Orlando Fringe 2025
Shedding Skin
Creative Moves
Genre: Dance, Dance and Movement Theatre, Feminist Theatre, Performance Art
Venue: Blue Venue
Festival: Orlando Fringe
Low Down
A slow, meditative, and haunting solo dance that peels away layer after layer until all is laid bare
Review
Julie Leir’s Shedding Skin is quite literal. It is a dancer removing layer after layer of skin colored spandex until she is laid bare. That plain description does little justice to the beauty and depth of Leir’s performance. Shedding Skin is both straight from a body horror film, and yet, horror is not the right word. There is reptilian-esque horror to be found in this transformation, but likewise joy, freedom, sex, pleasure, and something deeply spiritual. Shedding Skin is a brave performance by a skilled dancer who is sharing her heart, soul, and body with the audience. I recommend you ignore the 18+ warning in place. While there is full frontal nudity, it is a mature and purposeful decision. It showcases Leir in all her beauty and balletic technique, free from any confines.
The piece can be read for so many different interpretations. For me, it was the shedding of the past. The shedding skin represents the past self, still present but rotted and now foreign. Simultaneously, Leir’s performance and age suggested the piece was a woman transforming in later life, becoming comfortable with her age and changed body. What change has occurred on this stage is up to the viewer. Metamorphosis is the key word. The performance is simply captivating.
I did feel the runtime could be cut down 5-10 minutes, as moments towards the end felt repetitive, such as when she collected the skin. That, however, is a matter of taste, and the performance moves briskly and deliberately. It is meditative art that will reward a patient viewer.
The greatest tragedy of Shedding Skin is that there were only roughly seven of us in the house at the performance. I hope word of mouth spreads fast and more attend. This is a transformative journey that all will find meaning within.
