[piano intro] [upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music ending] [peaceful music] [voices harmonizing] [peaceful music continues] [voices harmonizing continues] [peaceful music continues] [voices harmonizing continues] - [Michelle] We don't make dances about things.

We make dances because of them.

So when we meet veterans with issues and challenges, we begin this artistic process of creating dances.

And they become our way of embodying their world and telling the veterans' stories.

♪ We rise, rise ♪ ♪ We rise ♪ ♪ We rise, rise ♪ ♪ We rise ♪ - Everybody sleep okay?

No, you didn't.

- [Participant] I didn't sleep at all, you know I don't.

- No.

No.

- Maybe both of you just chasse, like both of you chasse this way, like that.

- Like that.

- Okay, yeah.

Black Box Dance Theater is a modern dance company.

I like to say we specialize in nonfiction dance.

We work with veterans and with their families and spouses.

We work with veterans with PTSD, which is post-traumatic stress disorder, veterans who have suffered injury of some sort.

- Not only do we work with professional dancers, we also bring in community, vets who've never danced.

That's really what I think differentiates us from other companies, is that we incorporate non-dancers, and by the end they consider themselves dancers along with us.

- [Michelle] So we work with active duty Marines and soldiers and airmen and national guard.

And this workshop that we call Patriot, it collects the veteran stories from all over the country.

So it becomes this evolving artwork.

This week in Asheville, we have some returning veterans, but we also have some brand new people that we're just beginning to meet.

[gentle music] [crow cawing] [soft chattering] - All rise!

- Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes.

This [indistinct] is now open to sit in for the dispatcher of business.

God save the state and this honorable court.

[shoes scuffling] - The Veterans Treatment Court is an alternative pathway of the justice system where we actually focus on healing.

Usually from addiction and unaddressed addiction, we have them for two years, they're on probation, and if they can complete our five phase journey, their charges are dismissed.

As a person in recovery, I can give voice to my experience that we talk about addiction as a disease, but it is just you.

It becomes you and you cannot separate yourself from it.

It is this driving force for everything you do.

- [Kevin] Well, good morning, your honor.

- Good morning.

- As you see, we have some special guests with us today.

Your Honor, I want to introduce Michelle and Alfredo from the Black Box Dancers who are here to tell us about the work you're doing.

- So I'm Michelle, the artistic director of Black Box Dance Theater.

Black Box is a modern dance company based in North Carolina.

It's our home.

It's our people.

It's where I'm from.

About the past seven years, we do work with active duty down at Fort Lejeune, Fort Liberty now.

They bring us in to work with, you think this is scary.

There's 50 Marines like this, you know, ready for a two hour dance workshop.

They're all like, "What the?"

You know?

And we're like, "Ah."

Two hours later though, there's laughter and there's tears, there's a lot of sweat.

What we have an opportunity to do together, I think is a model of hope for what can happen in a community.

You just get together and then you create together.

We are gonna have a show Friday, August 18th at 7:30 at the Diana Wortham Theater.

We would love for you to either come to the show, be a part of it, better yet, be in the show.

[gentle music] The Veterans Treatment Court is just one of the places where we go to recruit folks.

We also work with the USO and with VA doctors to find veterans for these workshops.

- It's a great idea bringing these veterans together to give them a chance to tell their stories, build community, unburden themselves, and help us find a way to, you know, help them restore a sense of humanity that was taken from them, you know, at a very young age.

John, I was so hoping that that was you.

- Yes sir.

- And I thought, that can't be John Shelton.

- Yes sir.

- Because you look so good.

- I was, if it wasn't for you, sir.

You're in my prayers all the time.

He had a lot to do with my recovery.

He saw me at my worst.

I was 124 pounds.

Yeah, I was getting ready to die.

I mean, palliative care came to see me.

And finally, you know, I finally got squared away.

Thank you.

[hands tapping on backs] - [Participant] This is inspiration for other people.

- All right.

I'll drag a few.

I'll drag a few friends with me.

How about it?

I promise.

I promise.

- I can guarantee you, you won't regret it.

- I was a primary care physician at the Charles George VA Medical Center.

You know, after I'd been there a couple of years, I realized how many of them were still carrying the war with them.

