JDPP, Inc.’s Moving Matters! residency at York Correctional Institution for Women in Niantic, CT is a collaboration among JDPE, Women of the Cross (WOTC), and the women of York. The residency introduces a collaborative multi-arts approach to storytelling and performance, working with the already existing movement, writing, and choir groups at the prison. The residency focuses on building a collaborative arts performance piece with the women of York that encourages both a sense of community as well as developing individual self-esteem and self-expression. This residency focuses on skills that can be adapted when the women re-enter mainstream society.

JDPP, Inc.'s upcoming residency at York, Dreamings, will use movement, text, song, and visual imagery to explore the dreamscapes of incarcerated women. Dreamings will examine the actual dreams the women have inside prison, juxtaposed with remembered childhood dreams, as well as dreams and aspirations in life—past, present, and future. This material will provide the seedbed for a performance piece that includes poetry, song, dance, visuals, and personal testimonies that will be performed for a diverse group of inmates at the prison as well as an expanded audience of families.

Beginning in July 2008, Dreamings will be further expanded and developed for a professional performance in April 2009 for the general public to premiere at Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, CT with members of the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble, Women of the Cross, several former inmates from York, and family members of some of the York women. Dreamings will layer the material created with the York inmates with the actual dreams and dream aspirations of women now living beyond the razor wire as well as family members who have experienced the absence of a parent or child as a result of incarceration. The piece will create a call and response between worlds inside and beyond the razor wire. Dreamings will take on multiple voices in presenting how dreams and our dream lives become messengers—informers about the often harsh reality for those whose lives have been impacted and shaped by incarceration. Look for upcoming information and events that evolve out of this unique partnership.

The Moving Matters! Residency program at York began with Time In, which examined the women's perspectives of time behind the razor wire. Click here to learn more. The second residency, Finding Center, worked with the same collaborative arts approach in creating a performance piece on the themes of being lost in a maze, searching for center, finding center within, breathing and walking the labyrinth. This piece was performed for inmates at York as well as family members of the women who participated in the project. An excerpt from Finding Center called The Center is Me was performed at Trinity College in November 2007.