Previews: WOMEN OF RESISTANCE at New Tampa Performing Arts Center

Women of Resistance comes to the New Tampa Performing Arts Center on March 25 and 26 with the kind of electricity that makes an audience sit forward before the first cue even lands. The production doesn’t simply recount history. It brings seven extraordinary World War II heroines to life onstage through dance, music, and visual storytelling that feels urgent, contemporary, and deeply human.

The women at the heart of the piece, Hedy Lamarr, Josephine Baker, Nancy Wake, Noor Inayat Khan, Andrée Peel, Lee Miller, and Virginia Hall, come from different countries, backgrounds, and callings. Yet, each made the same impossible choice: to resist. Their stories stretch from Hollywood to the French countryside, from underground networks to the front lines of espionage. Some smuggled intelligence in sheet music. Some guided Allied pilots through the dark. Some documented the liberation of the camps. All risked everything for a world they believed could be better.

Women of Resistance brings their courage forward through a collaboration with Sarasota Contemporary Dance, whose performers and choreographers translate history into movement that feels immediate. Eight choreographers contribute to the work, each shaping a distinct physical language that mirrors the individuality of the woman they portray. The result is a performance that moves between tension, ingenuity, heartbreak, and triumph, creating a kinetic tapestry that pulls the audience into each story.

The project began when artist and writer Vicki Chelf visited a small Resistance museum in a French village and encountered these women’s stories for the first time. The impact stayed with her long after she left. “I was trained as a painter — I never intended to create theater. This story came to me in meditation and would not release me until I said yes,” she says.

Chelf’s portraits of the women became the visual anchor for the production, while composer Warren Slim Williams created a score that shifts between urgency and reflection. His music becomes the emotional spine of the piece, guiding the audience through each woman’s journey and giving the dancers a soundscape that breathes with them.

Women of Resistance refuses to let these women fade into the margins of history. Their choices, sacrifices, and bravery shaped the world we live in, and the production invites audiences to feel the weight and humanity of their actions. “Whenever I feel a task is too large or doubt my own ability, I think of our women and I find the courage to move forward,” Chelf says.

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