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Ten female students will present “Reflections,” a performance art piece about female body image, 7-8 p.m. Tuesday in the Williams Center for the Arts lobby. The performance will last 40 minutes and the remaining time will be open for discussion.
Part of Lafayette’s Eighth Biennial Roethke Festival, the performance will include a variety of media, including television/video, singing, monologues, spoken word poetry, computer graphics, and digital photography.
English major Danielle Pollaci ’06 (Trenton, N.J.) and government and law major Sandra Welch ’06 (Philadelphia, Pa.) created the piece, receiving writing and staging help from fellow cast members. Monologues were written by the women based on their experiences with and thoughts on female body image. Pictures of Lafayette female students, staff, and faculty were taken over several weeks to create “a collage of what ‘real’ women look like, not airbrushed advertisements,” according to Pollaci.
Welch conceived the idea after writing a poem about the role advertising plays in a woman’s view of herself.
“Since we are both passionate about social justice and women’s issues, we decided to formulate a performance art piece together,” Pollaci says.
The students chose the Williams Center lobby, rather than a stage, to provide plenty of open space for performing. They modeled their approach after a performance last year given by a spoken word ensemble led by Ross Gay ’96 and Tom DiGiovanni ’96.
“We want the audience to be able to move around throughout the piece, so that they are part of the performance,” Pollaci explains.
“In general, we are trying to express what real women think about their bodies, not what any advertising company, magazine, or male has to say,” she adds.“We are hoping that this performance will give everyone, males and females, a chance to come together to break down stereotypes of how a woman’s body should be perceived, and how women should see their own bodies.We want to empower women and the Lafayette community to create a healthy environment for women.”