Dance Company EL SUEO Pays Homage to Ancestry and Latin American Culture

by Fiona Dang

Founded in 2018, the dance company EL SUE'O centers the experiences of BIPOC communities as powerful narratives worthy of being seen and celebrated. Founder Alicia Mullikin has sought to cultivate an inclusive space in the dance world that recognizes ancestral lineage and Latin American culture. EL SUE'O seeks to dispel the myth of the American Dream as a self-made accomplishment and recognizes it as a collective effort, tied to the past.

The dance company's website addresses this perspective with the statement: "La primera generacin de Americanos son las flores que florecen despus de generaciones de cosecha." ("First generation Americans are the flowers that bloom after generations of harvest.")

In 2018, EL SUE'O partnered with Velocity Dance Center to produce an eponymous performance. Mullikin casted six dancers who shared similar values and had close relationships with their families: Devin Muoz, Aachix'Qaaduug Elise Beer, Elizabeth Sugawara, Tessa Baales, Melanie Katzen, and Olivia Anderson. When the pandemic hit, the group decided to translate their live performance into a feature film entitled EL SUE'O. EL SUE'O became a collaboration between Mullikin as director and choreographer and Muoz as dancer and filmmaker, with an original score by multi-instrumentalist Daniel Mullikin.

EL SUE'O weaves together moments of beauty and hardship that reverberate across time and space. The dancers embody powerful female archetypes of mother, grandmother, queen, or warrior. Set in the Mojave Desert, their performances bring to life the journeys of these powerful women and the traits that have been passed to them through generations. They assert their presence, freely and wholeheartedly expressing the fortitude, resilience, and softness inherent to their ancestors, immigrants, and People of Color.

A first-generation Mexican American raised in Los Angeles and the surrounding area, Alicia Mullikin discovered her love for dance and choreography in public school. Support from family members and mentors bolstered her belief that she could earn a place in the dance world as a plus-size dancer, Brown woman, and daughter of immigrants. During auditions, Mullikin recalls enduring discouraging remarks asking her to lose weight or erase elements of Spanish language and Latin American culture from her work.

"I never felt like I could put myself in my work without getting oppositional messages. I thought getting a college degree would provide my American Dream, which was to do the thing I love. It doesn't matter what education or work I invested in; I wasn't really going to be accepted," Mullikin reflected. "I had a revelation: If the space I wish I had in the dance world doesn't exist, then I'm going to create that myself."

As history has shown, people of marginalized identities are rendered invisible in spite of their labor and inherent value, and their sacrifices are frequently unacknowledged by dominant institutional forces. The work of EL SUE'O aims to redress this gross oversight and honor the contributions of BIPOC communities.

"When I thought about what has allowed me to be in the dance world, I had to look back and realize that [it] was not my own doing. My parents, grandparents, and ancestors are the ones who have strived for the next generation to be better. It's my Native American ancestors who survived genocide. It's my grandparents and dad who immigrated here. It's my mom who worked three jobs while I grew up," Mulikin said. "Those folks have continually put in the effort and continually put aside their dreams for me to be able to do what I'm doing. I'm in a place where I am now a recipient of generations of work put into me. Generations of love and harvest have gone into allowing me to be at the exact moment right now."

EL SUE'O and its community partners have encouraged people to embrace their identities, heal from intergenerational trauma, and commemorate their lineages. In particular, the dance company collaborated with the Henry Art Gallery on an exhibition, titled EL SUE'O: THE FLOWERS THAT BLOOM (November 18, 2021—April 17, 2022). For its finale, the EL SUE'O Healing Day featured a series of programs: Yoga & Your Ancestry with artist Alfonso Cervera; a sound bath, meditation, and intentional journaling session with healing practitioner Maria Muoz; and a screening of EL SUE'O, featuring a Q&A with Mullikin and Muoz. Through community-building events, the dance company continues to unapologetically pay homage to ancestral ties and Latin American heritage.

"I want to say to my people, 'I see you.' I'm trying to reach a lot of people and make sure that it resonates with them [and that they can] see themselves or people they love in it,'" she shared. "I didn't get to see Brown women in dance. I want to make sure that when a young Brown person sees this work, they know that this is a Latina making this work."

Through their work, EL SUE'O invites everyone to imagine a collective future that is hard-won and generations in the making.

The feature film, EL SUE'O, premiered at the Northwest Film Forum in March 2022. It is now available to stream on the dance company's website. Follow their Instagram account for updates on new projects including a dance to "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio.

Fiona Dang (she/her) is a first-generation Chinese American art historian. Fiona has demonstrated her commitment to building bridges between scholarship and expansive art publics through her experiences working at museums.

Featured Image: EL SUE'O founder Alicia Mullikin. (Photo: Devin Muoz)