Creative Director: Elisabeth Roskopf
Dance For Diversity is presented in partnership with Danceworks Inc.
What is Dance For Diversity?
Dance For Diversity (DFD) is an annual screendance project series that is made explicitly for Artists of Color to elevate their unique voices and share their stories through their dance-making and performance work. DFD provides a platform for Artists of Color to create an original solo piece on film that reflects who they are, their story of identity, and express personal experiences that address racial stereotypes, discrimination, and assumptions. The culmination of these solos on screen will reach multiple audiences at a film premiere and in various site-specific spaces, including high schools and universities local to the Greater Milwaukee Area and nationwide. DFD amplifies the visibility of the Artists and their work through a distinctive lens that encompasses identity, race, culture, social change, belonging, social justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racist practices to incorporate within the dance and education curricula.
Dance For Diversity shines a light on underrepresented groups, in hopes of promoting inclusive habits in arts spaces where BIPOC Artists are often isolated. This project is a call to action for diversity, equity, and inclusion within the field of dance and the arts to help dismantle systems that perpetuate discrimination, violence, hate, and erasure. In service to representation, DFD allows an opportunity to lift up the experiences of Artists of Color and provides an opportunity for diverse audience members to see themselves in art.
As Provenance: A Letter to My Daughter inspired her vision to create Dance For Diversity, Elisabeth is creating a permanent space for underrepresented Artists to not only share their personal stories of identity, but to also connect with other Artists who share similar stories and life experiences.
The Mission Statement of Dance For Diversity
Dance For Diversity amplifies visibility and creates a consistent platform for BIPOC Artists to center their unique voices and their stories through their art, while fostering a place of belonging and reclamation of their true identities. DFD’s vision is to give Artists of Color the power to own who they are unapologetically and claim their space onstage and offstage.
Proud Member Of