You can't send moral individuals into situations where they have to perform immoral acts without, you know, emotions coming unglued.

You know, combat and war changes people.

[deep drum beating] [deep breathing] [deep drum beating continues] [deep breathing continues] - I am a founding member of Black Box Dance Theater, and I'm also a Purple Heart combat wounded soldier.

I'm a disabled combat veteran.

I was injured in Iraq.

I came back.

I wanted to die, but now I want to freaking live.

When I came back from Iraq, like a lot of the veterans, immediately I was put on medication and it really disconnected me.

It was like a, it was like a wet bandaid because I was zoned out.

I was taking pain pills and that was, you know, numbing everything.

I wasn't allowed to be who I used to be or who I wanted to be.

I had to release this trauma that I've been holding onto, and dance is that vessel that allows us to gather together and, you know, let everything out.

It's just that kind of release that we're trying to offer the veterans with Patriot.

[explosive music] [explosive music continues] [explosive music continues] [door latch clicking] [foot steps] [many people speaking at once] - Nice to meet you.

- Thanks for coming.

So glad you're here.

Fantastic.

- Thanks.

- Hi Monica.

I'm Kate.

- Kate.

- Hi, I'm Liz.

- Liz.

- We will not expect you to know our names.

- At the end of the day.

- [Participant] See, I'm already... It's all good.

- I'm Natalie.

- Natalie.

- Hey John, you can come on in.

Hey, Roy.

I'm so glad you came.

I'm like, yay!

I'm looking.

- I wanted to, but then you said, Roy, I'll see you Monday.

I was like, hey, I know where I'm gonna be Monday.

[all laughing] - Well, welcome.

Welcome.

- Thank you.

- [Michelle] Oh my goodness.

Here comes the war.

It's coming.

- It's infantry.

- I was in from 1984 to 1992 and then ended up in Desert Storm and that was life changing.

My life has never been the same since.

And saw things I didn't know humans were capable of.

And I didn't know what I was capable of.

I joined a peacetime military and I came out in the wartime military.

It's two different worlds and it's two different universes of what's expected of you and what you have to deal with.

But I wanted to come home.

I got to come home, but you get home, you know, you're like, "Well, I'll live with it.

I'm a man."

Then you just wake up one morning and your alarm clock freaks you out.

And you know, never going to the 4th of July fireworks again.

I've never taken my kids 4th of July.

Plus, the noise, the lights and the flashing.

[jet exploding] Yeah, you're a man, but you're a man with issues and I've been hiding them for years behind the drugs and alcohol and not communicating with people.

Michelle said I'll see you Monday and I trusted her.

So yeah, here I am.

Let's do it.

[many people speaking] - Good afternoon!

Good afternoon!

Good afternoon.

Oh my goodness.

I am like bursting.

I'm looking around and I'm realizing there are over 10 people in this circle who have never done this piece or been a part of it.

I'm not sure about a lot of things, but I know whatever we make together will not be made unless you're here.

All right, let's get going.

All right.

So I'm gonna stand up and I'm gonna push my chair back and I'll invite y'all to stand up if you'd like.

First of all, I want to show you something.

This has been traveling with us when we've done some work with some veterans around the country, a little bit in Boston, but really some of this was from Camp Lejeune.

Some of it was with spouses.

Different people have written on this and we just asked 'em different questions.

One of the questions I asked was, why are you here?

And then another question was, you know, where are you coming from?

Are y'all ready for this?

Everybody said drum roll, Kevin.

[everyone laughing] [Michelle imitating plane engine] [everyone cheering] - Yes.

- And now lift it up, Alfredo, 'cause I'm gonna put some of it on the table so people can write on the table or on the floor.

But what we're gonna do is we're gonna add to this with our stories.

Why don't we start with, I'm here because... [gentle music] Our new veterans from the treatment court mostly served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we also have vets from a writing group called Brothers and Sisters Like These.

They're mostly Vietnam veterans.

And as we transition away from writing, I'm gonna let us just kind of now go through and just see any words that jump out to you.

- [Veteran] I served because I was drafted and I hated that, but I'm glad I served now.

- [Veteran] I carry my family, my thoughts, my pride.

