My name is Hannah, and I am a college student from the University of Minnesota that interned with Kairos Dance this spring semester. Today was my last day, and saying good-bye to everyone I worked with was touching; volunteers, dancers, Kairos staff, and all the residents in the Dancing Heart program. I really felt like I was part of the Kairos family; I felt so connected to and loved by everyone.
Working with Kairos has changed me in many ways. The relationships I have with the residents truly made an impact on me; listening to stories, dancing, and simply laughing with them was a deeply emotional experience. I felt that I lost the assumptions I had about working with elders, and realized that everyone can be an artist, if given the chance. I learned so much and gained new insight into how art is a vital part of creating a lasting, vibrant, healthy, creative community. What Kairos does is so unique and needed in our communities; bringing together people of all ages and creating art based on our own stories is so healing and forms beautiful bonds and connections between all the collaborators and witnesses involved.
I’m gone for a while, but I know I’ll be back to join the Kairos family in their amazing work, because what I have experienced with them has changed me forever.