Exit12’s Movement Workshops

Fostering healing, connection, and hope

Exit12’s workshop series are designed to explore the power of artistic expression within the military community. Exit12’s workshops will:

• Involve veterans, active-duty service members, family members, caregivers, and civilian supporters in the creation of movement-based storytelling.

• Foster collaboration across art forms, including dance, music, and spoken word.

• Provide a healing and creative outlet for participants to reflect on themes of service, sacrifice, and resilience.

Exit12’s Artistic Director, Roman Baca will guide participants in crafting personal movement narratives that honor their unique experiences while building bridges between the military and civilian communities.

Exit12’s workshops:

• Reintroduce a sense of self to the participant

• Introduce concept of repurposing movement

• Develop sense of community and well-being through art

• Develop dance-works that can impact audiences

Recent Workshops and Demonstrations

• Manhattan VA Medical Center, Spring 2025

• Brooklyn VA Medical Center, Winter 2025

• Intrepid Museum, NYC, Spring 2024

 Testimonials from participants:

About a week ago, my vet counsellor told me she was changing my status from high suicidal risk to low. Exit 12 has played a large part in this change.”

-Everett Cox, US Army, Vietnam War

”How does dance feel? I feel like I look like Joe Cocker after happy hour…but that’s okay. I’m still very uncertain, very tense until I’m actually doing it. I’ve definitely felt a sense of release, peace, coming to terms with what happened through the movement.

Anthony Roberts, U.S. Army veteran and Exit12 program participant

”I can’t express how truly profound these workshops have been to my healing. For many of us, our pain is hidden yet somehow seen as connected to our service. In this workshop, I feel seen in my totality via expression, transmuting my heavy baggage into wings that give me flight and freedom instead of weighing me down. To do this in community and connection with my fellow participants is extremely meaningful.”

Dãmasa Doyle, U.S. Navy veteran and Exit12 program participant

Why is the Issue of Arts in Health, Healing and Wellness Important to the Military?

• More than two million U.S. troops have been deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF, War in Afghanistan), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation New Dawn (OND) since 2001. There have been 6,644 US fatalities and more than 48,000 US wounded in recent conflicts.

• The nature of these conflicts is historically unprecedented—America’s all-volunteer force has endured extended and multiple deployments, exposure to nontraditional combat (e.g., use of improvised explosive devices) and shortened time at home between deployments.

• While the combat death rate has decreased overall, there has been an increase in the number of service members returning home who suffer from both physical and psychological traumas, including posttraumatic stress, loss of a limb, brain injuries and depression.

• There are over 22 million veterans in the U.S. today.

• The challenges facing military service-members, veterans and their families require more than medical treatment to resolve.

The Arts play a role in helping the military sustain and promote troop force and family readiness, resilience, retention, and for veterans, the successful reintegration into family and community life.
-Americans for the Arts, Arts, Health, and Well-Being Across the Military Continuum - White Paper