- [Veteran] I'm here to enjoy life and be at peace and to connect with others.

- [Veteran] I'm here because I was defeated.

- [Veteran] I'm here to serve, to be healed, to love, to see.

- I carry the memory of the men I served with, who they were, what they did, how it went.

Opportunities taken, not taken.

Friends, fellow travelers.

- [Veteran] I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself.

- [Veteran] I'm here because of the vision of my brother's trunk that came home before him.

- I'm gonna pause for just a second.

We've never done this before and this is a little more intense than I thought it was gonna be.

Is anyone else feeling that in this room?

Yeah.

Wow!

Here's what I'm gonna have you do.

Y'all are gonna make a little circle and just anything you remember, you're gonna make a little dance from it.

Each memory gets a movement, but what's one thing you remember?

- [Veteran] I was drafted and I hated it.

- I was drafted and I hated it.

What else?

Somebody else.

- [Veteran] I'm here to let go of the hate.

- [Michelle] I'm here to let go of hate.

Oh, Anne.

- I remember especially the one about the suitcase coming home before the son.

- The suitcase, the trunk coming home before the son.

So, like this.

How big is a trunk, everybody?

Just show me in your body, do it.

Yeah, you have to kind of bend down.

So this is about the size of a trunk.

What does hate look like in your hands?

It's not like this.

What is it?

Show me... Beautiful, Monica.

Yeah.

Ooh, beautiful.

So why don't we start like this and let it build, build, build, build, build.

And then how can you let go of it?

Ooh.

Roy released it up.

I like that.

Okay, so here.

[indistinct speaking] That's how we take an image or a word and we find a little movement for it.

I'm gonna let this group add on to that.

Anything that you remember, add on to that or it's just why you're here.

[enlightening music] [enlightening music continues] [enlightening music continues] Everywhere we meet people who have experienced trauma, they carry that in their bodies.

But with dance, you don't need words to tell your story.

[enlightening music continues] [audience applauds] My goodness.

You know how something so heavy and burdensome can be the source of this.

Wow!

- For 46 years, I was not proud to be a veteran.

I didn't talk to anybody about it 'cause I didn't feel like anybody understood it but another vet, which I wasn't around that many.

But times like this make me so proud to be, served this great nation and be a veteran.

[audience applauds] - These are tiny little beginnings, nuggets.

Who's impressed?

Man, like we just met each other 45 minutes ago.

None of those dances existed in the world 30 minutes ago.

- I served my service in the United States Army, infantry, and they sent me to Korea on the DMC for my first bid at sharpshooter.

But I felt like I needed to get out and be by myself, so I got my honorable discharge and I left.

I lived in a tent in the woods, so I moved from town to town, 'cause people got too close to me or I got too close to them and I had to keep moving just to be isolated, to be by myself.

And just work so I could have money, my drugs, alcohol, and still be in the woods and still be away from society.

I just feel like I always got to recognize what I got in me, it's in me and it ain't going nowhere.

I just recognize and deal with it.

[birds chirping] - Dancers, let's get going.

First why don't we just start with a little 24 check-in.

What's been going on for you in the past 24 hours?

Anything you want to share?

Anything good?

I slept some last night.

Yeah!

Anything from yesterday stand out to you?

- I think just the complete agreeable nature of everyone, the vets, the new vets especially.

Not much hesitation, and if there was some, it progressed into just full out commitment to whatever we were doing, which was a lot.

We did a lot.

- I was so impressed with buy-in.

I just wasn't expecting... I don't know, I don't often see adult men being vulnerable and willing to take risk.

- We all have these burdens that we're carrying that nobody knows about, and it was just a real moment of like, "Oh yeah, okay.

That is still what we're working through through this dance."

- [Michelle] That I think it was successful.

We kept checking in and we were right on it.

The first thing was Curtis taking off before the workshop started.

We were all out there, like lots of energy and he's like, "Oh, hell no."

We've seen that before over and over again.

And it's like sending a safe person to go, talk him off, bring him back in, and he stayed the entire time.

And I respect that, but for him to come back into the circle and then tell me, "Oh no, I'm here.

I'm here for the whole shebang."

I said, "Okay."

