Sheena is most riveting during her powerful dance sequences.

By Barbara Adams

With just simple props, costume changes, and the power of movement and music to tell a story, Everybody Knows is a show that reminds us how sometimes actions can speak even louder than words.

Rita Sheena is an incredible dancer, and backed by the atmospheric music of folk/pop group First Aid Kit and Leonard Cohen’s stirring poetry, she creates a show that speaks to anxiety—frustrations with womanhood, heartbreak, uncertainty about the future, and sleeplessness—but more so, how it is possible that we can not just survive, but thrive and even shine, in tumultuous times.

Sheena is most riveting during her powerful dance sequences, which manage to pull emotions to the surface and simultaneously uplift without her having to say a word. During the performance, she also speaks Cohen’s lyrics out loud alongside the music, and while her voice is weighty with conviction, it is sometimes distracting and there were moments where she could have simply let the stunning melding of music, poetics, and of course dance, speak for itself.

Overall, the evocative and beautiful Everybody Knows is an impressive and heartfelt cathartic release.

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