Dancing on behalf of | Sheila Collins

Towards a Resilient Grief

by Sheila Collins | Dec 20, 2013 | Dances, Grieving, Health, Noteworthy men, Rituals

Like many people around the world, I watched the bereavement rituals for the beloved Nelson Mandela. In my case, I was looking for clues to answer a question that has been on my mind for years. “Can what is done at the time of a death, and immediately afterwards, help...

Dancing on the Fringe

by Sheila Collins | Sep 4, 2013 | Art & Life, Dances, Gatherings, Improvisation, Personal Stories, Story-telling

The streets of Edinburgh Scotland were filled, as they are every August, with performing artists and the tourists and locals who had come to see them. Rich and I, along with 22 other InterPlayers from around the world were among them. Pushing our way through the...

Occupying Pittsburgh’s Market Square

by Sheila Collins | Feb 17, 2013 | Dances, Gatherings

Last Thursday’s One Billion Rising Pittsburgh event attracted over 400 people and was organized by New Voices Pittsburgh: Women of Color for Reproductive Justice, an organization that InterPlayer, Toni McClendon helped to start. These young, mostly African-American...

Spaces In Our Togetherness

by Sheila Collins | Oct 31, 2012 | Gatherings, Poems

My husband and I were asked to give a talk at a neighboring Alanon meeting last evening. We’d given talks before separately, but never together. There was no time to prepare and I knew there wouldn’t be when I accepted the invitation. But I knew to say yes to this...

A Dance for the Dead

by Sheila Collins | Sep 3, 2012 | Art & Life, Dances, Grieving

Apparently we weren’t the only people who hadn’t heard of the museum, because although it was the height of tourist season, several dance students and their accompanying family members were the only other people there mid-morning. The woman taking our admission fee...