© 2025 Abbetuck

Dance as a Force for Change

Choreographed by Ioannis Mandafounis and funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation's Zero Fund program, the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company's production of "Join" incorporated climate-friendly forms of production and new aesthetics with the lowest possible climate impact.

Ballet. Contemporary. Urban. Modern. World. Movement That Speaks.

Dancers and choreographers channel their talents to challenge injustice, foster connection, and spark transformation. How will you move the world today?

If you are a ballet, contemporary or modern dancer, if you perform hip-hop dance or any cultural dance from around the world, or if your choreograph these works, here are ways you might harness your creativity and talents to inspire, mobilize and unite people around sociopolitical causes:

  • Create Thematic Performances: Choreography can be storytelling, protest, and revelation. Design performances that illuminate social justice themes—inequality, environmental urgency, human rights—turning movement into dialogue and action.

  • Partner for Greater Impact: Collaboration expands reach. Work with activists, nonprofits, and social justice organizations to craft performances that amplify their causes. Shared creative spaces strengthen movements and inspire change.

  • Take it to the Streets: Dance belongs in the public square. Flash mobs, site-specific performances, and open-air choreography transform ordinary spaces into platforms for awareness, resistance, and solidarity. Movement demands attention.

  • Be Brave: Dance has always defied limits. Challenge traditions, redefine narratives, and push artistic boundaries. Boldness in performance sparks conversation, disrupts complacency, and makes space for change.

  • Empower Through Education: Teach movement as activism. Lead workshops, mentorship programs, and community dance projects that equip others with the tools to tell their stories, confront injustice, and build collective power through art.

Create Thematic Performances

Dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham developed the protest ballet "Southland" in 1951. It tells the story of a man who was falsely accused of rape and then lynched. Dunham staged the dance twice, but never in the United States, due to her outspokenness about the horror of racism.

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Partner for Greater Impact

Mar Parrilla founded Danza Orgánica, a Boston-based dance theater company centered around equity, social justice and decolonization. Its many community collaborators include the U.S. federally recognized tribe of Wampanoag people based in the town of Aquinnah with whom Parilla created "Âs Nupumukômun (We Still Dance)," a multimedia composition. Photo by Heidi Wild.

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Take it to the Streets

Bhangra & Beats Night Market celebrates the vibrant spirit of Bhangra, a traditional Punjabi folk music and dance. It is also part of a larger plan to reinvigorate and revitalize downtown San Francisco while reaffirming the city as a thriving global destination and economic center.

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Be Brave

“The Green Table” is an anti-war ballet. Created by dancer and choreographer Kurt Jooss in Germany in 1932, the dance criticized the rise of fascism and the clamor for war. Jooss faced significant political pressure and eventually fled Germany to escape the Nazi regime. Photo by Marty Sohl from the 2015 American Ballet Theatre production.

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Empower Through Education

Tony Duncan is a five-time world champion hoop dancer of San Carlos Apache and Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara tribal citizenship. Indian hoop dancers use hoops to create images and shapes that represent the beautiful creations on Mother Earth. In addition to performing, Tony collaborates with tribal communities and organizations to ensure that the next generation receives this dance form.

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Choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky and composed by Igor Stravinsky, "The Rite of Spring" premiered in 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. The ballet's themes of pagan rituals and sacrifice, combined with its dissonant music and angular movements, were a stark departure from traditional ballet. The music disoriented critics, aristocrats in the audience laughed and spectators exchanged insults.

Choreographer and dancer Bill T. Jones. Photograph by Philip Habib.
Tau Dance Theater

Tau Dance Theater, founded by Native Hawaiian Peter Rockford Espiritu, honors ancient traditions while focusing on the responsible evolution of culture through dance. Their performances celebrate Native Hawaiian and Oceanic themes, maintaining cultural identity in the face of globalization and urbanization.

Are you aware of dancers or choreographers who are mobilizing meaningful change in the world with their art form?
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Abbetuck
Dallas, Texas | USA

© 2025 Abbetuck

The arts transform. The arts defy. Will you?