In its second season of existence, the dance ensemble Company Movimiento has sharpened its focus to take on the broad topics of social justice for the Latinx community — including the border detention crisis — as well as exploring the personal identity of a Latinx artist. The results will be on full display this weekend in Latinx Voices, two evenings featuring six modern and jazz dance pieces under the direction of company leader Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner. Its themes range from honoring cultural ritual as memorial to spotlighting vulnerability in the border detention crisis and threading the connections that bind marginalized communities through conflict and grief. The company’s dancers range in age from 20 to 45, and while not all are Latinx, Gutierrez-Garner believes the “casting to teaching moment” will be evident in the performances. “I would still want the work to show diversity,” she says. Gutierrez-Garner hopes to use dance to promote cultural cognizance and contextualize what it means to be an American today.   

“Latinx Voices,” a production of Company Movimiento dance ensemble, performs at 7:30 pm Friday and Saturday Oct. 18-19 at Oregon Contemporary Theatre, 194 W. Broadway. $13-18.

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