Freedom of speech. This is how the world works. When we lose communication, alternate lines of reprieve are opened to fill this void. Lies are made, violence appears as if from thin air and wreaks havoc. When our voices are taken away, who is left to sing to the world?

A Dancer’s Journey to Live by Midcoast citizen Korinn Mowrey has left its mark at the Ecology Learning Center in Unity. 

The original schedule to be performed at the charter high school was for an “intro” of sorts to take stage on Thursday, April 25, and the full 90 minutes to be shown on Saturday, April 27. 

The school canceled the Saturday showing after some controversial topics were brought to light in the Thursday performance. After the curtains closed that afternoon, there was an apparent vote taken by teachers against the public performance set for Saturday. 

And we ask, how do we broaden our knowledge by preventing “taboo” subjects to be topics of discussion? 

This performance held themes of eating disorders, addiction, and fast food genocide, amongst others. 

But can you imagine what made this different than other depressing and seemingly identical public displays made day-to-day? 

Here’s a word: hope. 

In her performance, Mowrey did indeed describe difficult topics, but the twist was in spreading joy, hope, revival and optimism in how to get through life’s “rough patches”. 

There is light and love and happiness and this was shown in the school performance.

Would you like your child to grow up without the knowledge and resources available to them from people outside of the cookie-cutter structures of schools who have been in these difficult situations, and have lived to tell about them? 

Would you like your child to grow up knowing they can and will succeed if they follow their dreams and walk the road of their success with happy shoes on, or are you going to tell them that because it hurts once, you better put a bandaid on it and forget the scar was ever there?

A letter was written for the charter school in Unity after the Thursday program.

As A Dancer’s Journey to Live has become a banned book of sorts, here it is:

To whom it may concern,

I had so much fun performing A Dancer’s Journey to Live at the Ecology Learning Center on the 25th of April. I would like to take this opportunity to clear up any misinterpretations from the performance as our Saturday showing for the general public was canceled as a result from the teachers and students of the school.

To those students and teachers who left the show with a negative impact stained on their hearts, and to the parents who are wondering why the Saturday event was canceled—please know that I meant ONLY absolute positivity in bringing hope and good feelings into your lives. 

This show is an uplifting, hope-reviving story backed with years of research and science, and is geared toward any creature of the human experience who wants to open themselves up to reach vines of inspiration from the lengthy societal webs around us all.

As a DSP (direct support professional), I work closely with adults with disabilities and have seen the positive impact food can have on behavioral, mental, and physical health. This is a breakthrough in its truest sense: a means by which, when explored, can make life so much the better for all walks of life. 

Not only can nutrition bridge the gaps of diversity, but those of us who feel closer to “the majorities” in life can equally meet every person with patience, understanding, and empathy. 

Nutrition is for everyone, and I am so grateful I had the chance to share this piece with this in-school audience.

As described in my original synopsis, “fast food genocide” was a heavy and emotionally-draining topic. It is meant to hit heavy so as to encapsulate the full scope of how everyday, easily-seen-on-the-store-shelves food is received in your nutrient-absorbing system…otherwise known as the human body. 

It is one of the most critical topics to be up-to-date on because of its gargantuan influence on said human body. 

The GOOD news: Everyone has the tools to learn what “good health” looks like and how we can all make our lives health-propelled, decision-functioned, exciting experiences!

Our experiences teach us one thing: we live and we learn. We fall down and we get up and we keep on keeping on. When we learn new information, we are able to cognitively download its use in our lives and then experiment in how it can be positively applied to our everyday experiences. 

So I will ask you one thing: if you can walk out in the world and know that you and your decisions are the only things keeping you from achieving your most imaginative and majestically-envisioned dreams, will you give yourself the chance to receive information, fall down, get back up again, try and try again, and then manifest a creation from your very core? 

Will you let yourself believe? 

Will you give yourself hope? 

Will you smile at an apple and munch on a carrot and write down your greatest desires and keep writing them until they come to fruition?

YOU will succeed.

I hope this has helped in filling in the mad-lib of this performance. After some misinterpreting, I hope the blanks aren’t as daunting. 

My goal is to open a line of communication with the teachers and students of the Ecology Learning Center and to be able to come in and have a conversation about any issues from the showing that have brought negative connotations to mind. 

I would like to put any challenging emotions unresolved from the performance to rest so we can all go about living our best lives and fulfilling our dreams!

With hope flowing your way,

Korinn Mowrey & the team

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I’ve heard wind that Mowrey will still be around. She’s performed for many happy people in local theaters of Midcoast Maine and I doubt this will keep her from pushing forward. 

The April program may have even thrown kindling to the fire. I look forward to seeing how things heat up! 

If you do see a flier for the show, do yourself a favor and see it at least once.

Lead your own life. Live with your dreams guiding you. Don’t be afraid to question the teachers and the students and the every-bodies and the nobodies. After all, even charter schools allow teachers to believe that students should not be told that they can all succeed.

I’m a random nobody and I’m here to tell you this secret: you will make it.

Galadria Scattoloni lives in Belfast.