Ananya Dance Theatre

COMPANY DESCRIPTION: Ananya Dance Theatre (ADT) is a company of women artists of color, diverse in age, race, nationality, and sexual orientation, uniformly committed to artistic excellence and passionate articulation of our dreams, hopes, and desires. Our mission is to create and stage original works and powerful images inspired by the lives and work of women all around the world. We believe that the search for excellence in artistry forges pathways to galvanize strong communities and generate forces of strength, beauty, and social justice. We believe that the arts, and dance in particular, can be powerful forces for social change, presenting issues to broad publics in ways that touch the heart as well as the mind and thus serving as a motivating stimulus for action.

We continuously challenge ourselves in terms of artistry, execution, and production values, and ultimately question the widely held assumption that community-based projects lack artistic excellence. This assumption is particularly made about communities of color, where there is a need for artistic expression that is dominated neither by the hip-hop aesthetic nor by the exclusive mission to celebrate “tradition.” ADT’s work responds to this need, bringing into dialogue histories and artistic practices from several communities to create a contemporary expressive form for women in these communities.

www.ananyadancetheatre.org