Waco native Deirdre Denise McClain, a choreographer and former Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, knows how dance can entertain, but she’s convinced it can heal as well.

That’s the purpose behind her solo piece “Love Meow,” which she’ll unveil at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Jubilee Theatre, with a repeat performance July 11.

The one-hour dance work, set to contemporary pop by Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Alicia Keyes and Diana Ross plus jazz pianist Keiko Matsui, examines the issue of abuse and healing from it.

“Love Meow”

Performances: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and July 11 at Jubilee Theatre, 1319 N. 15th St.

Tickets: $12. Intended for adults 18 and older. Call (254) 548-1546.

Deirdre Denise McClain

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“Love Meow” originated as the piece “Illuminating the Night,” which McClain performed in 1994 at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she was a student. McClain created it after her sister, Paula, was shot to death in Dallas on Jan. 26, 1993, by an abusive boyfriend.

Her sister’s homicide, coming on the heels of an abusive marriage that Paula had left, traumatized McClain, 50. “Illuminating the Night” helped her express her anger over Paula’s death, but also communicated the warning signs of unhealthy relationships, a point followed up in a workshop the next day.

McClain, a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader from 1979 to 1980, later dropped her seminary studies as a result of the emotional impact of her sister’s death, though she says she never abandoned her Christian faith.

Some 15 years later, the dancer and choreographer decided to revisit her work, amplifying it to include her own experience with emotional and mental abuse from a relationship gone bad. After work as a yoga instructor in Houston, she moved back to her hometown last year and presently works as a hostess at the Olive Garden restaurant.

“Love Meow” — the title combines what creates emotional healing with McClain’s longtime identification with cats — consists of dance vignettes, each performed in different costumes, interspersed with explanatory dialogue and featuring several opportunities for her audience to get involved.

She decided to perform the work this Saturday to show it to family members in town for the holiday. Her parents, Thomas and Johnnie, have died, but her 27-year-old son Michael, a Houston engineer, will be up for the occasion.

The work is suggested for adult audiences, and McClain said she will use proceeds from the shows for an endowment in her sister’s name that would assist women and children caught in abusive situations.

McClain plans a show in Dallas and intends to take her dance performance to Houston, Austin and San Antonio. “If one person gets it at each performance, that’s enough for me,” she said.

choover@wacotrib.com

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