PROJECTS & COLLABORATIONS
Bridges
Bridges is a unique community of spec-actors and creatives in Portland, OR dedicated to exploring and transforming narratives about mental health through applied theater and creative practice. We use theater of the oppressed and other creative, somatic, and interactive group practices to explore and create performances based off personal and collective narratives of mental health. Our performances act as bridge to understanding and engaging in meaningful conversations about how our communities interact with diverse perspectives and experiences of mental health. Our mission is to advocate for social and political change that impacts people with a mental health diagnosis, healthcare access, and systemic barriers to wellbeing; to combat stigma and build empathy, and to create a supportive spaces for people to share their lived experiences.
Conflict Artistry LLC
At Conflict Artistry LLC is a collective of conflict resolution specialists and dialogue facilitators providing direct-action community services rooted in Restorative Justice. We are dedicated to creating a culture that encourages healing through accountability to harm, and strives to facilitate conflict transformation and support restorative reparation between individuals and communities who have experienced and/or caused harm. Conflict Artistry is experienced in restorative practices and healing-centered approaches, providing direct-action community services that promote a more equitable and just society. Shekinah Alegra trained with Conflict Artistry from 2022-2023.
Salish Sea Butoh
Salish Sea Butoh is a collective of USA-based dancers, performers and multimedia artists -- originally co-founded by Iván-Daniel Espinosa and Cosmo Rapaport -- in the Pacific Northwest to deepen the study and exploration of Japanese Butoh and Butoh performance in the PNW. Salish Seas Butoh explores beautiful PNW landscapes, the changing tides of the times, creative expirementation, and our relationships to the world around through breathtaking outdoor performance and Salish Sea's Butoh Cabaret. Shekinah Alegra has been training and performing with Salish Sea Butoh since 2021.
Butoh is an avant-garde art form that originated in post-World War ll Japan. It came to be through the collaborations of its two key founders, Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, as a response to the traditional Japanese dance culture, and it incorporates a range of dance and theater activities, techniques and motivations.
Known as the "dance of darkness,"Butoh is known for its use of playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics such as death and disease, and emphasizes nature and impermanence. Traditionally it is performed white body makeup and slow-controlled motion. Still Butoh is often difficult to define, as it is a form of dance that encourages it's practitioners to “resist fixity” and explore the unknown.
Illumination Project 2023
The Illumination Project (IP) is Portland Community College’s innovative, nationally lauded student leadership and social justice theater program. The IP is designed to address issues of racism, equity and inclusion and to foster a climate of belonging, compassion, and respect.
The IP uses a style of theater developed by Brazilian theater activist, Augusto Boal, called Theater of the Oppressed to promote community-centered problem on campus around issues that traditionally have made education more difficult for students of color, women students, poor/working-class students, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ students. The plays are performed once without interruption, then performed again, allowing audience members to participate and change the scene to have a different outcome.
Plays produced by the IP are generated from situations the Student Educators have experienced in their own lives. The play topics focus on how these issues impact students’ educational experiences and brainstorm solutions for taking action against social oppression. Shekinah Alegra currently participates in The IP project as a student educator, spect-actor, co-joker, and is on the playwriting committee.
The Illumination Project is taught by Jeannie La France and is a program of PCC's Sylvania Women’s Resource Center.