Artists are using dance to shed light on issues surrounding incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline and the justice system as a whole. Some are teaching dance and choreography directly to inmates. Others are using their personal experience as the foundation for concert works addressing these complex, and sometimes controversial, themes.

Eight mandatory rehearsals. One nondisclosure agreement. Zero pay. These were a few of the specifications laid out in a casting call for dancers to be a part of the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show. After news got out that some dancers would be working as volunteers, and receiving no real benefits besides the exposure opportunity […]

I went to protests. I made donations. But when I was truly lost I did the one thing I could rely on: I made a dance.

My recent book, Shifting Cultural Power: Questions and Case Studies in Performance, imagines equity-based models in dance that decenter whiteness.

In the winter of 2014 I was literally running through the streets of New York City to my first-ever meeting with Gale Brewer, the borough president of Manhattan. I was freaking out. I had never met with a politician before; I was running late, and I never run late; and I was lost. I came […]

Are you passionate about social issues, but unsure of how to incorporate them into your work? Yasemin Ozumerzifon, director of community action at Gibney in New York City, offers advice to beginners: 1. Get Specific. Gibney’s Hands Are For Holding program. Scott Shaw, Courtesy Gibney Choose a particular cause. “When we’re addressing something really large […]

At a time when the political climate is increasingly divisive, it’s no wonder people want to compartmentalize. Some want their pirouettes separate from their politics, and can be quick to protest when dancers challenge that both on and off the stage. Most recently, American Ballet Theatre principal Isabella Boylston was scrutinized when she shared this […]