Movement as Language: When words are not enough movement is our common language.

Movement as Language dance education programming project that is built of four distinct stages: 1) Community Engagement: discuss workshop goals and receive input from community members. 2) Workshops: provide dance education and intersectional conversations through movement. 3) Rehearsals: collaborate with professional and community dancers to generate intercommunity conversations and choreography. 4) Performance: share the work developed in this project with the community and gather feedback. To date, this is the status of each stage:
1) Community Engagement: Interview and contracting instructors/choreographers: Aneka McMullen and Non Edwards (November - December 2022); finding the community partners to host the workshops: CM's Fitness & Dance, The Shawngram Institute for Performance and Social Justice, and Theatre and Zorongo Flamenco Dance and Theatre (January - February 2023). Marketing and Publicity were designed and shared on social media, email contacts, and posters and flyers printed to be exposed on several community boards in the twin cities (March 2023).
There was a change on the leadership team: due to maternal leave from the project coordinator, Erika Martin, in order to preserve the high quality of dance educational delivery in the workshops we needed to reallocate the budget and from 7 community dancers, to stay with 5 community dancers, to have the financial resource to hire the 3rd instructor considered for the workshops.
2) Workshops: 3 workshops series, 2 days per workshop, a total of 5 hours each.
Workshop 1, CM's Fitness & Dance | April 14th - 15th
Day 1, Friday, April 14th, from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Day 2, Saturday, April 15th, from 12:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m
Total of participants registered: 10
Total of participants attended: 7
Workshop 2, The Shawngram Institute for Performance and Social Justice | April 22nd -23rd
Day 1, Friday, April 22nd, from 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Day 2, Saturday, April 23rd, from 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Total of participants registered: 17
Total of participants attended: 15
Workshop 3, Zorongo Flamenco | April 28th - 29th
Day 1, Friday 28th, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Day 2, Saturday 29th, 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Total of participants registered: 13
Total of participants attended: TBD
3) Rehearsals:
Choreographers/Professional dancers rehearsals started on April 11th and are programmed from 10 am to 12 pm every Tuesday at CM's Fitness & Dance, and Thursdays at The Shawngram Institute for Performance and Social Justice.
Rehearsals with community dancers will start on May 8th.
4) Performance:
Contract Technical Director & Production Designer (February 2023)
Contract Assitant Director (February 2023)
Engagements with community Musicians, Custom & Makeup designers (April 2023)
Visit to The Southern Theatre with the Production team: week of May 8th, 2023

About project goals:
Through this dance educational project, we have empowered community voices and provided diverse humanities programming through workshops and performances. The workshops provided an introduction to contemporary dance and teach choreographic tools that can be used for self-discovery that improve communication practices in everyday life. By using this teaching format we are increasing accessibility to cultural resources like the dance that has a long history in Minnesota.
The theme of this ML 2023 workshop series is migration - participants are guided through movement exercises and encouraged to develop their own choreography as a way of storytelling. We will examine migration from our unique perspectives as a transition or transformational experience in life. The focus of this workshop will be to learn how to use our body as an instrument for expression and is open to adults of all abilities and levels of dance experience. BIPOC, LGBTQ+, ESL, and community members with disabilities are encouraged to participate. No dance experience is required.

Communities serve from our registered attendance:
Non-binary 21%
LGBTQ+ 66%
Disabilities 25%
Neurodirvegent 25%
Participants related to dance/movement in some form:
No experience 7%
Some 38.3%
Yes related to dance/movement 54.7%

