Our Stories Cabaret by COLLIDE Theatrical coming to St. Cloud's GREAT Theatre

A Twin Cities dance company is staging a production rooted in the Black experience and GREAT Theatre is a stop on the tour.

Allyson Richert, program director for GREAT, is directing the production and is one of the choreographers for the show titled “Our Stories.” The cabaret was designed by Richert in an effort to tell the personal stories of dancers at Collide Theatrical Dance Company

“Even though the Black experience is often rooted in trauma, there still is joy there,” Richert said. “We’re not here to present trauma on stage, we’re here to say there’s joy and happiness and in that joy and happiness you can create art, and that is what we’re sharing.”

The stories are presented through dance and movement to the music of Nina Simone, Otis Redding, Prince, Mumford & Sons, Sheila E. and Beyoncé, among others.

Working in collaboration with the five dancers, Richert is helping them to share their personal stories and experiences.

Dancer Patrick Jeffrey will share the story of his adoption and how he discovered his birth parents and how he’d had a different name at birth. Through movement and original poetry that he’s recorded, he’ll share his discovery of self.

In a duet, two dancers discover the similarities in growing up bi-racial with white mothers and black fathers. They share, through dance, how they felt alone until they were older and found people like them.

“Post George Floyd it’s acceptable to be proud of your blackness,” Richert said. “It feels good to be loud and proud of your curls and proud of your skin tone.”

There are other pieces and performances throughout the show, each dancer will share their own solo story. The production also includes work by Carnage the Executioner doing some spoken word and beatboxing. Dancers will create movement to his words and music.

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The show wraps with an homage to Minneapolis Sound and a dance party.

“As a Black woman, as a Black mother it is my job to carry on the joy and the happiness that my ancestors continued to push so my child has a better tomorrow,” Richert said.

The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. May 27 in GREAT Theatre’s Helgeson Learning Lab Theatre. Tickets are available at https://www.greattheatre.org/events/our-stories/.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Our Stories Cabaret by COLLIDE Theatrical coming to GREAT Theatre