"Cancer is a rare and still scandalous subject for poetry; and it seems unimaginable to aestheticize the disease." – Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor
Temporality of Survival: A Portrait of Cancer is a new autobiographical work by Caitlyn Swett that dares to depict an experience of cancer through multi-media performance. Inspired by writer-survivors such as Audre Lorde, Anne Boyer, Walela Nehanda, and Caitlin Breedlove, Caitlyn’s latest performance adds her experience of cancer to the slim record of brutally honest accounts told by survivors themselves.
As cancer, and its treatment, is an immersive, multi-sensory encounter in which time is simultaneously accelerated, stretched, distorted, and urgent, the performance utilizes movement/embodiment/dance, soundscape, and layered imagery to portray this deeply personal and nuanced experience. Facing her personal journey head-on while confronting cultural attitudes about cancer, Temporality of Survival gives voice to what goes unspoken, seeking to metabolize trauma while providing a poetic context for audiences to understand what a living experience of illness and mortality is like from the inside.
Choreography/movement concepts, soundscapes/scores, and projection concepts by Caitlyn Swett with support from collaborators: Laura Grant (Dancer), Brian Howe (Video Collage/Projection), Sarah Ingel (Costume Design), Zap McConnell (Dramaturgy), and Michelle Dove, Shannon Drake, and Julia Pleasants (Soundscape Contributors).
Content Warnings
The work includes real and abstracted hospital/medical imagery and sound. There is a moment of flashing in the projection that could be distressing to photo-sensitive individuals. There are moments of partial nudity.
Citations and Additional Credits:
Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag (1978)
The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde (1980)
Burst of Light and Other Essays by Audre Lorde (1988)
The Undying by Anne Boyer (2019)
All In by Caitlyn Breedlove (2024)
Bless the Blood by Walela Nehanda (2024)
Being Reflected Upon by Alice Notley (2024)
Hand Me The Limits by Ted Rees (2024)
This Woman’s Work by Kate Bush (She’s Having a Baby, 1988)
This Woman’s Work by Maxwell (Now, 2001)
This Woman’s Work by Tyce Diorio (So You Think You Can Dance, 2009)
This Woman’s Work by Lady Maisery (Mayday, 2012)
This Woman’s Work by Brandee Younger, Dezron Douglas (Force Majeure, 2020)
Enormous Thanks To…
… Those who provided brilliant feedback and generous care that helped me deepen the work:
Shannon Drake, Murielle Elizéon, Dylan Gilbert, Laura Grant, Brian Howe, Sarah Ingel, Megan Jett, Kasey Kinsella, Anna Maynard, Zap McConnell, María Mejia, Tommy Noonan, Patience O’Neill, Julia Pleasants, and Mitali Routh.
…My expansive care team of family, friends, providers, and healers.
… Tony Johnson whose invitation to collaborate was the spark that ignited this work. Stay tuned for a new duet, two solos in-conversation, weaving together our stories.
Temporality of Survival: A Portrait of Cancer would not be possible without the generous practices of Culture Mill: the gifting of their studio space and their investment and belief in artists and the stories they tell. This project is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and Durham Arts Council, local grants administrator.
If you’d like to make a donation to support this work, Venmo @caitlyn-swett.
If you’d like to get in touch after the showing, please reach out.
Caitlyn Swett (she/her) is a dance-maker, sound artist, and arts administrator from Black Mountain, NC. Her work has meandered throughout North Carolina and led her to co-found Triptych Collective (Charlotte, 2010-14), co-produce On Site/In Sight Dance Festival (Winston-Salem, 2016-17), collaborate with interdisciplinary noise/dance project Paideia (NC/NY/LA, 2016-20), and perform in electro-poetry band Streak of Tigers (Durham/Saxapahaw, 2018-present). As a dancer, Caitlyn has performed with choreographers throughout the state, including a recent collaboration with Chris Yon and Taryn Griggs for their work a bird you must not miss, commissioned and presented by the American Dance Festival in 2022. As a sound artist, Caitlyn has created soundscapes for Culture Mill's Eclipse, commissioned and presented by Carolina Performing Arts in 2022, among other projects as part of the Southern Futures at Carolina Performing Arts initiative.
Caitlyn’s administrative career has served award-winning choreographers, festivals, and venues in North Carolina and beyond including Neighborhood Theatre (2014), Helen Simoneau Danse (2015-17), American Dance Festival (2017-21), and Culture Mill (2021-present).
Through-lines of Caitlyn’s artistic and administrative career include sustained commitments to embodied approaches to making, creating, and supporting experimental and socially-engaged performance in unconventional venues, as well as a sonic curiosity.
Caitlyn is a two-time young adult cancer survivor of Hodgkin lymphoma. After a recurrence and non-linear path to remission, she is (officially) cancer free as of September 2023.
See Caitlyn perform next with Culture Mill at the American Dance Festival-commissioned world premiere of How To Be A Visitor, June 21-22 at the Rubenstein Arts Center (Durham).