Our Embodied America Atelier Course Explores Nation’s Ideals

Two people talk in a performance studio.

Kyle Marshall (left) and Edo Tastic introduce the end of semester performance of Our Embodied America. Photo by Jon Sweeney

A group of people rais their arms up and clinch their fists during a performance.

Students in the Princeton Atelier class, “Our Embodied America: A Collaborative Workshop of Dance and Poetry” perform their end of semester showing. Photo by Jon Sweeney

A person wearing white clothes with an American flag painted on the t-shirt performs in a studio.

Students in the Princeton Atelier class, “Our Embodied America: A Collaborative Workshop of Dance and Poetry” perform their end of semester showing. Photo by Jon Sweeney

A person wearing white with with a painted gun-shot wound on the t-shirt performs in a studio.

Students in the Princeton Atelier class, “Our Embodied America: A Collaborative Workshop of Dance and Poetry” perform their end of semester showing. Photo by Jon Sweeney

Students in the Princeton Atelier class, “Our Embodied America: A Collaborative Workshop of Dance and Poetry” perform their end of semester showing. Photo by Jon Sweeney

A performer with red a blue stars on her t-shirt looks at her hands pressed against one another in front of her face.

Students in the Princeton Atelier class, “Our Embodied America: A Collaborative Workshop of Dance and Poetry” perform their end of semester showing. Photo by Jon Sweeney

Two performers on stage with their arms hooked around each other.

Students in the Princeton Atelier class, “Our Embodied America: A Collaborative Workshop of Dance and Poetry” perform their end of semester showing. Photo by Jon Sweeney

Three performers on stage appearing to be searching for something.

Students in the Princeton Atelier class, “Our Embodied America: A Collaborative Workshop of Dance and Poetry” perform their end of semester showing. Photo by Jon Sweeney

Students in the Princeton Atelier class, “Our Embodied America: A Collaborative Workshop of Dance and Poetry” perform their end of semester showing. Photo by Jon Sweeney

Students from the Princeton Atelier course, “Our Embodied America: A Collaborative Workshop of Dance and Poetry,” performed work they created during an end-of-semester showing on April 25, 2025, in the Roberts Dance Studio.

Led by choreographer Kyle Marshall and creative director/poet Edo Tastic, students built their own choreographic structures, poetic works, and visual stories informed by the Declaration of Independence, iconic American poetry and Fredrick Douglass’ 1852 keynote address, “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?”.