Being the daughter of a magician had its advantages for Amanda Cox. She understood that when her dad, who went by Wild Willy Woo Woo, practiced sawing her in half, it was only to make his act more convincing.
Today, it is Cox herself who is rehearsing how to give a convincing performance. Friday at 7 p.m. in the Vero Beach Museum of Art’s Leonhardt auditorium, five dancers – including Cox – plus two musicians and an actress will perform “Let Go,” a work of modern dance set to a poem enacted on stage.
“Let Go,” a collaborative work that centers on a theme of self-acceptance, came about after Cox, a graduate in dance from the University of South Florida, spent the past year in Vero as artist-in-residence at Indian River Charter High School, her alma mater.
For the end-of-the-year production, she and her students created a piece that crossed multiple disciplines to convey the self-doubts that plague adolescence.
Staged at the end of April in sell-out performances, the theatrical dance so impressed two women in the audience that they decided to sponsor a public performance at the museum.
Leigh Hursh, a Vero psychotherapist, and Linda Barker, a retired organizational development consultant, brought together a small group to cover the rental of the auditorium – the event is not part of the museum’s programming. Both are involved with the local chapter of the American Association of University Women.
In January, the AAUW sponsored the screening of “Girl Rising,” a documentary about nine young girls in different countries dealing with challenging circumstances. The screening was a fundraiser; held at the Majestic Theatre, the proceeds were used to buy the rights to show it again at the county’s three high schools.
At the Charter High screening, Barker noticed posters for “Let Go,” called her friend Leigh and went to see it.
“We were bowled over,” Barker says.
As the performance ended and the lights came up in the school’s black box theater, Barker overheard a woman say what she was already thinking: “This needs a wider audience.”
“It’s an amazing story,” says Barker. “It’s an amazing performance. Amanda is brilliant and she’s tapped into the real feelings of her dancers.”
Because the theme has to do with adolescence, Barker thought it would interest a number of non-profits whose work involves that age group. So she set about filling seats with that specific audience.
“We’ve invited every non-profit we know of that has something to do with teenagers.”
In some cases, she gave away $10 tickets to the organizations’ directors, and they in turn encouraged their staff members to go. By last week, they had 75 tickets committed; the theater holds around 250.
Barker hopes to offer the program to non-profits next year and intends to add a workshop given by a psychologist. “We want to really explore these negative voices in our heads and help people turn them around,” she says. “We should be speaking more positively to ourselves.”
Meanwhile, Barker is enjoying bearing witness to the artistic process: The kids in the show have crafted much of their movements themselves, contributing their own interpretations to Portia Nelson’s poem “Autobiography in Five Short Chapters,” recited as a monologue during the dance.
“What inspired me was being back at Charter this past year,” says Cox, who replaced modern dance instructor Cher Bounds while she was away caring for a family member.
“This is my first piece that I’ve done with collaboration like this. I learned that here at Charter. Every year, we did a collaboration at the end of the year that involved acting, music and dance. It inspired me to see that again.”
Barker too finds the program inspiring. “At AAUW, we’re always interested in the development of female artists, and now we’re watching it happen,” says Barker. “It’s so exciting.”
Apart from her residency this past year at Charter, Cox is living full-time in Orlando. There she is part of a modern dance company called Red Right Return. She also teaches dance and yoga at the Dr. Phillips Center Florida Hospital School of the Arts and Wellness, part of the center’s complex of performance spaces and museums, where everything from ukulele to improvisation is taught – and magic as well.
While Charter’s VAPA program – short for Visual and Performing Arts – doesn’t yet offer magic, it has an extensive dance program. That is what convinced the then 13-year-old Amanda to join her mother, Barbara Boblitz, in Vero Beach.
Boblitz moved to Vero after divorcing from Amanda’s dad; she has worked for more than a decade as concert administrator for the Indian River Symphonic Association. When Boblitz discovered Charter High and its arts program, she immediately persuaded Amanda to move south and live with her.
“I’ve always loved to dance,” says Cox. “But I couldn’t afford lessons more than once a week. As you get older, you need much more than that. Here, I was able to dance for free.”
Cox started out dancing with Chris Dale Sexton, Charter’s original dance director. Then, in 2004, Hedi Khursandi was recruited by Charter director Cindy Aversa, once a serious of student of dance herself.
“Ms. Aversa is like the ideal woman to me,” gushes Cox. “Dr. (Ray) Adams, Ms. Aversa, the various teachers – this school supported me unbelievably,” she says. “I probably would not have gone to college if not for this school. I am a strong believer in Charter.”
