With support from the California Arts Council, dNaga’s GIRL Project will provide free dance, theater, and visual art programming in resistance to the variety of dangers that face girls living in East Oakland. The driving mission of GIRL Project is to foster a safe, nurturing space that will facilitate healthy relationships, self-worth, and healing through dance and artistic expression. The motivation and central theme of the program is the notion that freedom of movement is central to gender equity and a human right. This sense of freedom is fueled with creative thinking and expression and built on a foundation of a sense of belonging, through unity and sisterhood. Our work contributes to their individual agency and the strengthening of our support systems through community building.
dNaga dance company is a unique ensemble made up of multi-generational dancers including young artists, professionals, and elders. Through workshops, classes, choreography and productions, the dance company explores the nature of our human condition and its relationship to our greater community. The GIRL Project began in 2014 and offers free art and empowerment programming for middles school aged girls of color living in East Oakland. The PEACE Project began in 2009 and offers Dance for PD® and choreographic opportunities to people with Parkinson’s. This year, the intergenerational company danced at the World Parkinson’s Congress in Kyoto, Japan and published a companion book entitled PEACE About Life; Dancing with parkinson’s.

