Love Notes In Motion Black Diasporic Dance Festival is creating a world for underrepresented voices in dance where education meets performance meets opportunity. Creating a landing place to feel seen, heard, and have a sense of belonging, while also having space to grow your craft, this festival will help bridge the gap by creating performance opportunities and professional experiences that highlight underrepresented voices in the dance community, create a national conversation between Austin Texas and the larger dance ecosystem, present a wide range of Black Diasporic dance classes that are accessible to working dance artists and community members, as well as give opportunities for pre-professional and professionals to create connections with other working artists.
Austin is a robust creative hub with a dance community that is growing. Oftentimes Black voices are underrepresented and underfunded. It’s important to find a place where you feel seen, heard and have a sense of belonging while also having space to grow your craft. The festival will be a space where BIPOC dancers are centered, affirmed, and supported as part of a community of artists that are contributing not only to the vibrancy of Austin’s dance landscape, but the dance landscape beyond Austin, amplifying the voices of local and national Black dance artists. Classes will focus on Black Diasporic forms, highlighting the creativity, storytelling, and lineage of the forms. This festival will:
1. Create a cross-national conversation introducing more dance artists to Austin as a creative hub for dance
2. Center BIPOC voices and expertise highlighting Black Diasporic, culturally centered perspectives within a wide range of dance forms
3. Connect local dance professionals that are working within a wide range of the dance field locally and nationally, creating opportunities for training, performance, while forging connections within the field of dance
4. Create professional training opportunities to attract local and out of town dancers
Create meaningful new connections and opportunities for local community members to move together and connect with local artists, developing new relationships and growing audience reach
5. Serves as a foundation for ongoing programs elevating BIPOC dance professionals in Austin building a sustainable platform that increases artistic opportunities, nurtures emerging voices, and contributes to a more equitable and representative arts ecosystem