The ETS: Yolo County ensemble consists of an inter-generational veterans from WWII, Vietnam, and the Iraq Era, working in collaboration with UCD students and recent graduates. The performance combines theater, story-telling, dance and video to create a complex tapestry of experiences connected to our personal and ancestral relation to war and the military. The stories of those who risked their lives in service are offered in direct conversation with those whose ancestors were displaced by military action. Diverse, and sometimes conflicting, experiences are grounded in personal and intimate stories. Through months of on-going dialogue, inquiry, and shared training, what takes the stage is a group of individuals with vastly different backgrounds formed into a company bonded by mutual care.

A 90 year old WWII veteran tells about his fallen comrades and leads the company in boisterous marching songs. A veteran, injured in boot camp, dances in, on top of, and around his wheelchair while sharing the story of his injury. A Vietnam veteran has a conversation with a student, whose family lived an hour from where he served. A woman tells of the loss of her families local dialect while hiding from the Conquistadors in Mexico. Non-veterans dance a choreography made from the sub-conscious gestures of an army medic describing a mission. These stories live in bodies marked by difference yet dancing together in a context of deep listening and mutual support.