Sensory Dimensions

MY BODY'S WAKE

WOW Festival San Diego

Art Without Walls by La Jolla Playhouse

Performances are FREE

Thursday, April 23: 7pm
Saturday, April 25: 7pm
Sunday, April 26: 4pm

A tender exploration of disability through multimedia live violin, dance, and body painting navigating the emotional terrains of grief, isolation, anger, grace, and joy rooted in the artists’ experience with

chronic pain and dynamic disability.

Scroll for details about our access services

WOW fest website

Image Description for My Body's Wake Preview:

Presented by Sensory Dimensions: My Body's Wake. Elicia paints on Casey's back, pulling the paint down their spine. Another person paints a rounded shape on their stomach. Casey smears paint on their jaw. In a theater Elicia stands with her back to the audience. Text appears: It's just what it is; Horribly; Horribly; Painful; And Nothing you do makes it Stop; Because I'm in so much pain I can't function. Casey slides across the floor reaching for Elicia. The text overlaps and becomes obscured. Legible text breaks through: If somebody cannot physically access a place then maybe we should stay home; forever; there’s no cure, don’t understand; this cannot be real; re-engage with life; talk about us; exhausting; don’t want to see us. Casey reaches out to almost touch Elicia. Elicia lifts her bow and looks at Casey while the overlapping text turns to static. Casey and Elicia stand in dark red light. Video plays on the screen behind them: people in white lab coats turn their heads and look away. Casey holds their head up with both hands. On the screen, hands cradle bones and dried flowers. Casey slowly crumbles to the ground. Casey stands again, pushing a smile into their face. Elicia plays the violin, stepping aggressively toward them and Casey spins to the ground. Elicia squats in front of Casey staring at them. Text: You don’t look sick. Casey gathers a heating pad in their arms and looks to Elicia confused. Elicia hands Casey a plastic roller. Text: Push Through. Casey throws the roller on a pile of other assistive objects and uses their cane to shove the pile away. Elicia shows Casey a toothbrush and drops it on the opposite side of the stage and walks away. Text: Get up. Elicia follows behind Casey as they scooch on their knees toward the toothbrush. They pull their arms behind them. Their hands shake from the tension. They release the tension, place their palms on the ground and gaze upward as the light shifts from cool to warm. Casey balances on one leg reaching for the floor. They catch themself on the way down. Elicia rotates around them, fixing her gaze on Casey. Casey reaches and plants their can in front of them to propel across the floor quickly pivoting to face Elicia in a wide lunge. Casey swivels and curls even closer to Elicia. Propping themself up with the cane they lean their head back and Elicia and Casey’s eyes meet. Elicia and Casey sit on the floor together looking up at a compilation of different people in their homes talking. Captions follow what they say.

Accessibility for the wow festival

Violinist in black dress looms over Casey as they crouch propped up by a cane

During the show

CART captioning provided for select portions of the performance
Creative/open captioning available through out performance
Quiet room/breakout space with a live transmission of the performance available for interior show
Audio Description available upon request (2 weeks advance)
ASL interpretation available upon request (2 weeks advance)
Wheelchair and Service Dog seating; please request in advance for optimal placement (request not required)
Multiple seating options (floor cushions, standard chairs, and stools) and priority seating (request recommended).

Available at Front of House

Braille and Large Print programs (reference copies)
Kn95 masks
Earplugs
Fidget toys
Packaged snacks & juice

Casey crouches with paint streaks wrapping their body. They lean on one leg, twist, and look up.

Content Warnings:

Fast-changing projections (no strobe)
Loud and potentially distressing sound effects, including high-pitched violin
Depictions of intense emotional experiences including anger and grief
Performers in minimal clothing (nude-toned undergarments and chest tape)

We request guests to be fragrance-free to support patrons with chemical and sensory sensitivities.

If you have specific access needs not listed here, we encourage you to contact the festival team or our accessibility coordinator so we can better support your experience.

JULY 2025 Workshops and classes

A variety of sculptures featuring tangled threads, organic forms, and recycled materials on black.

Painting Your Pain

Sunday, July 27th @ 4pm

The Template, Ocean Beach

Learn Sensory Dimensions’ unique tactile language for exploring pain in a hands-on tactile art and sculpture workshop.

Painting Your Pain is a 3-hour workshop that explores the experience of pain through tactile painting/sculpture guided by movement meditation, reflective writing, and group discussion. Rooted in disability justice and integrated accessibility, Participants will learn tools for nervous system regulation, accessing interoception, and explore the language of pain through expressive, tactile art-making. Each participant will create and take home a personal "painting of pain," while also gaining a glimpse into the artistic practice of Casey Hall-Landers and Elicia Neo.

Open to all bodies and experience levels.

Accessibility From

Participant Feedback Form

Fingers covered in paint claw at a patchwork of colorful paint with skin peaking through.

Contact Improv Class

Monday July 21st @ 5:30pm - 6:30

San Diego Light Box Theater

We will be teaching elements from our Body Sense workshop and the dance and violin improv game we use to generate material for our performances tailored for contact improv. Body Sense is a practice of gentle movement and meditative body scans designed to access interoception and improve body awareness through imagery and touch based facilitation. Movement taught by Casey Hall-Landers and Live Music by Elicia Neo.

Class is held from 5:30 - 6:30

Followed by a contact improv jam 6:30 - 9pm with Live Music

No RSVP needed.

what have we been up to

GUEST ARTISTS AT ARTS LETTERS & NUMBERS

Casey and Elicia were Guest Artists in Residence at Arts Letters & Numbers where they taught their movement mediation workshop series Body Sense and their tactile painting and sculpture workshop Painting Your Pain. They also developed new work for their show My Body's Wake, premiering in San Diego July 2025.

