Dance Performance: Giving Voice to the Community

This project used oral history contributed by community story-tellers as source material for choreographic work performed in the community. The oral histories focused on four major areas: arrival (migration), social life, spirituality, and segregation/civil rights. Public performance took place at the university, local schools, and the community center in the neighborhood on which the choreographic narrative was based. The project involved processes for representing a multigenerational, multiracial community history while at the same time meeting the pre-professional educational needs of student dancers. These processes, some know in community theater and community dance projects, provide a basis for reflection on combining student and community goals in dance and other performing arts.