STILL in MOTION

ONLINE PRESENTATION

Still in Motion Home  //  Leslie Elsasser - Introduction  //  Selina Roman - Mind Currents  //  Christian Cortes

PHOTOGRAPHY
Roxi Cato - US Army  //  Wildalys Class - US Air Force  //  Agustin Collazo Jr. - US Navy and Marine Corps  //  Michael Congdon - US Army  //  Giovanna Delacruz - US Air Force  //  Amanda Dodd - US Army  //  Dawn S. Hargrett - US Navy  //  Evan Fountain - US Air Force  //  Mark Freeman - US Army  //  Robert Kidney - US Coast Guard  //  Mikko Maki - US Marine Corps  //  Alicia Morales - US Army  //  RaeAnne Swanson - US Air Force

VIDEO
James Alexander - US Air Force  //  Wildalys Class - US Air Force  //  Dwight English - US Army  //  Loretta Fields - US Army  //  Mikko Maki - US Marine Corps  //  Matias - US Marine Corps

 

WILDALYS CLASS  - US AIR FORCE

A Dancer’s Nightmare

Daily living is a dance. We live in the world but also inside of our minds. Our emotions make little sense in linear or logical ways, they are like a dance always spinning and whirling. Sometimes I happily dance. Yet there are other times when my alter ego enters, pirouettes, and the dance is out of step. I come face to face with a darker version of myself, full of fear and disbelief.

I always wanted to be a dancer, but never took classes. A Dancer’s Nightmare is my dance between the light and the dark. The dancer awakens from a nightmare, full of fear, terrified of battling a darkness that is hidden behind her emotional shadows. When I was a child, I was happy. When I was a teenager, I danced with lightness. I have wonderful memories of who I was. However, when I returned from the military, I was different. When I came home, I danced with darkness. Some periods were better than others. Yet, I spent years fearing the sudden arrival of the blackness and my dark alter ego.

After returning, I was diagnosed with a bipolar condition. It was an ailment that I refused to acknowledge. I did not want to accept the mental health issues. I was frightened by the threat of my depressive alter ego and my newfound negativity. My days were precarious. I would awaken to confront my shadow self, my waking nightmare. The knowledge that there was this thing in my life left little peace. The looming darkness was always present.

A Dancer’s Nightmare is an acceptance of my condition and an awakening from the nightmare. My dancer wears a majestic purple leotard as she wakes from the darkness and leaps toward her light-filled future that is well lived with hope, joy and poise one day at a time.

WILDALYS CLASS
US AIR FORCE

 

 

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For more information:
Email Leslie Elsasser at lelsasse@usf.edu

Breaking Barriers is a project by USFCAM in collaboration with the USF School of Art and Art History, with Support from the USF Office of Veterans Success, Community Arts Impact Grant Program of the Arts Council of Hillsborough County, Love IV Lawrence 2020 Waves of Change Grant, and additional support from the ACE Arts for Community Engagement Fund and the Florida Department of State.