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Keely Henry

@keelyhwrites

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Keely H. writes, turns storytelling into performance art, dates the sun, and launches a book about shaking shit up within America’s healthcare system.

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First rebound in some years. And, in this sweet cottage.
The last time, I was renting a place in St Pete and working remotely. I quit that salaried job and thought I’d leave FL, again.
This time, I’m rooted back in #sarasota teaching dance at Booker High School @bhs_vpa_dance and working at Coffee Carousel @carrousel_1644
The service/hospitality industry has been oh so serving for this 45 year old reclaiming myself as an artist.
This time, it’s rough and tough in many, many ways.
This time is also incredibly full of freedom.
This is a here hope swoops in. Steeped in mud and the dark for which light shines through.
This time, I choose me.
My instincts may not delete information. They sure do lead. And that is beautifully hopeful and hopefully beautiful.
I am curious by failure. I think this will be lifelong.
One thing I know for sure, shame dies when stories are told.
This time, I commit to the process, not the result. by @keelyhwrites

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20 hours ago

Protecting ✌️ and FL popping 🍁 but 🧡 shaped by @keelyhwrites

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8 days ago

Neighborhood ☀️ and 🌕 and 🐢 in between. by @keelyhwrites

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a month ago

Witnessing the films ‘The Commitments’ and ‘Once’ are core memories. The Commitments with my dad when I was way young. My dad was a mega fan of film, music, literature, art in all its forms and his weaving of such into my life from the get go is something I am endlessly grateful for. Which is part of the struggle years when he didn’t support my choice to pursue art as a dancer. The memory of viewing this film runs deep. While the details of if are blurry, whether viewed at home on a VHS or in the theater, the imprint is present.
Then, Once, viewed at my local indie theatre @burnscourtsarasota with my Grandmother and Mom being an equally big deal. These two very much supported my artistic dreams as well as their devotion to the catholic faith. Which was complex in ways. We didn’t visit indie films often unless the subject matter held faith or easy to swallow subject matter. 2007, the year Once was released, was a gutting year. I was a newly single Mama, heart broken and lost, with a burning desire to make the art thing work as a means to provide. Unknown then, this year existed close to my grandmother’s passing. I treasure this memory with these two women who without hesitation said yes to purchasing tickets and getting the three of us there, sitting beside one another in total awe of the beauty of this Irish musical romance. My grandmother had visited Ireland. My mom and I would later in 2009. The meaning of this moment had always lived inside of us, memorizing the soundtrack and all. Yet the verbalizing of it had laid dormant until now. Hearing of @glenhansard passing and holding vigil for his family and close ones 🕯️ by @keelyhwrites

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2 months ago

Transition into the closing.
I’ve been nervous to say something for some time as I am freshly inside a reclamation of myself as an artist, at 45 yrs, and I fear what I am about to share will be called out as bullshit. So here goes, much of my artistic practice is the life I have lived, am living, and dream of living in the future. Much of my choreography is gestural, which can be labeled as literal. While I do not want to spoon feed information as art, the sharing of my life’s stories has to be part of this moving memoir. The harder I tried to make something “interesting” the more ick it felt inside my body. Naturally, practices like my somatic and pilates practice and journaling came into play. I knew a transition was needed here, I just wasn’t sure what.

Days before tech I had an idea to push one of the speakers forward, sit on top of it, and read from a journal. Tech day comes and this idea is launched the day before opening night. The quieting worked, again, as this was the necessary transition to let us all breathe, and connect. I grab my readers, again, mount the speaker to sit with the audience, and read aloud. Something my younger self was always excited about but also very afraid to do. Public speaking makes my body and voice shake at first. I wasn’t sure if my voice would project enough or if I’d need a mic. The Jane B. Cook theatre served as the perfect cocoon to hold the sound of my voice without a mic.
Okay, this is working, keep going!
Another note, these photos are from the tech run in which the details of this new part were not ironed out yet. After tech, my crew @leah_veedee @thejpope @unlash_yer_hands and Katy helped me unpack the decision to remove the blue dress and place it in a bucket of water after dismounting the speaker. Although each performance what was read allowed and processed with the audience was different, this moment felt special and necessary.
📷: @sorcha_augustine
🎭: @squeakywheeltheatre by @keelyhwrites

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3 months ago

The second section was the most difficult, the most uncomfortable, held the most edits and pain points.

Originally titled ‘dance like no one is watching’, then changed to ‘gallery wall to boxes’, and changed again to ‘walls’. Attached to this section was a writing piece (titled “Gallery Wall to Boxes”) done years prior. I thought I wanted to read the piece in its entirety aloud while the movement would consist of club like moves on top of club-sized speakers (thanks to @artof_dal ) like I did during my club-dancing era in my late teens/early twenties. With many back and forth conversations and audio recording sessions with @unlash_yer_hands , they advised, guided, and mentored me through letting the writing piece go completely and just tell the story. My subconscious insisted on reciting certain words from the written piece despite real effort to release them (the final edit proved this to be unsuccessful 😆). Although I am not hearing what the audience hears, Keni extracted pieces of storytelling from hours of work and put together a track that just fits.

Before mounting the speaker, headphones were a must, as well as lipstick with the help of readers cause my 45 year old eyes are changing and I lost my prescription glasses months ago. Thanks to @triciatondryk_hair for the perfectly sized mirror that helped with the lipstick part. If you are a fan of my hair, it’s because of genetics (my mom’s hair is so beautiful) and this stellar woman.

