APPLICATIONS OPEN OCTOBER 1–31
HOW WE Move
AN InTeNSIVE FOR disabled DANCERS
How We Move is a first-of-its-kind dance intensive for and by multiply marginalized Disabled creatives from across the U.S.—centering agency, multiplicity, interdependence, and creative power.
This six month hybrid program combines virtual gatherings with a 10-day in-person intensive in New York City, providing space and opportunity for multiply marginalized Disabled artists to move together, collaborate, expand leadership skills, and build cross-disability community.
FUNDED BY MELLON FOUNDATION
COLLABORATORS
Kayla Hamilton
JJ Omelagah
India Harville
Movement Research
How We Move is our opportunity as Disabled dancers to figure out what we want to create outside of a mainstream dance lens—while unpacking our own internalized ableism. What’s possible when we stop assimilating to a non-disabled dance world? What happens when we move from the margin to the center? Together, we’re about to find out.
India Harville, Executive Director of Embraced Body and Co-creator of How We Move
OVERVIEW
How We Move is a first-of-its-kind Dance intensive created for and by Disabled dancers and centering multiply marginalized (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women) dancers within our communities.
This 6-month pilot program will accept six participants and include three different virtual weekend gatherings as well as a 10-day in-person intensive in June 2025 (timeline details are below.)
Each of the invited dancers will lead a workshop at the inaugural in-person intensive, which will take place in New York City against its rich summer backdrop.
How We Move will provide a rigorous access framework, allowing cross-disability artists from across the country the opportunity to come together, create, learn from one another, and cultivate opportunities on our collective terms. Together, we’ll build power towards a transformation of the colonial, eugenicist, and ableist lineages still present in our field.
Who This Program IS For
How We Move is for multiply marginalized Disabled dance artists.
We define disability broadly:
Mobility Disabilities
Neurodivergence
Mental Health Disabilities
Developmental Disabilities
Intellectual Disabilities
Sensory Disabilities
Chronic Illness
Chronic Pain
Other Disabilities
We define multiply marginalized as being Disabled + being BIPOC, queer, trans, or other marginalized identity points.
You can be at any stage of your dance journey, as long as you:
Are interested in learning about cross-disability solidarity and dancemaking
Are willing to share a workshop about your practice to your peers
Have a commitment to building disability community
Want to build a longer-term relationship with a cohort
Have an awareness of your own access needs and want to learn more about access
Are interested in disability aesthetics
Access
We will provide some combination of the following access, based on what is requested by program participants.
For in-person events
Live audio description/audio description
American Sign Language (ASL) for all group activities, including meals
CART
Wheelchair accessible
Accessible transportation
Accessible and gender neutral restrooms
Masking and Covid precautions
Soft lighting options
Low-sensory space
Fidget toys
Accessible seating options
Breaks
For virtual events
CART
ASL
Transcripts
Recording
Audio description
Camera optional
Breaks
Financial Details
Each participant will receive a $2,000 stipend.
An additional $1,000 stipend is available for Personal Care Attendants (PCA) who attend the in-person intensive with a participant.
How We Move will also cover housing, travel, ground transportation, and meals for all participants and Personal Care Attendants (PCAs) of the in-person intensive.
How We Move will cover access costs for all virtual gatherings and the in-person intensive.
commitments
We are committed to prioritizing the centering of BIPOC, Queer, and trans Disabled dance artists in the intensive; including the centering of QTBIPOC Disabled artists in all leadership roles.
We are committed to creating spaces for cross-disability experience and collaboration, aiming to undo any hierarchy that positions a singular disability category as the representation of our community’s multiplicity.
We are committed to dismantling the gatekeeping that deems some of us legible due to professional/educational opportunities many of us are denied access to. Our space is open to anyone who experiences dance/movement as a central practice in their lives, regardless of training level or previous institutional support.
We are committed to providing professional development opportunities both within the intensive and in the field as a whole, including collaboration with non-disabled accomplices looking to expand their access practices and training Disabled artists to become facilitators, teachers, and mentors themselves.
We are committed to providing the space for artists to build relationships with one another and to prioritizing addressing the most pressing issues raised by participants in the intensive.
We are committed to providing a blueprint and guidance for other artists seeking to create similar intensives within their own cities and communities.
TIMELINE
2024: Planning Phase
October 1: Applications open
October 17, 3-5PM PT: Q&A support session for applicants
October 31, 5pm PT: Applications close
2025: Pilot Cohort and Evaluation
March 1, 10am-1pm PT: 1st online community building session
May 15 & 16, 2-4pm PT and May 17,10am-12pm PT: Online community building weekend
June 15: Arrive & settle in New York City
June 16-25: How We Move Dance Intensive in New York City (We recognize that Disabled energy levels vary. We will build an intensive schedule together that works for all attendees.)
