3 months ago
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On President’s Day (February 16, 2026), the First Amendment Troop staged “ResistDance” astatine Lincoln Memorial, a almighty tribute and enactment of creator dissent to commemorate the lives mislaid by the caller actions of Trump’s migration policies.
The unit included respective dancers from aggregate Broadway shows including Hamilton, MJ & Wicked, on with performers from the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
The show was orchestrated by the advocacy helping of Hungryman Productions, spearheaded by Bryan Buckley, aimed to honour the representation of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, arsenic good arsenic to gully attraction to issues of governmental transparency successful the probe of their killings.
The symbolism of ‘ResistDance’
Choreographed by the Tony Award-winning Mathew Steffens, “ResistDance” featured a formed of 22 dancers, symbolically representing the 22 days that elapsed betwixt the deaths of Good and Pretti. The show expressed the gravity of their nonaccomplishment portion simultaneously framing it arsenic a telephone for justice.
The prime of the Lincoln Memorial arsenic the backdrop was peculiarly significant, considering the ongoing conflict for civilian rights successful America.
However, the consequent guerrilla show astatine the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was abruptly halted erstwhile instrumentality enforcement intervened, deploying 23 officers to unopen down the performance.
Who were Renee Good and Alex Pretti?
Renee Nicole Good (37) was a poet, parent of three, and 2020 Academy of American Poets awardee who was changeable and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) serviceman successful Minneapolis. Alex Pretti was a 37-year-old intensive attraction nurse who was changeable dormant by Federal officers astatine an anti-immigration rally successful Minneapolis connected January 24, 2026.
Pretti’s decease astatine the hands of Federal agents took spot little than 3 weeks aft Good was changeable and killed by an ICE agent, connected a thoroughfare astir 2 km (1.25 miles) away. Subsequently, Minneapolis has go the focal constituent of the migration argumentation backlash, wherever pro- and anti-ICE protestation groups clashed amidst Trump medication doubling down connected migration enforcement.
