Body Parts

An interdisciplinary project exploring and challenging how we feel about, process, and live in our bodies.

Body Parts is a solo performance by veteran artist Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg in which she tries to perform her show but gets comically side-tracked by her own body issues. Something has gone terribly wrong! Part stand-up comedy, part Greek tragedy, part performance art, part contemporary dance, this solo is the result of the ever-changing nature of creating art during a global pandemic and our inability to talk about our bodies.

A rich and irreverent examination of our complicated relationships with body image. Part stand-up comedy, part kinetic gesture and dance. A show about the show that never actually starts….or does it?

Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg leads us through a heartbreaking personal landscape of body dysmorphia, disordered eating, self loathing with biting comedy, insightful and absurd social commentary, and transformation through the power of the body and direct address commentary. 

Credits:

Written, choreographer and performed by Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg

Creative Collaborators: Kate Franklin (outside eye), Josh Martin (outside eye), Melanie Yeats (dramaturge/discussion moderator), Justine A. Chambers, Jamie Robinson, Zahra Shahab, Caroline Liffman and Lisa Gelley. 

Set design: Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg (with Josh Martin, Kate Franklin and Melanie Yeats)

Costume: Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg

Music: Marc Stewart

Lighting Design: James Proudfoot

Technical Director (tour): Nico Dicecco

General Manager: Hannah Meyers

Marketing and Communications: Angelica Schwartz

Thank you to:

Original cast members of The Body Project (Kim Stevenson, Bevin Poole, Kate Franklin, Caroline Liffman)

Donna Spencer/Firehall Arts Centre

Progress Lab 1422

Alice Mansell (my mom)

The dozens of amazing folks who agreed to be interviewed for this project

All the beautiful people who donated clothes for the set. 

Body image, body positivity, intuitive eating, etc are all concepts swimming around social media, the “wellness” industry, and our minds. But do we feel better about ourselves? Do we feel like we can talk about the shame we experience around/in our bodies? Body Parts joyfully dismantles the damage inflicted by this shame. We desperately need to share our experiences and reveal the absurdity of ideas like “dancer body”, “bikini body”, and “getting your body back” after having a baby. 

This show is designed to start the important conversation about how we can begin to take the power back, enjoy the amazing things are bodies can do, and laugh through the tears together.

Body Parts is appropriate for ages 13 and up. The show contains swear words, suggestive language and underwear. Ideally the performance is accompanied by a workshop for female identifying and non-binary folks the day before the show, and a relaxed talk back immediately following the show.

Body Parts-the feature film is available to be booked for schools, dance schools, and where in-person performance is not possible. Please ask us about accessibility for audience members. The film can be accompanied by; a virtual or in-person workshop (for female identifying and non-binary folks), a virtual facilitated circle discussion, and/or discussion guidelines and ideas for educuators. 

Online

Body Parts inhabits space online through virtual installations, circle discussions, interdisciplinary workshops, and feature length film.