Dressed in traditional Hmong clothing, Alivia Lor stands in an artful pose on the dance floor in the Kirby Ballroom during Hmong Heritage Night. In front of her, two four-foot-long decorative dragon puppets lay on the ground as a crowd of more than 100 students and community members waited in silence for her performance to begin.

Dramatic music begins to play, and Lor lifts her head. Her face is painted with symmetrical lines swooping from her ears to her mouth, and zig zag patterns around her eyes. She moves gracefully, but with purpose toward the first dragon. The music intensifies and Lor lifts the green and orange dragon by two wooden sticks. She guides it through beautiful, serpentine patterns that make the dragon appear to move independently from Lor’s control. At times, the dragon moves so quickly that it’s a blur of motion. Other times, it floats through the air, its details becoming clear in the slow motion: floral arrangements around its head; decorative lacing along its spine; and triangular, white teeth contrasted against rolling folds of fabric. The performance is a modern take on a cautionary Hmong folktale about a young girl being swept away by a dragon during a hurricane.

Lor, a psychology and cultural entrepreneurship student at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), loves to explore culture through art, and began experimenting with crafting dragon dances as a freshman as a way to participate in a Hmong New Year celebration in Duluth. Now, as a third-year student, her curiosity in craft and culture has grown. She’s studied various dance forms like step, tap, kabuki, and Peking opera, and uses ballet as the foundation for her dragon dances. The dragon puppets she uses are also original and handcrafted by Lor herself. “They’re different in the fact that they are single-person use, whereas Chinese dragons are used by a team of puppeteers,” she said. From sketching, sourcing material and constructing, the process of designing her dragons takes months.

Hmong Heritage Night has provided Lor the perfect venue to showcase her talent and hard work. The annual event is hosted by Hmong Living in Unity and Balance (HLUB), a student organization housed within the Multicultural Center. Kathy Vang, communication student and president of HLUB, said the goal of Hmong Heritage Night is to share Hmong culture with UMD and the broader community, and provide an opportunity for students to explore their identity.

“I think that learning about culture can really tell you about yourself,” Vang said, “and how we make interactions and learn from one another.”

It’s that same appreciation of learning, cultural connection, and belonging that motivates Lor to dance. She hopes to help inspire others as well.

“As a Hmong-American girl from a family of refugees, I had grown up with other Hmong kids and within the culture itself. However, as I grew older, I found myself slowly being torn from facets of my culture and community,” she said. “Additionally, I began to notice a sort of apathy and lack of passion in other young Hmong people when it came to continuing our cultural heritage. My performances are absolutely about addressing that growing cultural apathy.”

Being part of a student organization can also help students identify their academic interests. For Anora Vang, public relations officer for HLUB, gaining experience with event planning, public relations and social media coordination, “made me realize that I want to pursue a communication degree.”

In addition to Lor’s dragon dance, the event featured a number of other performances including the playing of a Chinese two-stringed bowed instrument, the erhu, by Hmong elder Cherpao Vang; a dance and musical performance by a group of Hmong youth featuring the qeej, a traditional Hmong instrument similar to a mouth organ; a fashion show; and a performance by Artistry of Hmong Dance, a group comprised of students from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities (UMTC). Capping off the evening was a musical performance by NewSONG, an emerging Hmong singer-songwriter based in Minneapolis.

“I think Hmong Heritage Night is a great way of unifying everybody and welcoming our culture into the campus,” Kathy Vang said.