[distant chatter] [distant chatter continues] Hey everybody, come on in.

Alfredo's gonna lead us in a little stretch thing.

Come on over here.

[gentle music] [gentle music continues] Then this is kind of the hard one, a test, but you're having to do something crazy.

You have to cross the middle and touch the other side.

- Yeah, that's wrong.

- Yes.

Yes, yes.

Cross.

- There we go.

See?

- Just like that.

- Yeah, beautiful.

[gentle music] - I was assigned to the 197 Infantry Brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia.

We deployed in 1990.

It was both Desert Shield, Desert Storm, probably was the most, most devastating thing I've ever seen in my life.

I'm glad I was able to serve my country, but it's very hard to be proud of anything that was done there.

The biggest things I was struggling with was the post-traumatic stress.

I didn't really realize everything that was involved, but I was volatile.

I was volatile and I was in active addiction, and just didn't take recovery seriously.

I stayed at home.

I'd get up in the morning.

I'd go to the liquor store.

I'd go see my dealer.

I'd go back home and I'd isolate until I ended up in a lot of trouble.

[deep drum beating] [deep breathing] [deep drum beating continues] [deep breathing continues] [deep drum beating continues] [deep breathing continues] - All right, folks.

What we'd like to do is show you one of the pieces that's going to be in the dance on Friday, and it's called Brothers Duet.

You look for stories.

You might see a story that looks like yours.

[peaceful music] [peaceful music continues] To make a dance as a work of art, we have an intention of sharing it, and for the audience actually to be present so they see what is in line with their history, what they know of the world, they will recognize in the bodies on the stage.

For us, that's the first step of getting people to literally embody their stories and their history.

[peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [audience applauds] Woo!

Any thoughts about that?

Did any of that look real to you?

Yes.

- Man, it's an awesome story.

And I think sometimes because of our trauma, we fall short of supporting each other, but like how that embodied, you know, kind of there being some tension and conflict, but hey, coming right back together, hey, we're in this fight together and that support and that love and that was beautiful and that's what it's about.

- You're right, because they had not just the disagreement and the tension, but love.

- There's trust not there also.

Not all the way off.

At the end, still didn't trust him and that's a big problem.

It's a huge problem for me.

[upbeat music] - I think the listening is a really powerful tool that we use.

So it's about sensing and listening and being open.

That listening works, that openness creates something in the room.

We're not therapists and we say it, but through this art, something happens.

- It creates right away a connection that did not exist, a community that did not exist.

They're making something together and they're proud of it.

[many people speaking] [participant laughing] - And she hugged me and she said- - Okay, and you weren't here yesterday.

You're gonna be amazed at the transition and the growth that we've developed in the past two days.

What would you say?

- So far, yeah, it's good.

- How long is the treatment for the program?

Like, how?

- It's supposed to be 18 months, but most people, it takes about 24, really.

For me, for me, I had the struggle.

- You get to share your story.

- Yes.

- You get to be with people that serve just like you did, are proud of what you did.

- And that's why I also want to make sure that we're honoring it because I feel like I'm never sure how to feel for someone who's been through this.

- The majority, once they share it in public and get the response from the audience, they're hooked.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

[upbeat music] - Okay, everybody.

Let's get going.

Dancers, come on, y'all.

Come on in.

Today we're gonna work on a section that doesn't exist yet, and it will be in the show on Friday.

In our country, we have all these monuments to war, and they're made out of stone or marble.

What if we used our bodies to create these monuments?

A monument to brotherhood, to care, to help.

All those memorials in our country, all those monuments to wars, right?

And it's all of you guys who are supporting each other, literally.

I'm gonna come in here and... Do you see that?

We're gonna take a deep breath [deep breathing] and we're gonna come out of it.

Everybody thinks that in Dancerville, support is supposed to be like, you know, like, [Michelle yelling] I got a whole bunch of her weight, right?

That can happen if you want, but I also think it's these tiny supports that make all the difference in the world.

So we want to show these little tiny pictures of support.

- Maybe we can do this where we're all supporting each other from falling in.

You want to do that?

- Can you lift one?

[many people speaking] - I don't know, Curtis.

- Just come around here.

Here, I'll hold my hand out.

