Queer Performance Artist Uses Performance to Heal

Hana performing a movement piece during a live performance event
Credited by Hana van Der Kolks

By Jada Duffus

On March 17, as part of Lehman College’s Queer Theater and Performance Speaker Series, Hana van der Kolk shared their work as a queer dancer, performance artist, and educator, focusing on community building, embodiment, and ritual. The exhibition and ensuing discussion emphasized both the artist’s creative thought process and performance as a tool to connect and heal.

“Embodiment and community are at the heart of my practice,” van der Kolk said, highlighting the importance of multidisciplinary creative collaboration as well. “I see the body as an incredible site and conduit for remembering, experiencing pleasure, connecting with self, others, and the world.”

The work is not only entertainment, but is also a ritual that helps both the performer and audience go beyond the norm of everyday experience to connect with deeper experiences. Emphasizing the emotional impact their performances can have, audience feedback often shows their work increased people’s awareness and connection. “I think I am most touched when what I offer invites people into intimacy with themselves.”

Van der Kolk also talked about their perspectives as a white, queer, able-bodied individual who also has a history of mental health challenges and chronic illness. Their experiences have made them realize that “difference in the room, hurt, anger, and trauma,” and that “there are a lot of layers and no one fixed story about this.”

“I am most touched when what I offer invites people into intimacy with themselves.” – Hana van der Kolk, a queer dancer, performance artist and educator

Monica Duncan, one of the event organizers, said the goal was to show students contemporary practices and diverse artistic voices and give them interactions with art that connects, challenges, and inspires. “Hana’s interdisciplinary practice, incorporating queer dance, performance, parade, ritual/healing, practices of care, and community-building, inspires me as a fellow queer artist and educator.”

Another goal, Duncan said, was to showcase a broader mission to connect artistic practice alongside social impact. “My hope is for students and members of the Bronx community to learn about Hana’s creative process…and how they engage with local communities in art-making as world-building.” She praised van der Kolk’s work as “improvisational, playful, and collaborative,” inspiring the audience to become one with their bodies, along with a new approach to being relatable with others as well as within the world.

Van der Kolk affirmed this goal, adding that they hope their work will contribute to reunification and healing throughout communities. While recognizing the privilege that allows them to take up space and creatively experiment, they emphasized how important it is to make space for others

and described their work as a part of a larger effort to challenge the systems of domination and disconnection. “Systems of domination hurt us all.”

Arisa Garcia, a student attendee, said that van der Kolk’s movement and meditation techniques demonstrated on Zoom personally influenced her. “I will be using that method for journaling,” she said.