Photo Series: “We Move” - Evonnee

“We Move” - A photo series that shares stories of people’s relationship between dance and mental health. See below for stories of my latest subject, Evonnee.

“If I’m going to speak candidly: dance has both helped and hindered my mental health at times. I do believe that as healing as dance can be, both statements can be true.

Dance was a form of escapism for me when I first started and it definitely still is now. I was taken to dance classes as I was quite a shy child when outside of my home environment, so dance really helped me open up. Secondly, I love music! And dance, in its purest form, is responding to music with your body, which was and still is so freeing! Dancing has improved my mindset: it can calm me, excite me, inspire me, push me, bring me closer to my true uninhibited self, and allow me to connect to others.

I think it’s the unseen additions that attach themselves to dance that, over time, can take a toll on your mental health: aesthetics, politics, constraints, self-sabotage, expectations, and criticism from yourself as well as others. And over time, you become more aware of when these things are trying to impact you and how you can guard yourself against them. Which, ironically, is the very thing that, in part, started it: dance.

In an industry that can give you so very much, it can equally take—so you have to make sure the foundation of your mental health stays strong. I guess tapping into why and where you started is a good way to ground yourself and recharge your mental health. And just put on some music and dance with the freedom you did back when you were a kid—I think that’s the best place to start.” - Evonnee, May 2024. 

© Hayley Benoit 2024.

© Hayley Benoit 2024.

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