Illuminating Hidden Carolina
Discovering hidden voices in our landscape through site-specific performance
Discovering hidden voices in our landscape through site-specific performance
Discovering hidden voices in our landscape through site-specific performance
“As a modern dance choreographer, I have always been interested in how we show our humanity and tell our stories through movement,” said Heather Tatreau ’98, a teaching assistant professor of dance at UNC-Chapel Hill. “However, the location of a performance tells its own story.”
Through Voices: A Walking Tour, Tatreau is illuminating the hidden voices in our landscape through site-specific performances across UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus. The professional choreographer and Carolina alum created her first iteration of this project in November 2018.
“In 2018, I began a quest to understand the history of UNC monuments through the creation of site-specific performance that took the form of a silent, contemplative walking tour of campus at night,” Tatreau shared. “This tour guided audience members to five historically debated sites on campus and used performance to expose and question the truths of these sites.”
In November 2021, Tatreau continued the walking tour, portraying multiple viewpoints through song, spoken word and dance. The tour included performers and locations such as Chapel Hill poet-laureate C.J. Suitt at the Unsung Founders Memorial; the Carolina Indian Circle at The Gift near the Student Union; and Tatreau’s intermediate modern dance students at the student body sculpture garden outside Hamilton Hall. Combined, the walking tour covers issues of silenced native voices, student mental health and racial justice.
“Site-specific performance has the power to create social change through lasting awareness,” Tatreau continued. “There are plans to perform Voices again, and to once more note changes in our landscape, each time asking the question: What kind of community do you want to create here at Carolina?”
The fall 2021 walking tour was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, Orange County Arts Commission and Humanities for the Public Good. Learn more about Tatreau and Voices: A Walking Tour at processseries.unc.eduOpens in new window.
