Charlotte civil rights story told through choreography

NO TEARS PROJECT

The No Tears Project, which uses dance to tell local civil rights stories, will debut April 25 at UNC Charlotte’s Annie R. Belk Theater.

The No Tears Project brings Charlotte history to the stage.

On April 25, the program hosted by UNC Charlotte assistant professor of dance Ashley Tate, will use movement to honor the city’s civil rights history. The production will take place at UNCC’s Anne R. Belk Theater in Robinson Hall and admission is free.

Founded in 2017 by jazz vocalist Kelley Hurt and pianist Christopher Parker, in collaboration with Oxford Magazine, the No Tears Project has traveled to New Orleans, Memphis and St. Louis, showcasing history through art.

Tate, who joined the troupe in 2023 along with the co-founders and 15 UNCC students and alumni, put together a performance inspired by the 1971 Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education case that implemented busing to desegregate public schools. The project is about creating choreography that responds to music and explores historical narratives.

“The goal with my contribution as a movement artist in this ensemble is to offer another entry point into the work, one that's physical and emotional and immediate for the audience,” she said.
Introducing the project to the students gave them the opportunity to triangulate art, academia and activism.

“So much of civil rights history is told through speech and documentation, and that is important as well,” Tate said. “But dance allows us to enter a different register. I’m interested in how movement can hold tension, endurance, grief, resistance, care, all these things all at once, without needing to translate them into words.”

Rather than retelling history, Tate wanted the performance to focus on how it felt, which allows the audience to connect on a different level. Combining movement, music and activism, Tate said art is a different starting point for engagement.

“Dance allows us to move beyond just retelling history; it gives us that opportunity to experience it,” she said. “The music carries the narrative, but the body holds the weight and the tension and the resonance of those stories.” 

In rehearsals, that process requires dancers to engage not only with technique but emotional depth. The work challenges them to think about how movement communicates ideas that cannot always be articulated through language.

The choreography uses repetition, stillness and moments of improvisation, combining individualism and shared storytelling.

“This particular type of work calls for just true authenticity, and carrying that history with that authenticity,” Tate said, “where it is not about necessarily what you're doing, how it looks, shape and line, but how does it feel, and is it resonating with the audience?” 

No Tears Project is about how each place carries history that can be felt as well as studied and researched. Tate hopes the performance will spark curiosity and that the audience will leave asking questions about stories in their community that may have been overlooked.

“History is still present in everyday life,” she said. “It’s not distant, it’s not resolved, but it's something that continues to shape how we live and how we move. One of the conversations is about place. In each city we perform, it carries its own civil rights history. I want the audience to start to think more critically about the ground they stand on.”

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