Twenty years. Still here.
Press releases, media coverage, and annual reports for Ngoma Center for Dance and Dissonance Dance Theatre — the only Black-led contemporary ballet company between New York City and Atlanta with a fully integrated artist development infrastructure.
Recent coverage
We document what we do
Press archive 2015 to 2021
20212 releases
20204 releases
- May 5, 2020Ngoma Director Is Featured In ADF DocuDrama Series About DDT
- Feb 25, 2020Review: Dissonance Dance Inspired By The African American Diaspora — DC Dance Journalism Project
- Feb 2020Article: Dissonance Dance's Shawn Short Is Ensuring His Place Within DC's Storied Legacy of Dance — Metro Weekly
- Jan 1, 2020Dissonance Dance Theatre Featured In First Book
20194 releases
20189 releases
- Nov 30, 2018Nutcracker Meets Gospel Music and Contemporary Dance
- Sep 10, 2018Motion. Innovatively. Dissonance Dance Theatre Launches Season 12
- Sep 10, 2018Contemporary Ballet Comes To UMD — One Weekend Run
- Aug 2, 2018Building Black Ballerinas: Ngoma Invests $108k to Train Black Swans of Tomorrow
- May 7, 2018DDT Dancers Promoted to Higher Positions
- Apr 9, 2018St. Louis Comes To Mingle With DC Contemporary Ballet
- Feb 26, 2018Stage Meets The Streets In Dissonance Dance Theatre's ME 2018 Show
- Feb 12, 2018We Call Him Lenny B — DDT Presents Lenny B: An Evening of Leonard Bernstein
- Jan 3, 2018Dissonance Dance Theatre Returns To New York for APAP 2018
2016 — 20179 releases & reviews
- Dec 10, 2017Review: Dissonance Dance Theatre — Habibi (CriticalDance.org)
- Dec 10, 2017Review: Dissonance Dance Theatre — Habibi (PDF)
- Dec 1, 2017East Meets West In DDT's Habibi
- Sep 13, 2017Nationally-Recognized DDT Comes to Annandale One Night Only
- Sep 13, 2017DDT Charting New Territory — Opens 11th Season
- Mar 11, 2017DDT Presents Buscando La Melodia (Looking For The Melody)
- Feb 15, 2017Review: DDT Presents Mahogany Strings at INTERSECTIONS
- Feb 13, 2017Brazilian Choreographer Introduces Contemporary Ballet Dancers to Candomblé
- Jan 17, 2017Winterstep — New Works, New Choreographers
- Oct 14, 2016Review: DDT Presents Dance Noir at Jack Guidone Theater
20151 feature
Reach the people
who can answer
For interview requests, press kit access, image and B-roll permissions, review-night logistics, comp tickets, or general media questions about Ngoma Center for Dance, Dissonance Dance Theatre, the Ngoma School, Outreach & Arts Education, the Artist Incubator, the Choreographer Program, Ngoma Filmworks, or the DC Black Dance History archive.
About Ngoma Center for Dance
Ngoma Center for Dance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization founded in 2007 and headquartered in Washington, DC. Ngoma is the parent organization of seven programs: Dissonance Dance Theatre (DDT) — its flagship contemporary ballet company; The Ngoma School for pre-professional dance training; Outreach & Arts Education in partnership with DC Public Schools; the Artist Incubator; the Choreographer Program, currently featuring Resident Choreographer Kareem B. Goodwin; Ngoma Filmworks; and the DC Black Dance History archive, which anchors the DC Black concert dance lineage to 1932.
Across thirteen producing years (2007–2020), Dissonance Dance Theatre cataloged 127 works with twelve-plus internationally recognized guest choreographers from Centre National de la Danse à Lyon, São Paulo Dance Company, Ailey II, Cunningham, Kyle Abraham / Abraham.In.Motion, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and others. DDT returned to production in 2023 following the COVID-19 pandemic and currently mounts its 20th Anniversary Season 2026–2027 across three productions: Until Love Comes Knockin' at the Atlas Performing Arts Center; Through the Dark, The Light Beckons at Publick Playhouse; and ROAT with composer Michael Simmons.
Ngoma is the only Black-led contemporary ballet organization between New York City and Atlanta with a fully integrated artist development infrastructure spanning training, company, archive, film, and incubation. Financial assistance is available for all Ngoma School programs.