With support from California Arts Council, Grown Women Dance Collective will collaborate with community mobilizers and social justice organizations in Contra Costa County and Oakland to produce arts and wellness programs supporting disinvested communities, especially those impacted by incarceration and voter disenfranchisement.
We will present a world-class dance performance, teach 200 free community arts and wellness classes, help mobilize voters with a #DanceTheVote campaign, and support high school and transition-aged interns.
Programs will support cultural resistance, resilience, self-empowerment, and joy, celebrating and strengthening Black and Brown communities.
Our programs celebrate resistance, resilience, self-empowerment and joy.
Performances & Narrative Shift Choreography: We create world class performances led by dancers of color in our 50’s and 60’s, centered around African American experiences and achievements. Our choreography shifts the narrative on important societal issues such as mass incarceration, homelessness, voting rights, and environmental justice. We challenge stereotypes, create cross-cultural, intergenerational, and cross-class bridges, catalyze new conversations and community action, and create a forum for healing based on art, justice, and human connection.
Dance and Healthy Movement Instruction in Under Resourced Communities:
We teach Dance (Technique & Dance with Literacy) to youth and therapeutic movement to adults (Dance, Pilates for Back & Joint Pain, Pre/Post Natal Pilates, & Fall Prevention for Seniors); bringing access to the arts, wellness skills, and the growth and emotional well-being associated with both.
Pilates Certification Training and Mentorship for Underestimated Community Members:
We provide Comprehensive Pilates Certification training for disinvested community members. Programs include full scholarships to receive internationally accredited certifications, mentoring, mental health counseling, financial literacy, nutrition classes, paid internships and job placement assistance. This empowerment program helps break the cycle of intergenerational poverty, helps stave off gentrification, decreases health disparities, and creates healthier, more joyous communities.

