'Migration Stories' finds a language and community through dance

Stories about migration are being told with a different kind of a voice, using movement as the language to convey personal experiences.

"Migration Stories" debuts at a time when the U.S. immigration policy is in the hot seat. With the end of the COVID-19-era restrictions on asylum, known as Title 42 and that allowed the U.S. to turn away migrants immediately at the border with Mexico, new rules are being putting in place to crack down on illegal crossings.

Although the work by Dance Projects by ME isn't overtly political, it does include stories from dancers who have gone through the U.S. immigration system as migrants. It also explores other sorts of transformative changes that the artists have experienced.

Carmen Lucia Lincoln, who runs Dance Projects with Erika Martin, is among the dancers who has a story to tell.

"I came here prior to the current administration, and it was hard," she recalls.

Originally from western Mexico, she met her current husband while working as a tour guide in the Riviera Maya. Her husband was visiting Mexico as a tourist. They fell in love, and Lincoln followed him north to earn a master's degree at the University of Colorado before moving to Minnesota.

She says that even as a legal tourist, she experienced firsthand what it was like to cross the border.

"It was a little bit traumatic, because I wondered if I would be able to keep my relationship [with my husband]," she says. "It made me question things like, 'Omigod, like, I'm in love of this man.' I want to be able to keep seeing him."

Lincoln met Martin at Zenon Dance Company, where they were both volunteering and taking classes in 2019. Lincoln wanted to share what she had been through in her journey from Mexico to Minnesota. Not being able to articulate her feelings in English, she felt she could communicate better through dance.

"I remember mentioning to Erika at some point how that reflected in my body," she says.

So the duo applied for the Cowles Center's Generating Room, a residency program that gives space for artists to develop a project or idea rooted in dance. That was in the spring of 2021.

"We generated choreography together, and then opened it up to be a public program, inviting community members to engage with the process," Martin says.

Part of the genesis for their workshop, was Lincoln's own challenges with the English language.

"There were moments where I couldn't say it, but I could move, and Erika could read my movement," Lincoln says.

"We were finding these connections where movement became the way to speak to each other," Martin says.

After the Generating Room program ended, Lincoln and Martin got funding from the Minnesota Humanities Center to conduct a series of workshops called Movement as Language at other Twin Cities communities. Dancers Non Edwards and Aneka McMullen joined the project as instructors/choreographers.

Ayaka Moriyama, who is originally from Japan and came to the U.S. as a student, wanted to participate in the workshop because of its theme. Participants were taught to explore different patterns of migration, like an animal moving during the seasons, or from an older self transforming into a new self.

"It allowed me to expand my idea of what migration is through movement vocabulary," she says.

When Southern Theater hosts "Migration Stories" on Friday and Saturday, the performers will include some of the workshop participants. It will combine ensemble pieces and solo elements.

The solo by Monica Merino goes back and forth in time. The piece involves coming up from the floor into a spiral, and then being drawn down to the floor again.

"It's trying to go back to your roots, trying to find out where you belong," says Merino, who is from Mexico and has lived in Minnesota for 20 years.

Not all of the stories in the performance will deal with geographical migration. The dancers also will explore other sorts of transformational experiences, traversing these around gender identity, disability and race. For instance, Martin's case explores a Mennonite family lineage, as well as experiences with a miscarriage and later birth of a child.

Working on "Migration Stories" has been an emotional process for Merino.

"Sometimes it's hard to put it in words how, as immigrants, you feel day by day," she says. "And then when you have the opportunity to say it with movement, maybe people will get it. Some people will think, 'Oh, she moves pretty,' and that's it. But I will show who I am. Even if one person understands what I'm trying to show, it will be beautiful."

'Migration Stories'

When: 7:30 p.m. Fri., 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sat.

Where: Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Av. S., Mpls.

Tickets: $20, southerntheater.org.