Photo of dancer Lue Thao by Jania Xiong
By Michèle Steinwald
For those new to the series of conversations, Minnesota Dance & the Ecstasies of Influences, welcome!
Since 2014, we have curated and documented 16 gatherings that have centered the experiences of regional dance makers and focused on topics such as: dance genres (tap, hip hop, contact improvisation, site specific dances, Latin dances, Native American dances); structures of support (buildings, educational programs, critical writing, creative feedback, preservation, traditions); and intersections (with athletics, the musical icon Prince, social justice, and choreographic approaches). Each of these conversations used the lens of influences—people, places and events—to tie together the contributions of our dance community members and the interdependent nature of dance as an art form and a method for personal and cultural expression.
It wasn’t easy fundraising for the series. It took a year to convince funding panels that identifying speakers through community-based partnerships was an ethical archival practice and that dancers deserve to be heard not just seen. Often relegated to the background, dancers need to be brought front and center to combat a consumerist society that hopes to alienate us from our bodies as a means to promote capitalism over felt intuition and sense-based knowledge. Sadly, dancers can sometimes be heard perpetuating self-deprecation notions by saying “I dance because I am not good at using words.” Everyone has a voice and needs to share how they relate to our world. Dance forces us to confront our physical selves and the emotions and truths we carry inside. By talking, we relate to one another and see the likeness we have in our hearts, whether dance is our calling or just a peripheral interest.
You can peruse earlier conversations online on The Cowles Center’s YouTube channel and see all the hand drawn maps resulting from the talks too. Additionally, scholars and everyday knowledge seekers can dig into the archival collections in person at the Performing Arts Archives at the University of Minnesota Libraries.
The three events programmed at, and in collaboration with, the East Side Freedom Library are a mini-series of sorts within the larger series. Dance While… centers stories about dancers, dance genres, structures of support, and intersections of identities within immigrant and refugee communities calling Minnesota home. In consultation with our partner organizations, Somali Museum of Minnesota, Karen Organization of Minnesota, and Hmong Museum, we invited dancers and teachers, business leaders and entrepreneurs, students and professionals, to add to the collective understanding of how dance thrives in the Twin Cities.
By placing these next talks at the East Side Freedom Library, with you in the audience safely at home, we benefit from the histories and stories already housed at the library. Being in good company alongside the books and archives, posters and community-driven newspapers, we add to these collections.
As ESFL supporters, you know that our bodies are political and what we do with them creates meaning. While actions do speak louder than words, we hope you will listen to the words that these dancers have to share during our upcoming conversations and join in with your own stories, questions and comments online to add to our collective documenting and remembering.
Sunday, October 18 at 2pm
Dancing While Somali (PART 17 OF MN DANCE & THE ECSTASIES OF INFLUENCES)
Speakers: Zakariye Aden, Osman Ali, Awale Kore, Mohamoud Osman Mohamed, Ayan Mohamud, and Bilan Osman
In partnership with The Somali Museum of Minnesota
Sunday, October 25 at 2pm
Dancing While Karen (PART 18 OF MN DANCE & THE ECSTASIES OF INFLUENCES)
Speakers: Pkwa Htoo, Ma Moe Win, Sarmoo Kwee, Eh Smwee, Sar Wait, and Wah Htoo
In partnership with Karen Organization of Minnesota
Sunday, November 1 at 2pm
Dancing While Hmong (PART 19 OF MN DANCE & THE ECSTASIES OF INFLUENCES)
Speakers: Melvina Cha, Cheng Xiong, Shawn Vue, Lue Thao, Mai Moua Thao, and Nancy Xiong
In partnership with Hmong Museum