This project is an example of culturally diverse humanities programming in both leadership and community involvement. The professional dancers leading this project come from different cultural backgrounds and are prioritizing the input from communities to develop the workshops themselves. Diversity in experience, dance, and language incorporated in this project enriches Minnesota's cultural landscape and enhances humanities development.
Ultimately it is the participation of the community with their stories and voices that will reach beyond this project. While we are opening a creative space to generate these stories with movement and share them with the community in performance, we are merely empowering community members to use dance as a means to safely express their identity, culture, and lived experience.; Movement as Language Dance education programming project was built of four distinct stages: 1) Community Engagement: discuss workshop goals and receive input from community members. 2) Workshops: provide dance education and intersectional conversations through movement. 3) Rehearsals: collaborate with professional and community dancers to generate intercommunity conversations and choreography. 4) Performance: share the work developed in this project with the community and gather feedback. To date, this is the status of each stage:
1) Community Engagement: Interview and contracting instructors/choreographers: Aneka McMullen and Non Edwards (November - December 2022); finding the community partners to host the workshops: CM's Fitness & Dance, The Shawngram Institute for Performance and Social Justice, and Theatre and Zorongo Flamenco Dance and Theatre (January - February 2023). Marketing and Publicity were designed and shared on social media, email contacts, and posters and flyers printed to be exposed on several community boards in the twin cities (March 2023). There was a change on the leadership team due to parental leave for the project coordinator, Erika Martin. In order to preserve the high quality of dance education in the workshops we reallocated the budget from 7 community dancers to 6 community dancers, to have the financial resources to hire a 3rd instructor/choreographer.
2) Workshops: 3 workshops series, 2 days per workshop, a total of 5 hours each.
Workshop 1, CM's Fitness & Dance | April 14th - 15th
Day 1, Friday, April 14th, from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Day 2, Saturday, April 15th, from 12:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m
Total of participants registered: 10
Total of participants attended: 7
Workshop 2, The Shawngram Institute for Performance and Social Justice | April 22nd -23rd
Day 1, Friday, April 22nd, from 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Day 2, Saturday, April 23rd, from 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Total of participants registered: 17
Total of participants attended: 15
Workshop 3, Zorongo Flamenco | April 28th - 29th
Day 1, Friday 28th, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Day 2, Saturday 29th, 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Total of participants registered: 13
Total of participants attended: 11
3) Rehearsals (Creation Process): Choreographers/Professional dancers' rehearsals were held from April 11th - June 9th totaling 63 hrs and All Cast rehearsals were held from May 8th to June 10th totaling 32 hrs. Rehearsals were held at CM's Fitness & Dance and The Shawngram Institute for Performance and Social Justice. This stage was a 6-week creation process that included meetings with the production team: Technical Director, Costume and Consultant Designer, Musicians, and Production Assistant. There was a change to our production team to include 2 professional musicians to create an original sound score and accompany the live performance. This change was made to support the performance with a unique world tailored to the individual stories represented in the solo choreography. The set and projection visuals were also built during this stage in consultation with the choreographers and technical director using images like a quilt, chrysalis, water, and walking that were themes featured in the movement and creation process.
4) Performance: Migration Stories premiered at the Southern Theater on June 16th followed by an additional matinee and evening performance on June 17th. In the lead-up to this performance, the production team and dancers met daily for the technical rehearsals at the theater the week of June 12th.
Friday, June 16 at 7:30 pm (with talk back)
Tickets Sold: 33Tickets
Free: 12Total
Attendance: 45
Saturday, June 17 at 1:30 pm (pay as able)
Tickets Sold: 24
Tickets Discounted: 22Tickets
Free: 11Total Attendance: 57
Saturday, June 17 at 7:30 pm (with talk back)
Tickets Solds: 29
Tickets Free: 10
Total Attendance: 39

About project goals: Through this dance education project, we empowered community voices and provided diverse humanities programming through workshops and performances. The workshops provided an introduction to contemporary dance and taught choreographic tools that can be used for self-discovery that improve communication practices in everyday life. By using this teaching format we are increasing accessibility to cultural resources like the dance that has a long history in Minnesota.
The theme of this ML 2023 workshop series was migration - participants were guided through movement exercises and encouraged to develop their own choreography as a way of storytelling. We examined migration from our unique perspectives as a transition or transformational experience in life. Out of the workshops we hired 6 community dancers to continue to create a performance using the choreography they developed in the workshops. The choreographers added their own migration storysolos to this pool of material and together guided the dancers to create an evening-length performance: Migration Stories. Communities served in Workshops: Non-binary 21% LGBTQ+ 66% Disabilities 25% Neurodivergent 25% Participants related to dance/movement in some form: No experience 7% Some 38.3% Yes related to dance/movement 54.7% Communities represented in Production:
Non-binary 33%
LGBTQ+ 53%
Disabilities 20%
Neurodivergent 38%
Latinx 18%
Black 18%
White 46%
Asian 18%
This project is an example of culturally diverse humanities programming in both leadership and community involvement. The professional dancers leading this project come from different cultural backgrounds and are prioritizing the input from communities to develop the workshops themselves. Diversity in experience, dance, and language incorporated in this project enriches Minnesota's cultural landscape and enhances humanities development. Ultimately it is the participation of the community with their stories and voices that was presented in the final performance.