Turning the Wheel >> Mission

Turning the Wheel Productions (TTW) is an intergenerational dance/theatre company committed to the collaborative creation of works of art that are rooted in and restorative for the communities in which we perform and teach. Through extensive outreach programs to youth and elders, and a working model that is based on inclusiveness, collaboration, and unconditional acceptance, we strive to make art accessible to people of all ages, experience, and cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Excellence & Accessibility
Guided by a combination of highly structured compositional exercises and very open improvisational forms, workshop participants create choreography and text based on their own stories, histories, and physical abilities. We incorporate these creations and the unique issues of each community into the larger context of the performances. Producing performance pieces that are developed collaboratively by experienced professional artists and diverse community members furthers our goal of blending artistic excellence with accessibility.

A Vision of Bringing Art and Life Together
Everything that we do in Turning the Wheel is an attempt to come back into relationship with our interdependence as human beings, and with the need for love, not power, to form the basis for how we live on the earth. We are passionately committed to building and sustaining transformative communities that are inclusive of all people, and that reach for and model unconditional love and acceptance as the norm.

These communities are safe places to express our authentic, creative selves, through dancing and singing and sharing our stories with each other. The model is highly collaborative and empowering for all participants.

We believe:

	that reintegrating creative expression into our lives is one way of healing our longing for community and connection with others, and of reuniting the creative spirit with the mind and the body.
	that the opportunity to share ecstatic and free creative expression with others is a basic human need, one that we cannot be whole and fulfilled without.
	that these opportunities to sing and dance, and perform in community must be accessible to everybody, regardless of age, economic situation, gender, ethnic background, or particular challenge.

We see:
	A vision of healing where art circles back into the chaos and variety of life, where the act of creating is an integral part of all of our lives.
	A vision where art reconnects us with our instinctual, our human, our spirit and our collective and individual souls.

We see:
	The possibility of rebuilding our dreams in a new cultural myth. To do this we must re-myth ourselves, our environment, and our culture, writing our own stories as we want them to be.
	the possibility of creating communities that serve the people who live in them, communities that nurture and support humans as whole beings while supporting the earth we live on.