June 26: Rest & recharge before traveling back home
August 7, 2-5 pm PT: Closing online event
2026: Second Cohort
COLLABORATORS
INDIA HARVILLE
As a Disability Justice activist, performance artist, public speaker, and somatics practitioner, India Harville has made it her mission over the past 20 years to open people's minds to the wonder of their own bodies as a vehicle for growth and transformation, both personal and collective.
India has danced with Sins Invalid, Dance Exchange, California State East Bay, The Queer Arts Festival, the Black Spirit Dance Collective, Mouthwater Festival, and Movement Liberation. She’s a two-time recipient of the Access Movement Play Residency funded by Mellon and is currently working on a one-woman show, Liminal. She’s certified as a dance instructor in: NIA, Zumba, Dancing Freedom, and DanceAbility, where she is both a Master Teacher and Master Trainer.
In 2016, she founded what is now known as Embraced Body, a Disability Justice and inclusive arts organization that began by providing accessible movement classes to Disabled communities. Since then, they’ve made disability-affirming dance funded by major philanthropic organizations, while also consulting on accessibility and Disability Justice.
The intersection of India’s own identities as an African American, queer, Disabled/chronically ill, femme, cis woman informs all her work. No matter what she is doing, she sets forth the example that however our bodies show up in the world, they are perfect, worthy of existence, and capable of magic.
KAYLA HAMILTON
Kayla Hamilton is a Texas-born, Bronx-based dancer, performance maker, educator, consultant, and artistic director of Circle O—a cultural organization uplifting Black Disabled and other multiply marginalized creatives.
She has developed & designed access-centered programming for the Mellon Foundation, Movement Research, DanceNYC, and UCLA, and is a co-director of Angela’s Pulse/Dancing While Black.
Kayla is a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Pina Bausch Foundation Fellow, United States Artist Disability Futures Fellow, NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant recipient, and Bronx Cultural Visions Fund recipient. Her work has been presented at the Whitney Museum, Gibney, Performance Space NY, New York Live Arts and Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. Kayla was also part of the Bessie award winning ensemble Skeleton Architecture.
As an educator, Kayla co-developed ‘Crip Movement Lab’ with fellow disabled artist Elisabeth Motley—a pedagogical framework centering cross-disability movement practices. She also worked as a K-12 public school special education teacher in NYC for 12 years.
JJ OMELAGAH
JJ Omelagah (they/them) is the Program Director, Access Doula, and Healing Artist for Embraced Body and the founder of Sounds of Kayode.
With two decades of experience in human services and healthcare, JJ brings a unique perspective on care. They provide crucial access support and education while contributing to the organization's overall operations.
As a transgender sound artist, JJ’s mission is to create vibrant frequencies resonating with collective care, healing, and transformation. Each note contributes to the co-creation of a sonic environment where energies converge, intertwine, and uplift. They’ve performed at events such as SF Pride and the National Queer Arts Festival.
JJ is also a trained Circle Sing Facilitator, Reiki practitioner, Ifa priest in training, and a committed advocate for Disability Justice and LGBTQIA+ rights. They hold expertise in mutual aid, nonprofits, conflict resolution, and volunteer management. JJ studied at Howard University and City College of San Francisco.
MOVEMENT RESEARCH
Movement Research is one of the world's leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms. Valuing the individual artist, their creative process and their vital role within society, Movement Research is dedicated to the creation and implementation of free and low-cost programs that nurture and instigate discourse and experimentation. Movement Research strives to reflect the cultural, political and economic diversity of its moving community, including artists and audiences alike.
Movement Research, based in New York City, is an international center for dance education and performance. Movement Research accomplishes its mission through eleven interrelated, core programs that engage participants in over 16,000 interactions annually. Since 1978, MR has been committed to providing space for adventurous dance in New York, to exploring the evolving language of dance and performance, and to reflecting the cultural, political, and economic diversity of our community. The movement ideas and thoughts that are explored through Movement Research’s programs are deeply rooted in the work of influential artists from the Judson Dance Theater of the 1960s (from which Release Techniques and Contact Improvisation emerged), ideas drawn from performance art forms that exploded in the 1980s, and investigations that have emerged over the past three decades, including the current integration of social justice and activist practices with movement-based practices.
Questions? Reach out to info@embracedbody.com