Arts Activities Support

Dance Around Us project strives through various community arts participation, dance performances, and historical dance photo/costume exhibition to showcase the artistic excellence of Hmong Dance, and its cultural preservation, history, and transformation due to the refugee experience in the United States. We will have following activities, and estimated audience number: 1) October, 2013 – February, 2014 - Hmong Dance Community Performances during the Hmong New Year Celebration at the Saint Paul RiverCenter and at the Minneapolis Metrodome; targeting 5,000 audience. 2) April 1st – June 30th, 2014 – The Multimedia Exhibition “Deep Root, Lush Leaves – Transformation of Hmong Dance in Minnesota” Exhibition; targeting 9,000 audience. 3) Outdoor “Place-Based” Performance, targeting 1,000 audience.We will evaluate the success of the Project, through following criteria: Artistically – Successfully presenting/documenting/preserving the Hmong traditional dances through exhibition/workshops/performances, and the events are well received with public appreciation. Financially - Planned activities are completed within budget. Experientially – Hmong traditional dance artists feel recognized and supported by the larger society, and all volunteers and partners work together as a team and increase their appreciation of collaboration/mutual understanding, as well as transformative nature of Hmong traditional dances. Additionally, we will evaluate the success through the quality of the Performances; the number of attendance; the quality of the classes; and its effects on the community such as: increasing participation in the Hmong Dance activities; and increasing mainstream society’s understanding of Hmong culture. We will collect audience surveys and analyze the findings.