Inspired by diversity and community exchange, we create dance accessibility through choreography, education, and performance.
MOVING ROOTS, ANCESTRY WINGS
Saturday, June 27, 2026
7:30 PM (Doors 6:30 PM, House 7:00 PM)
Friday, June 26, 2026
7:30 PM (Doors 6:30 PM, House 7:00 PM)
Saturday, June 27, 2026
1:30 PM (Doors 12:30 PM, House 1:00 PM)
— Pay-As-Able Performance
An original evening of contemporary dance exploring ancestry, cultural inheritance, and personal transformation through movement, music, and storytelling. Performances will take place June 26th - 27th, 2026, at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis.
DME Co-directed by Carmen Lucia Lincoln and Erika Martin, presents Moving Roots / Ancestry Wings explores the theme of ancestry from seven unique perspectives. Following the generational heritage as it is passed by the ancestors through vessels and tradition carriers on to their descendants. Generations find themselves on a spiral of repetitive behavioral patterns, absorbing it from an early human stage of innocence, eventually connecting with their ancestry with more consciousness, finding independence and nuance around conflictive relationships with the past. Descendants embrace those patterns with compassion finding their own empowerment and identity transformation.
The production features performances by Lu Chen, Mayhough Fox, Sophia Islam, Jennifer Mack, and Alessandra Silva, with an original score by Jorge Mendoza, lighting design by KD Deutsch Frost, and scenic design by Orren Fen.
About the Performance
A New Dance Performance Exploring Heritage, Identity, and Belonging
“Ancestry is more than a record of where we come from”
“It lives in our bodies, relationships, and daily rituals. This work invites audiences to reflect on the people, traditions, and histories that continue to move through us.”
Our Dance Education Programming
Movement as Language (ML) is a dance education program that explores how dance can become a common language through community workshops and choreographic processes. The workshops are for people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, particularly Latinx, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and disabled community members, and no dance experience is required.
Workshop Series & Community Performance
Accessible Professional Dance Education & Performance
MNIDF began in 2023, with the first festival bringing together emerging Twin Cities artists and international dance instructors and choreographers for a week of community exchange through workshops and performances.
Each year the festival features a different guest country to promote cultural diversity and exchange. This program welcomes participants from all backgrounds, levels of dance experience, and movement abilities to engage with dance.
Carmen Lucia Lincoln
DME Co-Director
Erika Martin
DME Co-Director
Monica Merino
DME Advisor
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