By dissonancedancetheatre@yahoo.com Arts Business Culture DC Black Dance HIstory June 26, 2024

Dance Artists Come Together Through Space

Image: Dissonance Dance Theatre Cora McMahan in company class at Joy Of Motion Dance Center

August 1, 2023 – Washington, DC

Contemporary ballet company Dissonance Dance Theatre finds a new home at Joy of Motion Dance Center on Hst

Contact:
Shawn Short, Director
202-540-8338
sshort@ngcfddt.org

Joy of Motion Dance Center, a dance center with a history of racial discrimination, provides space to a Black-managed contemporary ballet company, Dissonance Dance Theatre.

The once four-studio dance powerhouse with locations across the region (H Street NE, Dupont Circle, Friendship Heights, and Bethesda) has been reduced to its sole location at 1334 H St NE due to allegations of racial discrimination. Now, with its first African-American female board chairman, Carol Foster, the center is aiding the Black dance community one company at a time. Dissonance Dance Theatre, founded by Black director Shawn Short – a Howard University alumnus – has begun to operate rehearsals at Joy of Motion Dance Center.

Image: Dissonance Dance Theatre dancers in a candid pose at Joy of Motion Dance Center

“Dance receives the least amount of funding from the city (DC). Dance rehearsal and performance space is limited, even within a city with a large theater industry. It’s nice to know that organizations such as Joy of Motion Dance Center are willing to aid dance companies. “

Shawn Short, MFA – Director, Dissonance Dance Theatre

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, DC’s arts and culture sector employed nearly 55,000 residents and contributed $13.8 billion to the District’s gross domestic product in 2021. Dance is part of that equation but receives minimal funding from DC’s more than $50 million annual arts budget.

Dissonance Dance Theatre, becoming a program under Ngoma Center for Dance in 2012, operates approximately 30 weeks, with an average of 10 to 15 company dancers and several apprentices – it’s one of DC’s three professional companies. Dancers hail from local, national, and international origins. The company welcomed its first international dancers this season from the Philippines.

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Ngoma Center for Dance is the home of Dissonance Dance Theatre (founded in 2007) and its award-winning programs based in the Washington, DC area. DDT is named “one of the 11 small-but-mighty dance companies outside of LA and NYC” by Dance Spirit Magazine. Evoking emotional experiences in the audiences we touch, is the only East Coast, nationally recognized, Black-managed contemporary ballet company between NYC and ATL. For more information, visit www.ngcfddt.org

Dance Artists Come Together Through Space

August 1, 2023 – Washington, DC

Contemporary ballet company Dissonance Dance Theatre finds a new home at Joy of Motion Dance Center on Hst

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