This Body's Heart


Sonya Rio Glick

This Body’s Heart is an original six piece contemporary dance production conceptualized and produced at Purchase College, SUNY inspired by Sonya’s experiences with Cerebral Palsy. Serving as director, choreographer, producer, performer, and costume designer, Sonya worked with over 30 Purchase students across academic disciplines, social identities, and experience levels to bring her vision to life over thirteen months. Slated to go up for four performances in Purchase College’s Dance Theatre Lab in April of 2020, the performances were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sonya is actively pursuing grant opportunities to reproduce and present This Body’s Heart in New York City.

A black and white image of Sonya and two dancers in a dance studio with a bar against the wall in the background. Sonya Stands and watches two dancers spanding with their legs and arms outstretched, grasping one another by the wrist to create a chain like image. Leaning their weight to the left while looking to the right, everyone appears to be very focused. Sonya wears a short sleeve, mid length dress that exposes leg braces that come up to her mid thigh, and sneakers with a letter ‘N’ on the side. Her face is turned towards the dancers. The dancer to the left has a long curly ponytail, a muscular build, and wears a light colored tank top and darker baggy pants, She grips the wrist of the dancer to the left, a masculine person with short blonde hair and larger build, wearing a Purchase college T-shirt and dark exercise shorts.

Above, a clickable thumbnail to play an interview with Sonya about the making of This Body's Heart.

The rehearsal and production processes for This Body’s Heart were approached with care from a Disability Justice framework. In conjunction with the production of This Body’s Heart, Sonya completed a research paper on the application of the principles of Disability Justice to performing arts processes, using the production as a case study. Sonya was honored as the 2020 Jandon Student Achievement Award Winner for Success in Arts Management for her work in production and research on This Body’s Heart.

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Read a profile on This Body’s Heart in the Purchase Phoenix!

In August of 2020, Sonya received support for the reproduction of This Body’s Heart from Dance/NYC as a recipient of the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Dance and Social Justice Fellowship, alongside 25 other Disabled dance artists. The Fellowship “recognize[s] the critical role that disabled dance workers and arts practitioners play in social justice movements and to ensure that these workers are supported while continuing to place disability front and center as a positive artistic and generative force.”

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Interested reading This Body’s Heart: Leveraging Dance Processes for Cultural Liberation?

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