Do whatever you want.

- That's great!

We're good.

- So let's watch these.

We've asked Michael to sing a song while we try this just to see.

[gentle guitar music] ♪ Get your body on the dance floor ♪ ♪ Move it like never before ♪ ♪ You have to ♪ ♪ Live life to the best of your ability ♪ ♪ You've got to ignore ♪ ♪ Voices that would bring you down ♪ ♪ They won't be around ♪ - Look at that.

It's beautiful.

- That's how I greet my daughter, one of my daughters.

- It's how he greets his daughter.

This how you greet her?

- That's how we greet.

♪ Right upside down ♪ ♪ Right upside down ♪ ♪ Right upside down ♪ [audience applauds] - Dancing is healing because it's bringing a veteran back into their body, and the experience of trauma is taking you out of your body.

I experienced that when I was blown up in Iraq.

My body kept me alive by removing me and I went to a place I don't even know, but I can tell you it was not here looking at my tearing flesh.

[gentle music] - My mama said, "Never marry a military man."

Two kids, six deployments.

[gentle music continues] - In creating Patriot, we explored four different lenses, that of the war hero, the veteran, the protestor, and the spouse.

♪ Home today ♪ ♪ But be any of influence, Lord ♪ ♪ Has lead me far astray ♪ - We've got a whole section called spouse stories, and y'all remember Nikki, right?

Nikki's the one whose husband had six deployments and she like, endured all kinds of stuff.

She introduces spouse stories.

One of the questions we ask the active duty a lot is, you know, "What did it cost you?"

And they're like, "Three marriages."

♪ They call the rising sun ♪ - It's very isolating to be a military spouse and there's so many expectations.

Oftentimes we feel like we're the last, we're the last notch on the totem pole.

I don't think people realize the emotional and mental anguish that we have to deal with.

[gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] ♪ I'm going back to spend my life ♪ ♪ Beneath the rising sun ♪ [audience applauds] - I was active duty Air Force from 1974 to 1976 as a nurse just post Vietnam.

My husband was also active duty Air Force, a physician.

So that feeling of having a loved one truly in harm's way has been there on different levels.

I think the real strength is in sharing and that sense of I'm not the only one that feels this way, I'm not alone, and I'm not gonna scare these people if I tell them what I did or what I saw or how I dealt with things.

[peaceful music] - [Veteran] Once you come back from war as a vet, you're not the same person.

- [Veteran] For veterans with PTSD, either you control the memory or the memory controls you.

- [Veteran] When you have so much trauma, your body has to react to that in a way that pulls you inward.

- [Veteran] The memories are always there, but then your body lets you know you have to really release this trauma that you're holding onto.

- [Veteran] All healing really happens in community.

- [Michelle] When somebody gives you the space to start to let it go, it's like an exhale.

All right, it is our last day of work before the big night.

Hey, let's open the circle out a little bit.

We want to pick up where we left off yesterday.

Your stories of why you are here.

I love that.

Alice, I said, "What should we call this dance?"

She said, "We should call it the here because dance."

You know, how did you even get here?

Who brought you here?

How is it that you made it in your life to be sitting here?

We're gonna give you like 30, let's say 20, 25 minutes.

I'm here because... [distant chatter] I think a lot of people feel isolated, but when they come in, we just invite people to bring any part of themselves.

They share parts of themselves and right away they make connections and then they're wanting to share more and more and more.

- Why are you here?

Why are you here?

Why are you here?

Think about it.

And if, I mean, if you have an answer immediately, bring it.

- Go for it.

- Bring it.

- Be a part of society.

- To be part of society.

Is that- - Be part of people, be around people.

- To be part of people, to be around people.

I love it.

Okay.

I mean, that's also part of why we're here.

Can we start with yours?

The idea of being part of society.

What does that, what could that be?

What could that feel like?

- [Veteran] How can we put that into an image?

[gentle music] [distant speaking] - Tight, so that one pulls in.

- Okay.

Okay.

So we can, okay, okay.

So we start.

- Yeah.

- Okay, push it.

[gentle music continues] - Oh, okay.

Okay.

He's saying, "What if there's one person by himself?"

- Exactly.

