When Art and Wellness Collide: Original Artwork and Dance Choreographies Featured in CoSA Collaboration with Safe Harbor

The Coronado School of the Arts (CoSA) Dance and Visual Arts Conservatories are teaming up with Safe Harbor to explore wellness and the mind/body connection in two evenings of dance, live art and an exhibition. It’s all happening on Friday, December 13 and Saturday, December 14 at 7 pm in the Coronado Performing Arts Center and lobby.

Tickets are for sale here or at CoSASanDiego.com.

“The evening will be a deeply moving, inspiring, and evocative collision of dance, art and catharsis,” said Gina Sorensen, CoSA Dance Conservatory Chair. “The production will feature performances of original dances by CoSA Dance and live art by CoSA Visual Art as well as an exhibit in the lobby.”

The event seeks to bring wellness strategies to life, as embodied by art and dance. It’s a project six months in the making. According to dance student Jeriah Valentin, humans often struggle with emotional entanglements like stress, grief, and mental disorders. These “knots” served as a jumping off point for the collaboration between CoSA Dance and Visual Arts. The artists then worked with Safe Harbor to engage in mindfulness strategies and art-making to unravel and untie these knots.

“In the dance production of Unravel, faculty and student choreographers explore themes such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Body Dysmorphia, ADHD, the importance of supportive relationships, self-talk, and more,” said Valentin.  “One notable piece in the program is “Love and Armor” by CoSA Dance Director, Gina Bolles Sorensen. The piece features the full CoSA Dance ensemble and draws attention to parent-child relationships, specifically the urge a parent has to suit up their child in the armor they need to meet challenges of living in today’s world.”

Visual Arts students have taken a closer look at how they support themselves and maintain balance, while facing the challenges of daily living. There will be an exhibit of paintings on display in the lobby, where students illustrate how they personally incorporate positive mental health practices into their daily lives, according to Karrie Jackson, Visual Arts Chair.

“Join us and witness our dancers and artists as they process life’s challenges and celebrate personal growth,” said Valentin.

CoSA Dance and CoSA Visual Art are grateful to be partnering with Safe Harbor Coronado in this concert. Safe Harbor is a nonprofit organization committed to the mental health of our community and beyond. Safe Harbor provides comprehensive social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health programs to protect and empower youths and families.

For more information about Unravel and to purchase tickets, visit CoSASanDiego.com.

About CoSA

Coronado School of the Arts (CoSA) is San Diego County’s premier public school arts conservatory, home to 200 scholar artists grades 9 through 12, who attend the nationally ranked Coronado High School. CoSA provides an intense, pre-professional arts education to students from Coronado and from all over San Diego, who are admitted after a competitive application/audition process.

Each school day CoSA offers three or more hours of instruction, pairing young artists with educators who are also industry specialists. With a curriculum designed by professional artist/educators, students are immersed in their chosen specialty in one of six conservatories: Classical and Contemporary Dance, Digital Arts (Animation, Filmmaking, Game Design, and Graphic Design), Instrumental Music, Musical Theatre & Drama, Theatre Production, Design & Management and Visual Art. CoSA is a State of California-approved Career Technical Education program.

Our award-winning student artists perform and exhibit at the Coronado Performing Arts Center on the Coronado High School campus, in either the 570 seat Main Stage or 80 seat Black Box theatre. Coronado Performing Arts Center is also available for rent to local organizations. About twenty five percent of the CoSA budget is raised each year by the CoSA Foundation. If you would like to see the arts continue to thrive in education, please consider making a donation at www.cosafoundation.org.