“An engaging, moving, and immersive experience that prompted new insights
and viewpoints both professionally and personally.”
– Gregg Taylor, Director, Family Services of Greater Vancouver / Counsellor
Synopsis
Left Opened is a poetry, improvised piano and improvised dance collaboration about the experience of anxiety.
Centred around a five-part narrative poem, Left Opened explores the sensations, melodies, metaphors, and movements associated with anxiety. Rather than offering solutions, or telling a hero’s narrative that turns anxiety into a villain that we needed to beat down or destroy by the end, we were specifically interested in exploring the ‘experience’ of anxiety. This film is a collective exploration; our focus was listening, supporting, and building on one another’s voices.
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Our Story
Back in 2016, I approached Craig Addy with a rough concept — I’d written a poem about anxiety and I wondered if he’d like to work together to add a musical tension and landscape to the piece. Just for fun.
We spent the next two years connecting in his living room to workshop, rehearse, and expand on that rough concept. Much later on in the process, we were joined by dancers Drew and Vitantonio who added movement to the piece — an addition to our topic of anxiety, which I now see as invaluable.
There was a lot that I wanted to say and explore with Left Opened but the real heart of the project has ended up being the dialogue — the listening and responding — that occurs between all four performers throughout this 15 minute one take marathon of a film.
Since the very beginning, we were less concerned with creating something perfect, and more with exploring the collaborative process. We used our rehearsals to learn how to trust and be witnessed by one another; how to be vulnerable and bold in our choices; and how to support one another moment-to-moment, no matter what happened. I feel so proud of what we ended up creating together.
Metaphors for Anxiety
Approaching mental health through a metaphoric lens can be incredibly powerful. The two main metaphors for anxiety I explored through the film are: ‘anxiety is a box’ that I need to escape from and ‘anxiety is an enemy’ that I need to destroy. Learn more about the metaphors used in this poem here.