STORIES OF KINDNESS

A day in early April 2020, my plane just landed in the LaGuardia Airport. I attended a repatriation flight from India to the USA due to COVID-19. It was a very very long journey. When I arrived in NY, I was exhausted and feeling uneasy because I had never been at LaGuardia Airport and did not know h

I'm on the A train (again) A stooped, older Black woman with a gorgeous hairwrap and her caretaker (family member? aid?) get on a mildly crowded train. The two men (one white, one Black) sitting near the door immediately get up, shuffle, switch places and slowly help the older woman into her seat --

It's Pride weekend. A young man with a history of mental instability gets on the A train and declares he is going to the best Michael Jackson tribute performance ever..... then marches in places, stuck, no music, he doesn't have a speaker.....A woman on the train comes to him and says "If I sing,

CHOREOGRAPHER'S NOTE from the Program This work is inspired by New York City and the transit we use to move to and fro within it. I love the subway system, and I am in awe, and fascinated by the moments of collective sleepy quiet on a Monday morning, the intense proximity we share as New Yorkers, an

PERFORMANCE PROGRAM Breathing with Strangers is a work in development created by Melissa Riker/Kinesis Project dance theatre music performed by Opera On Tap How do you see others? What is generosity? How does kindness occur? What is helping? “I remember remembering you.” CHOREOGRAPHER'S NOTE BREA

It is rush hour on the 7 train. I’m returning to Manhattan after a meeting in Queens. The subway car is so packed that no one can move, yet somehow people continue to exit and enter the train at each stop. I’m holding the upper railing with one hand, and the straps of my heavy backpack, which I had

As we all share stories, short, long... feel free to add one, read them and use them as inspiration for your art. If you choose to use a story as inspiration, please: 1. tag us on IG @kinesisproject 2. use the hastags #writekind #breathingwithstrangers Then upload your own forum post here at Usin

On a cross town bus on the Upper East side: A woman steps onto the bus and is told by the driver that she has to use the new ticketing system (which is off the bus.) She steps off and goes to the machine, confused about this process, trying to make it work. A man on the bus toward the front, got

Much of the process of creating "Breathing with Strangers" has been dedicated to telling one another stories of kindness between strangers, and then going out into the community to discover new stories. Use this forum to share your own. Images aren't required or needed. Start a new "Discussio