- The other people, they're over there as a group.

- We're gonna let go.

You can just fall back.

- Yes.

[gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] - Oh, yes.

Yes.

- And then the one person have to look around and see the group.

I guess just stand at the group and just keep the edge in there trying to figure if he gonna get in the group.

Like me, I was away from him.

I spent 40 years in the woods, so.

- Oh, oh yeah.

Who are they picking up down there?

Oh, look at him go!

[audience applauds] Okay.

All right.

All right, you stay there.

We're gonna be the group, right?

All right.

[distant chatter] - Are we gonna swing around?

- Y'all swing around.

- Are we swinging a lot?

- Swing around.

Yes.

Now we have connected.

I love it.

You want to all come toward Curtis?

- So from the circle, we're gonna arrive to this shape.

- Okay.

Okay.

- So we connect to him, we walk behind him, we do the circle, we arrive to this shape.

- I love it!

- And Curtis has got a smile on his face now.

- That's what I'm talking about.

[all laughing] - [Natalie] So, we need to add a little bit.

- Okay.

- Here's what we're gonna add.

As I stare you down, can we lift you?

[Curtis laughs] Here's what, here's what it would be.

I'm gonna tell you what it would be.

Watch.

We're gonna go straight up.

Ready?

Go.

That's it.

It's gonna be okay.

It comes from this point.

Can we try it with you?

You ready?

- Save it.

Eight.

- Up, and down.

And from there.

- Yes, you good?

- I ain't definitely got no real [indistinct].

[Natalie laughing] - [Michelle] Let's all come on this side of the room.

Let's all come on this side of the room and watch 'em.

♪ I can shed the burdens that are holding me ♪ ♪ Reaching to the light I know that shines on me ♪ ♪ I am here ♪ ♪ Faces are the mirrors, they look into me ♪ ♪ All our pain and sadness and our history ♪ ♪ I came here to free myself ♪ ♪ Free myself, free myself free myself ♪ [all applaud] ♪ We rise, rise ♪ ♪ We rise ♪ - Wow!

What do y'all think?

- Yeah.

- It's fantastic!

All right.

Favorite moments so far.

What was your favorite thing?

- I would say, I think there's been about 50 different moments I can name, but overall, I'm just excited to see y'all perform.

I see them perform all the time.

[all laughing] But seeing how much joy y'all get from discovering new things is igniting me, and I appreciate it.

Thank y'all.

- I'm absolutely overwhelmed.

My small group, I mean, to Michael, I mean, everything's just been fabulous.

Everyone's been so supportive.

It's just been a wonderful afternoon.

Thank you.

Thank you.

- To watch him open up like a flower in this process today was joyous to be a part of.

[all applauding] - Now I like to see Curtis.

I'm so proud of him.

I don't know what to do.

[laughs] He gonna kill me later.

[all laughing] - If you're not here tomorrow, we'll call.

- Well me, I'm just really using y'all to take another step to get part of society.

Don't be no outcast.

I enjoyed the whole day.

I enjoy just being here knowing, and thank y'all for being the first step and praise y'all for all.

Let me be the first step from being a part of this.

Thank you.

[all applauding] [magical music] - So this is the theater.

This is the space.

We believe that there's gonna be a show Friday and no other circle of people on this planet could have made this work.

It's a rare opportunity to make something and put it into the world.

I know the audience is going to be moved.

[gentle music] [distant chatter] [gentle music continues] [distant chatter continues] [gentle music continues] [distant chatter continues] - [Interviewer] What are the big things that you remember the most?

- People around me, I enjoyed seeing everybody feeling happy, feeling joy.

- We've enjoyed having you.

It's kind of like once you're part of Black Box, you're always part of Black Box now, okay?

So next time we come up, we'll call.

Next time we're around- - You're infected with the Black Box virus.

- Yes.

Infected with the Black Box virus.

- There's no cure.

- You're now stuck.

It's in your blood.

- [Michelle] Is that enough?

Okay.

All right.

Let's make our circle.

Maybe we could start with like, anyone sharing what's meaningful from the process.

- You know, we do heal, you know?

And there's just this big, oh, once an addict, always an addict, you know?

And it's just not true.

It's just not true.

