Voices: A Walking Tour

This performance is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Heather Tatreau’s Voices: A Walking Tour is a site-specific performance that takes the shape of a contemplative walking tour of campus after dark to discover the hidden voices in our landscape. The tour guide will lead audiences to performances in dance, spoken word and song at various monuments and historically significant sites on the UNC campus. This performance asks: what can we learn when we are quiet and let the voices of the past come into conversation with the present?

Heather Tatreau, a UNC dance faculty member and professional choreographer, created her first iteration of this project in November 2018. Her intention was to re-visit UNC campus monuments to mark the changes in the physical and political landscape. For this iteration, she has created a collaboration with the UNC American Indian Center to incorporate native voices through a performance at The Gift. She is also working with Chapel Hill Poet Laureate C.J. Suitt to giv Coe voice to the African-American workers who built this campus with a performance at The Unsung Founders monument. Local choreographer, Killian Manning, is creating a performative response to the empty space where Silent Sam once stood. Tatreau’s Modern Dance Technique students will create a performance piece as part of a semester-long site-specific dance project at The Student Body sculpture garden outside of Hamilton Hall. The tour will end with a song from Affordable Housing: The Musical, under the direction of George Barrett, at the Chapel Hill courthouse on Franklin St. to provide a link between the campus and the town. What we value about Heather’s work is her ability to tap into a diverse array of local voices and bring them together in offering commentary on the places we call home.