Photo of Jennifer Mabus by Francisco Graciano

Anyone who makes time this weekend for Bare Feet and Burning Bushes at the beautifully restored Arts Mission Oak Cliff is in for something special, an immersive dance theater work exploring life-changing moments in human life.

Or as Preston Hollow resident, Southern Methodist University alumnus and dance artist Jennifer Mabus puts it, “those moments in our lives when we face change that creates an inner shift in perspective or identity. These are sacred moments that cause us to reflect on who we are becoming and what we leave behind.”

Mabus and a diverse collection of “movement collaborators” will take participants (audience members are also welcome to observe only) through the exceptional space that is Arts Mission Oak Cliff as together the group “explores these questions of change and identity.”

Once an abandoned church, Arts Mission Oak Cliff was transformed back in 2017 into a performance and arts gathering and work space.

Since then, it has hosted an array of movement-related creative performances, workshops and other events. The cavernous venue with its lofted rafters and shiny slick floors bathed in natural light tends to inspire all who enter to dance or sing like no one is looking/listening — the perfect place for a celebrated dance artist with “a strong interest in dance movement therapy” to put on this potentially transformative event.

Mabus — who has danced with high-profile companies and choreographers such as Robert Battle, Amy Marshall Dance Company and Takehiro Ueyama in New York City and Dallas’ Bruce Wood Dance Project; been on faculty at Texas Christian University, Interlochen Arts Academy, Houston’s HSPVA and Sam Houston State and was the founding chair of Houston’s University of St. Thomas dance program (to scratch the surface of her lengthy list of credentials) — says she will be joined in this weekend’s “journey” by a “cast of collaborators including experienced and emerging dance artists who were trained or teach at renowned DFW institutions such as Booker T. Washington, HSPVA, Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University and University of North Texas.

“Most importantly,” she adds, “the show is an experience of hope and community in hard times.”

If words are not sufficiently descriptive, below is one of the performer/collaborators rehearsing, as seen on Instagram (more here). But there’s presumably nothing like the IRL experience.

Tickets are limited at each show because of the intimate and immersive nature of the work, so go ahead and lock one down for Friday or Saturday. Shows are at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. each night. Tickets are $16-$30.

The event is part of the AMOC Artist in Residence collection.