Lee University is hosting the Unity Dance Troupe Friday Feb.
10-11 in the Dixon Center. Doors will open at 7:00 p.m., and the show
will begin at 7:30 p.m.

The Unity Dance Troupe was founded in
January of 2010 by Alexis Ziarkowski, a senior at Lee who has been
dancing for the 11 years. “I started Unity as a dance ministry because I
felt that a lot of people love to dance but they think they can’t. It
was my goal to show people that they had it in them to dance.”

The
mission behind Unity works to instigate change through the power of a
faith-based initiative. As a professional dancer, Ziarkowski was tired
of seeing aesthetic productions devoid of powerful themes.

Ziarkowski
wants to see her dancers and audiences depart Unity company’s
performances with an identity based in love. Ziarkowski said, “From
there, from that place of freedom and healing, [to] go and bring healing
to our audience. Not just in theatrical terms but in our everyday
interactions.”

Unity will perform an original choreography,
“Rescued,” a story about human sex trafficking. Ziarkowski’s desire to
see people freed from all types of slavery prompted efforts to publicize
the injustice of human sex trafficking and to bring faces to all the
men and women who are prisoners.

The performance is free of
charge and open to the public. For more information about “Rescued” or
the Unity Dance Troupe, please contact Ziarkowski at 423-507-4601 or by
email at [email protected].
 

Photo: 
Spring 2011 performance