A Year After Sandy, Healing Through Dance

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since Superstorm Sandy terrorized the East Coast. The milestone must be especially surreal for the devastated Jersey Shore communities still feeling the storm’s effects.

Thanks to a $27,000 grant from the New Jersey Recovery Fund, the Atlantic City Ballet will premiere In the Eye of the Storm this Saturday, November 2. The new ballet is inspired, in an abstract way, by the stories of Sandy survivors. This past summer, ACB director Phyllis Papas and choreographer Kristaps Kikulis invited New Jerseyans to create movement based on their memories of the storm. Those dance-memories then evolved into Kikulis’ choreography.

It’s a touching idea, especially considering that many of the company’s dancers suffered through Sandy in New Jersey last year. Click here to read more about the work, and see photographs from the rehearsal process.