them beneath the surface?
• What moves them to greatness?
• What moves them to care?
• What power within moves them to hope, to speak truth, to trust their selves, one another, and to make changes in their lives?

Each session was a practice in the discipline of exploring each young mans’ authentic original movements. This practice drew each young man closer to the wellspring of his own truth expressed through his body’s energy. The sessions focused on finding their natural, strong energy currents – only expressed as violence – when these currents have no other outlet. Each young man learned new ways to experience themselves and one another with compassion and trust as they began to notice and respect their power, passion and beauty.

Participant Testimonials:

“I had a bad temper. The Young Father’s program helped me control my temper and with her [Fanchon’s] dance classes, it’s like I can be calm about things and I don’t have to get angry when I can just sit and relax… and express myself further… I can do a twirl and say my name like she taught us to! It helps us. It calms us down sometimes when a problem comes up.”

“I kept coming back cause I wanted to, not just cause they asked me to.”

“It let me know I can be a leader.”

“I left with a sense of ease and peace with myself and the other people in the group.”

“I use it [what I learned] basically every day.”

“It’s neat when you can get a group of guys together to dance with one another. They show no animosity towards each other, or no anger and it’s all peaceful. It’s neat anywhere in the world.”

“It was fun. I liked it and I wish we could do it again.”

“We had guys that had never worked with anyone else. Now, they have started to do things where they work with other people, not just the guys in the group, but family, relatives and friends, which has been neat to see.”
~ Will Underwood, Young Fathers Program Coordinator

2017 – “What an amazing program for those young men. It feels like it’s needed now more ever and it should be taught to young men and police in the same group. Can you picture them supporting each other like this group?” ~ Barbara Wolfe (Videographer of original 1995 sessions)

Video:

 

Therefore I Am: The Young Fathers of Winton Hills from Fanchon Shur on Vimeo.

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

fifteen − thirteen =