Soul Survivor

Soul Survivor:

A Healing Journey

Art, transformation, and creative power are the essence of this multimedia performance — a moving journey of joy and hope, loss and recovery, told through imagery and music. While Soul Survivor chronicles one woman's tale of courage and healing from pain and dissociation, it is also a universal story of self-knowledge and transformation told with warmth, beauty, and elegance.

How do you play the viola when your eyes don't focus on the music in front of you, your fingers don't feel the strings beneath them, and your body feels mired in six feet of mud? How can a child, sexually abused at the age of five, overcome that trauma and grow into a professional musician? Soul Survivor tackles these questions in a beautifully crafted collaborative work, bringing a new perspective and a new vision to the art of survival.

The program was created as an outgrowth of the Survivor's successful work with Feldenkrais Practitioner Olivia Cheever through the Feldenkrais Method® of Somatic/movement awareness education.

The body by nature is transformative and creative. Soul Survivor brings a new vision and vitality to the art of survival. This hopeful and courageous story will give you the impetus to reclaim your power, art, and essence by learning to listen to your body.

NOTE: At no time during the presentation will you see graphic images or hear sounds akin to sexual abuse. This show is about the journey to health, NOT about the act of sexual abuse.

Soul Survivor's Statement:

“I am a classical musician and a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. I would like to just say that I am a classical musician and leave it at that, but my life has been colored, and at times tormented, by the after-effects of the abuse. So, what I should say is that I am an abused musician. Doesn't sound too good on a resume though, but that would be more realistic. As a performing artist, I had the opportunity to explore the effects of the abuse on my music through a collaborative piece called Soul Survivor. Bringing my inner life forward and showing the world what dissociation really feels like — what it is like to feel so much fear that you literally can't move — and then to share the process of reconnecting with my body, reclaiming my music, and finding my way to wholeness has been incredibly healing to me and to audience members.” — Rebecca Strauss

Click below to watch samples from Soul Survivor