Photo courtesy of The Karen Organization of Minnesota

Dancing While Karen
Part 18 of MN Dance & the Ecstasies of Influences

In partnership with Karen Organization of Minnesota
Sunday, October 25, 2020, 2-4pm

Hosted by and in collaboration with East Side Freedom Library
Curated and produced by Michèle Steinwald
Documented by Tori Hong, Kristin Van Loon, and Flywheel Media Productions

Speakers: Pkwa Htoo, Ma Moe Win, Sarmoo Kwee, Eh Smwee, Sar Wait, and Wah Htoo

About our partner:
The Karen Organization of Minnesota is the first social services agency in the country founded by Karen refugees from Burma. They offer a variety of programs to help refugees transition to life in a new country and achieve their goals. They also provide resources to help organizations learn how to work with this growing community. Their mission is to enhance the quality of life for all refugees from Burma in Minnesota. Learn more about Karen culture and art forms here.

Learn more about the Karen Organization of Minnesota on Facebook, Instagram, and their website!

Dancing While… is a three-part mini-series—within the larger discussion series, MN Dance & the Ecstasies of Influences—that centers individual stories by dance practitioners and organizers from immigrant and refugee communities in Minnesota.

Launched in fall of 2014, MN Dance & the Ecstasies of Influences has presented 16 unique events in collaboration with The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts, Ordway, and the Minnesota Museum of American Art, and covered varied topics while focused on artists’ influences as a way to begin unraveling the histories that are part of the Twin Cities dance communities. Now in its fifth season, the series is partnering with East Side Freedom Library, where story is a major theme of the library’s mission.

For the series, Michèle Steinwald works in consultation with Kristin Van Loon, choreographer and curator; and in council with Judith Brin Ingber, choreographer and writer; Cecily Marcus, curator of the Performing Arts Archives at the University of Minnesota Libraries; Nancy Mason Hauser, videographer, and Linda Shapiro, choreographer and writer, founders of the Minnesota Dance Pioneers Oral History Project. MN Dance & the Ecstasies of Influences is an ongoing partnership with the Performing Arts Archives at the University of Minnesota Libraries and The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts. More information on the series here and the archive here.

View this event LIVE at the East Side Freedom Library Facebook page

Funded by Metropolitan Regional Arts Council’s Arts Project Support Grant and Minnesota Historical Society’s Minnesota Historical & Cultural Grant

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