With therapy and doctors and programs like this.

And these people, once they recover, they need another opportunity.

- One of the things that our military folk miss the most is that coming together for something greater than yourself, you know, taking a risk, being brave, putting your all in and having each other's backs.

I believe that there's something here that is bigger than me and it's gonna serve my community.

It's gonna serve my country if we do this together.

[gentle music] Let's just do a tiny warmup.

I want to honor all the steps that took to get here.

We're ready for the show.

[gentle music continues] [distant chatter] [gentle music continues] [distant chatter continues] [gentle music continues] [distant chatter continues] [gentle music continues] [distant chatter continues] [audience chattering] [gentle music] [gentle music continues] [gentle music continues] ♪ You can't break this body down ♪ ♪ You can't break this body down ♪ ♪ You can't break this body down ♪ ♪ You can't break this body down ♪ ♪ You gotta work, your body, body ♪ ♪ Work, your body body ♪ ♪ Work your body body, work your body body ♪ ♪ Move your body body, move your body body ♪ ♪ Move your body body, move your body body ♪ - Recovery is not a linear path.

The transformation didn't occur overnight.

It was a journey.

Over a million steps through distance, time, and space.

I am here now for connection and healing to honor the dignity of experience for all those who will suffer.

♪ Work your body body, work your body body ♪ ♪ Work your body body, work your body body ♪ [audience applauds] [dancers humming] - Four years, nine months, 27 days.

I remember waking up in a truck full of smoke.

I remember blood trickling down my face.

I remember returning to a world I didn't belong in anymore.

[audience applauds] You might say we sent our soldiers to war without a clue.

- I saw a single tear roll down his face.

He then turned to me and he said, "Mama, there are some things worth dying for, and that's my family and my country."

[audience applauds and cheers] [inspirational music] ♪ Here I am ♪ ♪ This is who we are and who we're meant to be ♪ ♪ I can share the burdens that are holding me ♪ ♪ I came here to free myself, free myself ♪ ♪ Free myself, free myself ♪ ♪ We rise, rise ♪ [audience shouts] ♪ We rise ♪ [audience applauds] ♪ We rise, rise ♪ ♪ We rise ♪ ♪ We rise, rise ♪ ♪ We rise ♪ ♪ We rise, rise ♪ ♪ We rise ♪ [audience applauds and shouts] [audience continues applauds and shouts] [audience continues applauds and shouts] - Thank you, sir.

- Thank you.

[audience shouts] - [Audience Member] That was beautiful, you guys.

- [Participant] Thank you.

- And thanks for sharing your time and your energy.

[audience applauds] - Thank you, because I've never seen my story on the stage before.

[audience applauds] - How essential it is for us to not just tell our stories so other people can understand us, but tell our stories so we can understand ourselves in a different way, 'cause there is something so powerful when we move our stories and embody them.

[audience applauds] - What is it like from the place where you started in this, and then to be here moving and dancing on stage like you are, I just, it moves me to see that transformation.

Can one of you speak to what it's done for you?

- [Veteran] Oh, terrifying.

[all laughing] - I met Monday, I was like, "Eh, okay.

It's all right."

But as the week went on, it got more intense and I forgot how much I love this and I love the process.

And I'm gonna do it again with 'em.

[audience applauds] - When I was here before the show, there were people in the lobby who were telling their stories.

And I didn't catch your name, but you were a nurse and- - Monica.

- Monica.

Okay.

And it hit me hard because I want to be a nurse in the military too.

I just started college and I want to be a nurse in the Air Force.

And so hearing your story and watching everybody else's stories was really amazing.

[all applauding] - I've always known I've been blessed.

My dad went to war when I was a very small- [all applauding] Being the daughter of two veterans, and I knew at that point how real war was, seeing all of you guys up here today, veterans, survivors, parents, spouses, children, we are all truly blessed to be able to call America our home.

Thank you, Dad.

[audience applauds and cheers] [gentle music] - To witness the creation of community, it's pretty incredible and it happens fast.

You think, "Oh, a community has to take like years of time."

But if you have an experience together that means something deeply to you, that community is strong.

[gentle music continues] [peaceful music] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] [peaceful music continues] ♪