Roman Baca on dance as a way to reconnect military veterans to themselves and to their broader communities.

In this conversation, I am speaking with Román Baca. Román is a U.S. Marine Iraq war veteran as well as the co-founder and artistic director of Exit12 Dance Company in New York City. Román was invited to do a TEDx talk in San Antonio in 2013 (⁠https://youtu.be/EjwFMgsQmBI⁠). When I learned of his work, I took the opportunity to visit New York to see his company rehearse and talk with him about his vision. Since then, Román has been a recipient of a Fulbright Award, completed an MFA at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London and is now a PhD Candidate at York St. John University in York, UK. His most recent work was called Truths Colliding, an eight week series of workshops at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in New York brought military veterans, victims of war and civilians together to move and create a final dance performance on the aircraft carrier. I am delighted to share the exciting work Román is doing bringing dance to the stories of soldiers and those impacted by war.