Wilmington, NC
“It didn’t take long for me to see that this day would be all that had truly mattered in my life in a while. After an hour, I was ready to stay there for a week.”
Jamie Penn Walker, 
Participant
Turning the Wheel Wilmington has brought play, movement, and transformation to the New Hanover County community since 1999. The team in Wilmington generates a wide range of exciting programs for the city, including vibrant dance mobs, enriching school projects, and workshops for adults. Our large community performances have brought together hundreds of people from all parts of our community to create beautifully collaborative works of performance art.
We have served many different populations in our community, including students from grade school through college, differently-abled young adults, educators and youth caregivers, and people in the community who want to experience more creative expression and joy in their lives.
Click here today to find out more and come and play with us and/or to help us to reach out to the youth in the Wilmington community!
Experience the joy of spontaneous play through a series of improvisational games. Explore your expressive, creative self and play with people from your community through play, song and movement games.
“I had a blast at the romp last night. I can’t stop talking about it. It felt wonderful to just let go and move in such a supported, non-judgemental environment.”~ Haley
Playful street theatre erupts around town to surprise and delight the Wilmington community. Join in! Everybody welcome. No experience necessary.
“Having worked with Turning the Wheel for years now I still find myself in wonder how each and every activity breathes life into any environment it is experienced in. TTW has the ability to bring out the beauty and creativity in all beings and places.”~Jade
Explore and share your personal story in a fun, nurturing environment through movement-based creative expression, learning more about your own voice and impact in the world around you.
Whether in after school programs, in school partnerships, or at the Boys and Girls Club, DREAMS, or the YMCA, our programs inspire creative expression, are always fun and playful, and help to foster self-esteem and healthy life choices in all the participants. We can create a program that works for you, from week-long residences to programs that meet once a week for 8 weeks, all culminating in a performance created by the youth.
_“The kids that I expected to balk at these exercises were the very ones that filled the stage with magic. They gave everything to the momentum of the performance. They were filled up. Performance sunk into every aspect of their body – eyebrows, toes, even the tips of their noses.” _
Click here to contact us for a program at your school.
We offer everything from half day workshops to ongoing weekly classes in your facility, including senior centers, Parks and Recreation facilities, colleges and universities, and youth services organizations. Let us help you design a program to fit your needs and population.
“The interactive nature of the TTW activities is my favorite aspect for youth with disabilities. These individuals are typically less socially connected than most youth and many have difficulty engaging in a coordinated activity with someone else. TTW gently encourages such connections. By reaching out to youth with developmental disabilities this summer, TTW Wilmington truly showed it helps connect people in the community.” ~ Beth Hansen
Click here to contact us for program at your organization.
Every three to four years, TTW Wilmington sponsors a touring performance, co-created by Turning the Wheel National and all the participating cities. These shows, which are fully produced, innovative multi-media community performances, are built on the participant’s stories and performed by a combination of local and national performers. These large community performances include performers form ages 5 to 100 and are open to the all, no experience required. We have brought together hundreds of people from all parts of our community together to create these beautifully collaborative works of performance art.
Click here to learn more about the 2012 performances of “I Knew That Once” in Missoula, MT, and Wilmington, NC.
Visit our Video page to view excerpts from “I Knew That Once” and other past performances.
Suzanne Palmer is a graduate of The University of Colorado with a BA in Dance. She has been involved with Turning the Wheel since its inception in 1989 and has been leading the Wilmington, North Carolina chapter for over 12 years. She has sponsored and co-produced in Wilmington three major touring productions with Turning the Wheel, “Confetti 2000,” “Stringmaker,” and “Nearly Invisible,” involving hundreds of participants from the Wilmington community.
Suzanne is also a founder of The Dance Cooperative, has toured with the North Carolina Dance Festival, is a guest teacher at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, teaches creative movement at Dreams after school arts program, and teaches yoga in the community. She was recently honored in a film production of Women of Wilmington as an influential artist and has been a nominee for the YWCA Women of Achievement Awards.
Heather Till holds a BS in Psychology with a minor in dance from Appalachian State University. Heather found Turning the Wheel in 1999 during a week long residency in Wilmington, NC that culminated in the Confetti Conspiracy performance in which she participated. She was hooked from that point on. Heather has gone on to perform in many other TTW productions and works as a core facilitator for both the Wilmington and National team.
Heather also holds advanced certification as a Yoga Therapist and is a trained Birth Doula. She co-facilitates yoga teacher training programs and developed and teaches a unique Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training.She has continued to follow her passion for dance, participating in the 3 year residency project with Chuck Davis and the African American Dance Ensemble as well as yearly performances with the Dance Cooperative and the North Carolina Dance Festival.
Perry Smith has been a musician and composer since age 7. His life long passion for music lead him to a BA in Music/Classical Guitar from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Perry became a co-founder of the Wilmington chapter of Turning the Wheel in 1999, and facilitates and performs live music for events, workshops and trainings with TTW across the country. He has been a core facilitator for the Turning the Wheel national organization since 2008.
Perry was a lead facilitator for the African American Dance Ensemble project as a facilitator for West African Drumming. He performs locally with his own band, Transtrum, as well as other bands including; The Cosmic Groove Lizards, The Chicken Head Blues Band, The Sea Pans and Melodeius Thunk!
Suzanne Palmer
Turning the Wheel Wilmington
115 Magnolia Drive
Wilmington NC, 28409
(910)512-4702
suzanne@turningthewheel.org
A Special Thank-you to Holly Hubbard!
Holly Hubbard, past co-director of TTWW, brought her open-armed expression to youth and elders through teaching and directing programs in Wilmington, North Carolina with great enthusiasm and passion for the last six years. She brought her twenty years of leading and directing non-profit organizations to the TTWW team, and helped us grow and move forward as a professional organization. Her years of activism and leadership experience in the Healing Arts Network of New Hanover County, North Carolina Arts for Health, Big Brother Big Sister Program, and being named “the Fun Lady” for her volunteer efforts, exemplify her passion for authentic expression. We are grateful for her contributions and cheer her on in her new adventures.