Breaking Bounds Supports Black Lives Matter
Being an Ally for Black Dance Artists
If I’ve learned anything about the Black Lives Matter movement this week, it’s that I need to take a step back and listen. Listen to the voices of members of our community and learn how I can be a support and an ally for black dancers. How I can amplify their voices.
To that end, I want to devote this space to sharing some of the excellent writing that has been done by members of the black dance community recently and I encourage all of you to read, reflect and do your part to elevate their voices. We can all be allies for black dancers.
Online Classes & Events
Instagram account Movement for Hope is hosting classes all week, with the proceeds going to a different organization fighting for equality each day.
Next week, the “Cindies Ballet Class” (with ABT principals Isabella Boylston and James Whiteside) will be collecting donations for @fairfightaction and @aclu_nationwide.
Gibney Dance will donate all online class revenue through the end of June to organizations on the front lines of the effort.
Digital Dance Project is hosting a Ballent With Benefits IG dance class on Monday, June 8 at 1PM EST. Donations to support the George Floyd Memorial Fund.
June 19th: Dancers & Dancer Organizations will dedicate their platforms to highlighting racial injustice and inequality experience by black people. #juneteenthdancebreadk #nojusticenodance – we encourage you to participate!
Read About Black Dancer Experiences
Young dancers go through so much already. There’s body shame, struggles with inadequacy, jealousy, competition, mental and physical stress. To add racism and identity crisis to that plate is an unfair disadvantage. — Gabe Stone Shayer
Memoirs of Black In Ballet: Roll Call
My Experience as a Black Ballerina in a World of Implicit Bias
A Calling in, by Aria Evans, Dance Spirit Magazine
Collective of Black dancers created lasting impressions in Canada, by Junia Mason, The Conversation
How I Deal with Racist Remarks as a Ballet Dancer of Color, Gabe Stone Shayer, Dance Magazine
‘A Lot Is Still So Much the Same’: Misty Copeland on Decades of Racism and Ballet, Time.com
How to Support the Black Dance Community, Beyond Social Media
Support & Amplify These Black Dancers on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/deshgrey/
https://www.instagram.com/mybodymyimage/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/narstarr/
https://www.instagram.com/alisonstroming/
https://www.instagram.com/calvinroyaliii/
https://www.instagram.com/lilbuckdalegend
https://www.instagram.com/erica_lall/
https://www.instagram.com/lloydknight/
https://www.instagram.com/prettybrowndancers/
Breaking Bounds wants to do our part to support black creators in all fields of dance. By inviting black choreographers, selecting music performed or produced by black artists, selecting costumes by black designers and using makeup from companies led by black CEOs are all ways we can all be allies to black members of the wider dance community.