This section was also the most exciting from a performative perspective. Even though so much of what was stripped away during the process of building was necessary, I discovered a desire to strip down being performative and basically, lean more into not performing at all. This section was also the part that held the most curiosity from the inside. I wonder what it stirred for those that saw the piece?
📷: @sorcha_augustine by @keelyhwrites

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3 months ago

The first section, named “birth and rebirth”, came together within collaboration with asking three friends for help. Two with a video. The other with audio production. All asks were easy breezy. Two resulted in immediate “yes’s” and included scheduled & rescheduled meetups and a certain amount of ‘let-go’ until editing time. One ask included an ask again, then a coffee date to discuss which led to a final ‘yes’.
The drone footage was captured during an early evening date of play and exploration at Lido Beach with Shyla @shylarose.photo . The footage was then taken into Shyla’s hands to work magic and send to me to then forward on to Keni @unlash_yer_hands . No notes. Wow. Okay, that wasn’t so bad. Keep going.
Keni’s audio production for this section had a couple renditions until we landed on what is currently the soundscape of waves and my Mom and Son’s voices over an instrumental track I found inspiring that Keni beautifully weaved in.
The closing video collab with @alexsyshill started out in my head and heart as the opening. So it goes. We picked a date we both had off from work and met at a Longboat Key beach access point. We played and played some more. With complete artistic freedom, Alexsys created the sweetest close and I am forever grateful for the ‘yes’ to collab on this piece.
A week before the first performance, after a run through with @thejpope , the part of supremely slow floor work movement was added. I cannot imagine a more soothing and intentional way to begin. Floorwork is my favorite way to move. I start most class warm ups this way, as I do daily movement practices. Moving across the stage while the video of me floating, immersed in the Gulf of Mexico where I was born and raised and the sounds of my mom’s voice, my life’s beginning, assured that this piece was something from nothing. And then, to hear my son’s voice during the most endearing philosophical rant that inspired my writing self to shine, I mean, how did I get so lucky in life?
Additionally an undisclosed amount of conversations with Katy (not on the gram) and one monumental conversation with @luckygoldrhino had my back and served as gifts of encouragement. by @keelyhwrites

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3 months ago

POST SHOW reflection:
After the editing came the truth. What this piece was meant to be all along. It had to be unearthed within the process. Wow.

After all of the ideas were filtered through a screen, much like a tool used these days to find sharks teeth, we landed with 3 sections. I say we because I would not, could not do any of this without my community. After all the welcomed feedback, some of it held to a nervous energy of past ways of doing art (especially performative art), I had to lean in and get really, really quiet.

After all the lived experience of quitting a salaried job with benefits and thrusting my middle-aged self into the service industry, I had to hustle while building something that kept coming in waves of visions and inspiration. A constant reassurance that the knowing would come lived inside of me. Trust. The. Process. Trust and lean IN and ON the collaborating while staying true to me.

📷: @sorcha_augustine by @keelyhwrites

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3 months ago

is there something beyond gratitude that language does not capture? am i alone in feeling like sometimes “thank you” doesn’t quite convey the expression!
i am grateful to Megan Radish and the entire @squeakywheeltheatre for bringing Fringe to Sarasota.
i am grateful for my people (some not on the gram to mention/tag) @unlash_yer_hands @thejpope @leah_veedee @shylarose.photo @alexsyshill @artof_dal @traceyeminsbed for all of the processing and editing and holding and supporting and encouraging.
i am grateful to @sorcha_augustine for the photographic documentation of before the show and during the runs and @rachelllambright for the video of Wednesday’s show (and friendship after all these years).
the ride to showtime was BUMPY and SPIRALLY, not at all linear. the ride within The One was full, a roller coaster, spontaneous, emotive, hilarious and balanced joy and sorrow. All the things that make up this one, little, beautiful life.
i take none of the collaborating for granted. NONE of this was possible on my own.
the ways in which my family and chosen family showed up leaves me floating, living, and loving in an ocean of gratitude. by @keelyhwrites

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4 months ago

📷: @sorcha_augustine @squeakywheeltheatre Fringe v. 4! Cannot wait to perform at 10pm tonight! I’ve tried to post today about all the feelings and gratitude and the words just haven’t formed to capture the inner terrain just yet. So, this bitch will see ya on stage. by @keelyhwrites

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4 months ago

Get to Know Your Fringe Shows: The One
One woman sharing her story amongst the multiple art forms that have always had her back. Weaving together dance, music, audio recordings, video, writing, like a blanket of life. Her life. At what most consider middle age. Together, with audience participation, we unravel being raised and then raising ourselves. An only child who mothers an only child. Licking wounds and fears of being a burden only to end up needing and asking for help in order to survive. Go figure.
Check out a sneak preview of Keely's work on Squeaky Wheel Fringe's story on the Suncoast View last Friday!
Ticket link in the comments. by @keelyhwrites

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4 months ago

Playing within crawling. A practice in the spine, core, balance points. A practice in slowing down and going back, again. What is the body map saying about markers of time? When one has something on the altar that doesn’t change, this is a signal, the nervous system is safe. by @keelyhwrites

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5 months ago