Modlin Center for the Arts

Embarqued: Stories of Soil is a dance-theatre work exploring the relationships and complexities of self and country, place and displacement, exile and arrival. Collaboratively created through research of textiles, skin tones, labor, land, humor and moving bodies, Embarqued: Stories of Soil centers around a transformative ship formed by cloth and bodies that motivates reflection of shared history, the journey of self and community, and interrogates our relationships with memorialization. Inspired by the African American Heritage trail on Martha's Vineyard, heroic stories of survival, loss and resilience unfold through an integration of lighting, sound, textiles and movement, each element complementing and adding to the rich layering of storytelling at the heart of the work. The lushly envisioned landscape of stage and performance connects people and places through an experiential time continuum revealing post-colonial phantoms and the mythologies that still hold sway today.