Ananya Dance Theater’s performance, which unpacks life through back-to-back crises in the Twin Cities, premieres in October.

The body can tell stories in ways voice or written word cannot.

In Ananya Dance Theatre’s new show “PREM | Love: An Occupation,” the dance troupe use their bodies to unpack the impact of living in communities of crises in the Twin Cities, informed by the uprisings after the killing of George Floyd and Operation Metro Surge this spring.

The 90-minute performance seeks to give voice to the feelings that often go unsaid, from sudden disruption to communal grief and neighborly care, said Ananya Chatterjea, the theater’s founder and artistic director.

“What I’m trying to do is hold the nervous and emotional map of peoples’ experiences,” Chatterjea said. “It doesn’t get reported on like facts get reported on.”

Chatterjea started putting the show together last fall, interested in what she called “public love,” a force strong enough to organize a community. It’s the latest in the company’s series of annual original premieres, which they often bring on tour nationally and globally throughout the following year.

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers flooded into the state this winter, Chatterjea watched strangers pour out onto the streets in support of their neighbors, and she said she felt the importance of her production grow.

“That kind of courage and connection, that kind of social responsibility, civic relationality, all that seemed really important to articulate,” Chatterjea said.

The dance itself, which Chatterjea choreographed, attempts to replicate that support through on-stage interactions and play with rhythm. 

“We can arrive at the same rhythm coming from different pathways, and we can dissolve into different pathways after that, and then come together again,” Chatterjea said. “It’s a metaphoric notion of community, but it’s definitely about weight sharing, about moving together differently.”

“PREM” will make its world premiere on Oct. 10 at the Southern Theater. Tickets are for sale on a sliding scale based on need.