Review: WOMEN OF RESISTANCE at New Tampa Performing Arts Center

From the soft rise of light over Nancy Wake’s steady tapping on a vintage typewriter, the story began with a heartbeat you could feel. In its Tampa debut, Vicki Chelf's Women of Resistance, presented in partnership with Sarasota Contemporary Dance, delivered an unforgettable evening of artistry and truth telling. From that first moment, the performance fused spectacular, emotive dance with a soundscape shaped by Warren Slim Williams, whose score carried the production with a pulse that felt both intimate and immense. Lighting design by Flip Flop Productions added a sculpted clarity to each vignette, while projection mapping by Enlightened Monkey Arts expanded the stage into a living archive of memory and resistance. Costumes by Andree and Karly Murdock grounded each woman in her era without ever feeling literal, allowing movement to remain the center of expression.

Between each vignette, actors crossed the stage carrying swastika flags as projections of real events, propaganda posters, and wartime imagery filled the backdrop. The effect was chilling. It reminded the audience that these stories were not abstractions but lived realities, shaped by choices made under the weight of oppression. Those transitions created a throughline that made the evening feel not only artistic but urgent.

The choreography across the evening created a rich, shifting landscape shaped by Tania Vergara Perez for Wake (Natalia Cherisa), Brentney Boyd Stevens for Josephine Baker (Monessa Salley), Frank Chaves for Virginia Hall (Jordan Leonard), James Jordan for Hedy Lamarr (Makayla Lane), Megha Vaid for Noor Inayat Khan (Megha Vaid), Suzanne Caesar for Andrée Peel (Samantha Miller with John Hartter), and Jessica Obiedzinski for Lee Miller (Jessica Obiedzinski), each offering a distinct emotional vocabulary that deepened the women’s stories. Together, they formed a collective portrait of courage that felt deeply human.

The production honored seven extraordinary women who risked everything to resist the Nazi regime. Through movement and voice, the audience learned about Wake’s leadership in the French resistance,  Baker’s covert intelligence work, Hall’s mastery of disguise, Lamarr’s inventive brilliance, Inayat Khan’s bravery as the first woman radio operator sent into occupied France, Peel’s lifesaving efforts for Allied soldiers, and Miller’s groundbreaking photography at the liberation of the camps. You walk away not only moved, but having learned something essential about the women who refused to be silent in the face of tyranny.

The spoken elements added clarity without interrupting the flow, offering context that sharpened the audience’s connection to the stories being embodied onstage. It felt unsettling to recognize echoes of these histories in today’s political climate. The parallels emerged naturally, a reminder that the erosion of rights often begins quietly and that resistance is built on ordinary people choosing to act.

Chelf’s vision shaped the evening with intention and emotional precision. Her collaboration with the dancers, choreographers, Williams, and the full creative team created a work that invited reflection as much as admiration, and the audience responded with a full, immediate standing ovation. Personally, I walked into Women of Resistance as someone who had never experienced contemporary dance as theatre, and I walked out with a new art form I now love.

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