Learn about the origins of some of the region’s established dance organizations, including Ballet Excel, Dancing Wheels, Dianne McIntyre, GroundWorks DanceTheater, Inlet Dance Theatre, and Ohio Contemporary Ballet, each with a history of 20 years or more in Northeast Ohio communities. Visionary founders and leaders will share stories about the beginnings and evolution their organizations.

An engaging discussion with individual artists and leaders from some of the region’s dynamic new startups, companies, and platforms in dance.  Learn about and share insights about topics including: current challenges and opportunities in dance; visions for the future of dance; successful strategies to advance dance; and dance as a career choice and life-long practice.

Dance in community is an arts practice that focuses on what people can do, rather than on what they are unable to achieve. It is an endeavor that encompasses discipline, aesthetics, and recreation; includes ameliorative or therapeutic aspects; and, at its best, promotes cultural democracy. Community dance scholar and practitioner Sara Houston states: “Dancing offers an avenue for participants to articulate their experiences and ways of being through movement.” People engage in dance for different reasons and dance in community practices recognize and build on those, expanding the possibilities while keeping the focus on the participants and the community that exists, is emerging, or is otherwise developing. For their part, artists are interested in pushing boundaries about where, and how dance can affect people’s lives. GroundWorks Founder David Shimotakahara specifies: “We’re not just seen up on stage. There are other ways that we can use or connect what we do in the arts [to something larger]. That’s an underlying motivation for all of this.” The Dance in Community panel features leaders and collaborators from nine organizations, all of them working to engage the communities around them in authentic and meaningful ways.