Having a victim mindset—that we’re powerless and at the mercy of external forces—is the antithesis of agency because it reinforces passivity.

Subconsciously, we cling to the belief that the game is pre-defined. We have no control over who we’re born to, where we’re brought up, our quality of education, and how often we’re at the right place at the right time. But that’s where we trip up: we begin to conflate our lack of control over starting conditions with a lack of control over outcome... See more

In contemporary dance , she would advise us, you need to improvise and embody . As we practised character work as deeply as if we’d each worn the literal skin of our characters, we shed whatever limitations we had as ourselves. For the duration of each class, we were re-invented.

I often go back to those moments to remember how utterly and completel... See more