Ngoma Center for Dance Celebrates 10 Years of Education Through UMD and PG Park & Rec Relations
Image: Ngoma School Students
September 6th, 2024
Ngoma Center for Dance Celebrates 10 Years of Education Through UMD and PG Park & Rec Relations
Contact:
Shawn Short, Director
202-540-8338
sshort@ngcfddt.org
Transforming lives through the changing power of the arts and creativity, Ngoma Center for Dance (Ngoma) celebrates 10 years of serving communities through its relationships with the University of Maryland College Park and MD Park & Recreation Arts & Heritage Division. Since 2014, Ngoma Center for Dance has invested more than $750K to bring programs in dance, theatre, arts administration, and teacher trainings to Brown and Black youth and young adults.
“I studied dance at UMD with Alvin Mayes and one day, he mentioned that there wasn’t a community dance engagement program at the university. He said I should start one with my organization. Since I was from the county, I understood its needs at the time”, says Shawn Short, Founding Director. “ I was tired of attending auditions and not seeing dancers that didn’t look like me. I wanted to do my part in creating transformative opportunities.”
Image: Ngoma School Students in class with Founding Director Shawn Short
The Ngoma School offers programs for students with different levels of ability. School year programs include the highest quality instruction in ballet, modern, jazz, hip-hop technique, and other electives. The Ngoma School provides pre-professional dance training that informs and encourages the pursuit of post-secondary education, healthy living, mentorship, self-care, and life skill mastery. Additionally, it serves 200 students annually while providing internships, trainings, and entry-level contracts to more than 25 staff people 19 – 26 years old. More than 2,000 students have trained within Ngoma School’s programming since 2014.
“Dance spaces in the DC area are few and greatly expensive. With many arts organizations only able to afford $7 to $15 a square foot, most real estate properties start at $50 to $75 a square foot. By way of relationship building, we have found solid grounding to conduct workshops and educational programming for underserved communities.” – Shawn Short, MFA Founding Director
Image: Ngoma Students learning how to impromptu interview
The Ngoma serves participants from Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as summer program participants traveling from New Jersey, New York, and Tennessee. Students have learned from professionals from Bill T. Jones, Momix, Stuttgart Ballet, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Ohio Ballet, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Ballet Metropolitano de Caracas, National Tour of West Side Story, National Tour of Dolly, Washington Ballet, Dissonance Dance Theatre, El Teatro De Danza Contemporeana El Salvador, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Kankouran West African Dance Company.
Students have graduated and begun their careers at Dissonance Dance Theatre, Norwegian Cruise Ships, Broadway (Matilda, Spamalot), International Tour of Dream Girls, Fivetwodance (NYC), and Carolyn Dorfman Dance.
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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