Empowering Dancers in the Studio and On Stage - Local Choreographer Alicia Mullikin On Creating An Inclusive Space for all Marginalized Communities
Pronunciation: Ah-lee-see-ah Mull-ih-kin | Pronouns: she/her
By Nicole Barrett, DWC Blog Editor
photo courtesy of https://www.aliciamullikin.com/works
Empowering dancers is something that is very important to local dance teacher and choreographer Alicia Mullikin. Being able to be your true self in the studio and on stage is one of the main goals she tries to pursue with her dance company El Sueño. We got the chance to speak with Alicia about her mission statement, her dance company, and her personal dance journey. Read on to learn more!
Alicia started dancing in the middle school show choir. While she was in the show choir, the choreographer quit which left the group without choreography. Alicia decided she wanted to help choreograph without taking any dance classes and fell in love with the creative process. She asked her parents to put her into dance classes at the local YMCA, where her love of dance and choreography bloomed.
After high school, Alicia went to Riverside City College where she continued to train in dance before transferring to Cornish College of the Arts. It was here that she encountered some struggle and came up against some rigid viewpoints about body shape and traditional expectations around size. However, it is also where she met some incredible teachers and lifelong friends. Alicia later went on to get her Masters in Dance from Cal State University of Long Beach and she was recently selected as an Arts Advocacy Leadership fellow by the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures.
When asked about Alicia’s favorite thing about dance, she says, “Dance allowed a space for me to express myself in ways that I am unable to verbally. It allows me to be the person I want to be.” Folks often describe Alicia’s movement as expressive and powerful. She strives to bring this out of her students as well as guide them to stand in their full power and own their own story.
photo courtesy of https://www.aliciamullikin.com/works
El Sueño is an organization founded by Alicia. They use dance as a platform for community engagement, empowerment, and healing of marginalized communities. The phrase el sueño means “the dream” which is important to her as a first-generation American. Seeing her parents sacrifice and strive for the American dream has inspired her to continue pressing forward. Alicia’s family is descendant from the Indigenous people’s of North America and the genocide and struggle that they went through inspires her to be resilient. She shares, “I am the recipient of the American Dream, that is generations in the making.”
Alicia is currently working on a new work MESTIZO. It is an evening of collected stories of the Mexican-American experience. The description states As Mexican people, our histories are painfully entwined with both our Indigenous ancestors and our Spanish colonizers. So much of our Indigenous history was stripped from us through centuries of cultural erasure and genocide. What we have been able to hold onto has been strategically hidden within Catholic images and appropriated spiritual practices. Assimilation was the way we survived extinction, but defiance and resilience was threaded in the ways we stealthily passed our cultural practices through the colonial lens. MESTIZO bravely claims the pain and power of this history with each artist documenting their experiences. The event will include visual arts, film, music, dance, and ceremony that powerfully weave together our collective experiences.
You can find out more about Alicia and her new work at https://www.aliciamullikin.com/mestizo
And follow the El Sueño Instagram here!
If you’d like to support Alicia’s upcoming production of MESTIZO you can donate to their project fundraiser at https://www.gofundme.com/f/mestizo
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