Nine dancers form the layers of a bruise, dressed in deep purple, pink, and nearly white satin, telling a story about reclaiming strength after surviving an experience with sexual assault in Early Era Collective’s new show, Gently, She Wakes, debuting Oct. 2. The performance at KMFA Studio will address sexual assault stigmas, in collaboration with the SAFE Alliance – a local nonprofit service organization for survivors of abuse and assault.
Nonprofit professional dance company Early Era has been producing social justice-focused dances since its founding in 2018. Every performance originates from the mind of the collective’s founder and artistic director, Stephanie Patrick, who also acts as the show’s lead choreographer. The native Austinite says her prior three years of work with the SAFE Alliance inspired the eight-piece Gently, She Wakes story.
“This show was really born out of processing and celebrating those experiences,” says Patrick, “being a part of this incredible community of survivors and people supporting survivors.”
Patrick says that SAFE’s annual “What Was I Wearing?” exhibit heavily inspired her. The showcase displays survivors’ stories alongside the clothes they were wearing at the time of their assault. Some of that exhibition will be on display in the hall at KMFA during Gently, She Wakes. Staff from SAFE will be tabling with resource information during the show, and online there’s an option to donate to the org along with their ticket purchase.
“These pieces [from “What Was I Wearing”] mirror the story Gently, She Wakes tells and challenge the narrative around sexual assault that often focuses on perceived ‘misbehavior’ of the victim of the crime rather than examining the behavior of the person who committed the crime,” explains Dani Fletcher, SAFE’s senior director of marketing and communications.
Patrick says SAFE members have been there along the way to help her make the story “as trauma-informed as possible” over the show’s year-and-a-half-long development. “They’ve helped us create some language to be transparent about the topics that are covered in this production.”
In one of the show’s eight pieces, the performers use heel dance “fashion show style,” choreographed by Wyntergrace Williams, and will runway-walk as voiceovers of true survivor stories play, correlating with their outfits. To avoid being too triggering, Patrick says the dialogues only describe the beforehand and aftermath of the assault. The other seven pieces primarily use contemporary dance, heel dance, and two combat sequences that follow the characters defining their femininity externally, having “their pivotal experience of violence,” and then having their healing journey where they reclaim their femininity and find community. There will be disclaimers listed for audience members to step out if needed.
A scene of the performance will be dedicated to a “superhero fantasy,” Patrick says, where dancers “jump around comic book style, kick some butt, and imagine that they’re sort of wiping predators off the face of the earth.” She says they hope to more lightly depict a survivor’s daydream, offering a different tone than the majority of the show.
“Of course, this topic is serious, and I think the moment you hear that somebody is a survivor, your face drops and you’re thinking about the worst possible scenario,” Patrick says. “But, survivors are complex people, just like everybody else, and they also need to laugh and need joy.”
This article appears in October 3 • 2025.