Keila Cordova

Keila is developing SKIRT (working title), a performance about the not-so-quiet dilemma of the deified, denigrated, protected, and deconstructed female body. SKIRT integrates text, narrative, original music composition, set design and visual media to reflect the bodies we own and live in, versus the body as it’s interpreted in the gaze of others.

The Directors Lab West invited Keila to attend their eight-day intensive for emerging and mid-career theatre directors and choreographers. The Window of Opportunity Grant will support Keila's travel to California, where the intensive takes place, as well as accommodations while there. The opportunity to be in dialogue during The Directors Lab will help her increase the range of conversations around challenging questions like: Who do we become once we’re made acutely aware of the position of femaleness in public spaces? 

Keila’s goal is to bring dance to people surviving with Parkinson's Disease (PD) by creating a local dance for PD Program. Through using the principles one learns as a dancer, she hopes to help people with PD to train their brains to build new pathways to control movement. During the four month long project, instructors will teach sessions to PD survivors and their caregivers. Movements will be modified, based on the dancer’s ability and the project will culminate in a community education performance. Keila looks to broaden the concept of the dance community to include the aging and those with varying abilities, believing that dance is for all people and all bodies.