Pieces of My Heart

AUGUST WILSON UNPUBLISHED POETRY

Choreopoems directed and choreography by Sonia Dawkins

By Special arrangements with the August Wilson Estate 

Pieces of My Heart, a choreopoem set to a blues and jazz score and performed live, portrays August Wilson’s unpublished love poems, bookended by poems from his daughter Azula Wilson. Wearing a collection of hats and gesturing with handkerchiefs, recalling Wilson and the handkerchiefs scented with his wife’s perfume that he often caressed, dancers evoke his frequently quoted observation, “Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.” 

Sonia Dawkins is the founder and artistic director of SD/Prism Dance Theatre. A graduate of the University of the Arts with a Master’s in Dance/Kinesiology and Choreography from SUNY Brockport, she has served as a faculty member at Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle (the first African American female teacher) as well as the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. Currently on the faculty to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre School, Dawkins has choreographed taught and performed extensively with companies in the United States, Europe and Caribbean.

More about this production

Des Moines Performing Arts is excited to partner with renowned choreographer, Sonia Dawkins. Des Moines Performing Arts is underwriting a three-week creative residency for Dawkins and a team of dancers and actors as they develop and rehearse a new piece of work based of the unpublished poems of the great American playwright, August Wilson and his daughter Azula.

This residency builds upon the workshop performance created at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2014 and a 10-min excerpt performed at Philadanco! (Philadelphia Dance Company) in 2017. This will be the first fully realized production and performance of the new work.

PHOTOS