GUEST ARTISTS AT ARTS LETTERS & NUMBERS

click here to find out more

Video Portraits

Waves that Wash

In Waves That Wash, Casey (pale skinned white person with vibrant blue and purple hair wearing beige colored linen spaghetti strap dress over linen pants) and Elicia (a pale skinned asian woman with black hair with pink streaks by either temple wearing a loose cream spaghetti strap dress) lie in the grass. They look up to the sky and roll in the grass helping each other up. Their hands interlock and slide apart. They rest still, leaning in the branches of a tree. In a cave they both lean against a rock nearly their same height. The water flows around them. They reach out and let the droplets roll off their skin. Waves roll in. Casey and Elicia walk through waves facing each other. Casey walks backward as they hold both of Elicia's hands tightly. A clearing in the woods engulfs them as we zoom out over a lake looking across at sun dappled trees.

Bone Crushing

In Bone Crushing, two fair-skinned arms gently hold a pile of bones, flowers, and leaves. One person pulls large bones to their chest, tenderly leaning in to nuzzle them. The hands violently manipulate bones, gripping, twisting, and squeezing. Small bones roll over each other in open palms and finger tips attempt to dig into larger bones. The frenetic manipulation slows, as two people kneeling release vertebrae one by one to the floor before them and their hands fall to their knees.

SENSORY DIMENSIONS

Sensory Dimensions depicts the experiences of disabled people with chronic illness and pain through multimedia, sensory rich performance and expressive arts workshops. Founded by interdisciplinary artists Casey Hall-Landers and Elicia Neo through the Berklee NYC Masters program in Creative Media and Technology, the duo is fueled by a passion to create safe and welcoming spaces for their community. Their accessibility practice is intimately intertwined with their artistry and woven into the fabric of their performances and workshops.

Their most recent performance My Body’s Wake invites audiences into an immersive, sensory-rich journey through the emotional landscapes of grief, isolation, anger, and care. Rooted in the artists’ lived experiences with chronic pain and dynamic disability, the performance offers a raw yet tender space for witnessing the otherwise unseen. While unflinching in its exploration of pain and longing, the piece ultimately moves toward moments of connection, resilience, and renewal.

Sensory Dimensions has performed their work in San Diego and New York City and presented a lecture on accessible design and generative technology at the Performers(') Present 2023 International Artistic Research Symposium at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music Singapore.

In 2025 Casey and Elicia were guest artists in residence with Arts Letters and Numbers where they taught Body Sense (an improvised movement workshop), Painting Your Pain (a tactile painting and sculpture workshop), and developed their performance My Body's Wake which premiered at the San Diego Public Library City Heights Performance Annex for Disability Pride Month in 2025 and at the La Jolla Playhouse WoW Festival in 2026.

Through their exhibitions, workshops, and lectures Casey and Elicia hope to promote awareness for dynamic and non-apparent disabilities, chronic illness, and chronic pain and foster connection within our community.

CASEY AND ELICIA

white person with short brown hair, bangs, thin braids, green eyes, and septum ring leans on a rock

Casey Hall-Landers (they/them)

Born and raised in San Diego, Casey Hall-Landers (they/them) is a performing and educating dance and multi-media artist working in arts administration, technical production, accessibility, and design. They hold a BFA in dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and a MA from Berklee College of Music in creative media and technology. Casey currently serves as the On-Site Access Coordinator for La Jolla Playhouse, Program Coordinator for Neurodance (dance classes for people with neurologic conditions), and Resident Production Manager at Disco Riot. They have also created projection design for dance with Malashock Dance Company, San Diego Asian American Dance Festival, and Disco Riot.

Casey’s creative work is interdisciplinary, spanning dance, film, spoken word, visual, and tactile art. Their films includes short film, "Love Me Maybe", a dance and spoken word solo created for Queer Movement Fest 2025, Jazzie Lock’s "Abyss" music video, featured on NYC Media’s Inside Powerstation and their most recent film with Sensory Dimensions is currently touring at LGBTQ+ centers in California, New York, and New Jersey and screened at Queer Movement Fest 2026.

Alongside their filmmaking, Casey performs live and teaches dance. With their collaborator Richie Villa, Casey has performed multiple works exploring dynamics of care in relationships through contact improvisation and choreography including at Cinema is Power, celebrating Roger Deakins, at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. Through movement education, Casey hopes to help people deepen body awareness and foster social connection through play and somatic practices as well as teaching accessibility workshops to emerging and established dance artists with Disco Riot's SPACE Rising Interns and through San Diego Dance Matters.

No matter what hat they wear Casey brings a commitment to accessibility, passion for problem solving, and a beaming positivity to every facet of their work in the San Diego arts community and beyond.

asian woman with black hair with pink streaks in the front smiles wearing blazer holding a violin

Elicia Neo (she/her)

Singaporean violinist Elicia Neo’s passion in classical contemporary music forms her medium in how she shares her story. Her interests have led her to collaborate with composers and animators to create Skeleton (2021), an original multimedia piece for violin and percussion unpacking imposter syndrome, and Emergent (2022), an electronic visual-dance-music recital held in collaboration with dancers.

Over the years, Elicia’s music focus shifted into creating accessible and inclusive events for both the artist and the audience, having produced inclusive events such as concerts and guided-imagery concerts for healing at some of Bali’s finest resorts. Elicia Neo is a Trailblazer General Fund recipient 2022, Britten-Pears Young Artist 2023, Bang on a Can Fellow 2023, Paul Abisheganaden Grant for Artistic Excellence recipient 2023, and an upcoming Black House Collective Performing Resident 2024.