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By Travis Gupton

The Selma Times-Journal

The Wideman Davis Dance Troupe will come to Selma to perform the second installment of their first performance Migratuse Ataraxia on Thursday and Saturday.

The first show will be at Selma University on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. those attending can park by entering from Minter Avenue.

On Saturday the show will be at Historic Good Samaritan Hospital at 7:30 p.m.

If you plan on going to that show you are encouraged to park at the Dallas County Court Services and enter from Broad Street & Voeglin Avenue.

Should it rain at the shows, there are indoor options.

On Thursday should it rain, the show will be in the Jemison-Owens Auditorium-Gymnasium on the campus of Selma University. The show on Saturday would be in the Dr. Michael and Catherine Bullock Community and Recreation Center Gym.

The show Migratuse Reimagined is a site-specific outdoor performance at architectural sites of black liberation that centers on the narratives of Selma citizens known as the foot soldiers.

“It’s a performance about the stories of the everyday people in Selma during the civil rights movement,” Rosemary Johnson said.

The show is an experiential show where you will walk through the stories being played out. This show is the brainchild of Tanya Wideman Davis and Thadeus Davis.

According to Johnson, they have been in Selma researching and preparing this show for a while. Migratuse Reimagined is the second part of their first performance Migratuse Ataraxia. Migratuse means migration or patterns from moving. Ataraxia means calmness and peace.

While going through the show there will be footage that was shot in the area to help bring the show even more to life.

Focusing on black life during the civil rights movement, the artists intentionally shift the journey from spaces of enslavement, explored in their previous work, to those of Black liberation and empowerment through a mobile, performative intervention. Participants travel through the performance site where they will encounter the artists’ responses to historic Black structures through large-scale projections, sonic environments, and live performances that speak to Black futurity.

The show has multiple sponsors and according to Johnson, they are the lifeblood of the performance. “ This wouldn’t be possible without our sponsors and community partners,” Johnson said.

The sponsors for the shows are: Alabama Dance Council, APAP ArtsForward, Mellon, South Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Alabama State Council on the Arts, Selma University, and Edmundite Missions.

The community partners are: The Anchor, ArtsRevive, The Coffee Shoppe, Wallace Community College Selma, Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center, Black Belt Community Foundation, Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation, Journeys for the Soul, By the River Center for Humanity, and The National Voting Rights Museum & Institute.

The show will have quilts made by local textile artists Mary Louise Hall, Doris Mooney, and Elaine Spencer for creating the fabric panels incorporated into the Migratuse Reimagined set.

There were stories given by foot soldiers who shared their stories with the Wideman Davis Dance Troupe those people are JoAnne Bland, Verdell Lett Dawson, Joyce O’Neal, and Kirk D. Carrington.

People interested in attending need to RSVP for this live show by going online to eventbrite.com and searching for Wideman Davis Dance.

It is also encouraged that those who come wear comfortable shoes because there will be moving from place to place during the show.