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What is Dance for Social Change?
Dance for Social Change (DSC) is Dancing Grounds’ award-winning arts and advocacy initiative. The program inspires New Orleans youth to use their artistic talents to catalyze positive social change in our community.
DSC is a year-round, multifaceted youth leadership initiative where participants learn how to use their artistic talents to advocate for change in their communities. It is led by the Dance For Social Change teen company, a group of high school artists that rehearse weekly on Saturdays during the school year, studying dance, exploring advocacy issues, and building skills in creative thinking, communication, collaboration, and leadership. Each year, they select a social justice topic impacting their community and create an original performance about that issue. They premiere their work at the annual DSC festival and tour the work to community organizations and festivals. They also organize a block party, community forums, and other platforms that use the arts to advocate for social change. Past themes have included the school-to-prison pipeline (2016); women’s rights and gender justice (2017); mental health (2018); and gentrification and displacement (2019-2020); mental health during Covid (2020-present).
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2023 DSC Festival: Cycles
This three-day festival at the Andre Cailloux Center, led by the DSC Teen Company, examined the ways Black youth in New Orleans internalize the impact of violence, how artistic expression can lead us to new perspectives and futures, and how our community plays a part in experiences with violence. Through their new work, the DSC company centered the conversation around how we can heal individually and collectively, affirming the power of creativity in facilitating growth and optimism.
Events were presented on April 19, 20 and 22 and featured a Film Night and Artist Talk Back, plus a Saturday Performance Premiere and Family Block Party, and visual art exhibition “The Things We Don’t Say,” from 5 teen visual artists. The Block Party included performances from Dancing Grounds K-8 youth students, plus the new film from the DSC Teen Company, “Common Past Forgotten.”
2022 DSC Festival: Through Our Eyes
The Dance for Social Change 2022 Festival: Through Our Eyes was a four-day program led by New Orleans youth that examines the mental health impacts of the pandemic and dreams of healing and recovery in our future. The festival is our flagship public program that serves as a culminating activity for our organization-wide DSC Initiative. Events were presented from April 20-23, 2022 at Contemporary Arts Center, including a High School Field Trip Day with interactive story circle and artmaking workshops, a Premiere Party with a senior scholarship presentation, Teen Night featuring Big Freedia, and Family Day with performances from DG K-8 groups alongside the teens. All events include Through Our Eyes, DSC Teen Company’s new immersive dance, film and, theater work, and Overcharged, a Teen Visual Art Exhibition curated by DG and the CAC.
The festival engaged 171 youth and 251 adult audience members. One audience member described DSC as ”Incredibly brave and talented young people bearing themselves so that we can share in just a little of their spirit, energy and power.”
The four-minute film above, presented as part of Through Our Eyes, explores the theme of healing through tapping into our powerful inner child. It moved one audience member to proclaim: “Everyone will be liberated when we give ourselves permission to be adolescent.”
2021 DSC Festival: Ya Heard Meh?
photo credit: Fernando Lopez; design: Madisyn Pina
Last years DSC Festival centered around the premiere of the DSC Teen Company’s new dance film, Ya Heard Meh? Youth Stories in a Global Pandemic, which urges us to listen to young people about how the events of the past year have affected their mental health and wellness. Our brilliant young artists explore oscillating emotions while navigating Covid-19 restrictions alongside the heavy social and political climate of the country.
Watch Ya Heard Meh? Online
Ya Heard Meh? - Production Team
Filmmaker: Milo Daemgen, Film Score: Free Feral, Photo and Video: Fernando Lopez, Stylist: Sage Edgerson
DSC Teen Company: Amaya Smith, Amelia Gaskew, Amira Mumford, Calsey Williams, Christiana Willams, Daniel Gray, Gabrielle Bankston, Kamaria Gardener, Lauren Huges, Melani Martinez
DSC Staff Team: Chanice Holmes, Jessica Eugene, Catherine Caldwell, Laura Stein
Ya Heard Meh?
Festival Events Recap
The 2021 DSC Festival Youth Night was sponsored by Junebug Productions. Hosted by DSC Teen Company Member Gabrielle Bankston. Art installations from BeLoud, Contemporary Arts Center’s Teen Board and The Living School. With sounds by DJ Webbie and special guest, Big Freedia.
The 2021 DSC Festival Red Carpet Night was sponsored by Red Bull, New Orleans Musicians Assistance Foundation and Ashe Cultural Arts Center. The evening was hosted by Frederick “Wood” Delahoussaye, with talks from the DSC Teen Company, New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams, Dr. Denese Shervington Founder and CEO of Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies and Dr. Rashida Govan Executive Director of New Orleans Youth Alliance. Art installations from BeLoud, Contemporary Arts Center’s Teen Board and The Living School. Food by 2Brothers1Love and Nailah Smith of Soul Sister Vegetarian Cuisine. With sounds by DJ Webbie and the Original Pinettes Brass Band.
DSC Podcast
DSC Students partnered with Be Loud Studios to create an audio experience accompanying the film .
Listen to the Teen Company Members talk about their experiences during the lockdowns in response to COVID-19.
DSC Spotify Playlist
DSC students want to share what they have been listening to get them through the global pandemic.
Enjoy this curated playlist.
DSC Festival Supporters
DSC Planning Committee
Camille Roane, Heather Nolan, Jeremy Guyton, Kieta Mutepfa, Leigh Harwood, Madisyn Pina, Micaela Woskie, Nicole Ralston, Olivia Mumford, Tiphanie Eugene, Yasmin Hawthorn
DSC Hype Circle ($1,000+ fundraisers)
Eli Burrows, Leigh Harwood, Rachel Stein, Susan Kierr BCDMT, Tracy Webb Widener.
Photo credit: Fernando Lopez
Keep Up with the DSC Teen Company on Instagram
DSC History and Partnerships
DSC launched in 2016 with Raising Student Voices, a series of dance workshops that culminated in site-specific performances in classrooms, hallways, and the cafeteria of Akili Academy. In 2017, the program grew to include weekly workshops and a Day of Action preceding the festival performances. Students presented original works at the Music Box Village with the theme: Elevating The Playing Field: Women’s Rights and Gender Justice. In 2018, the program expanded further with new support from Dance USA’s Engaging Dance Audiences grant program with the theme Breaking Through The Stigmas of Mental Health. In 2019, youth decided to create a two-year initiative addressing the effects of gentrification and displacement on New Orleans’ communities of color.
DSC has always been grounded in community partnerships and collaboration. Partners have included: KM Dance Project, People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Urban Bush Women, BreakOUT!, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), New Orleans Airlift/Music Box Village, Threadhead Cultural Foundation, New Orleans Theatre Association, Design as Protest/Bryan C. Lee, Arise Academy, Women with a Vision, Junebug Productions, Cocoon: Youth Empowerment Project, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans Youth Open Mic, and many more.
