Black Dance Festival DMV

founded in 2019 as a new programming initiative of ngoma center for dance, black dance festival: dmv brings a platform for african-american directors, choreographers, and dancers to perform, share, and celebrate their work and add to washington, dc’s creative economy. in 2017, there were conversations amongst the dance community in regards to the lack of black dancer opportunities. this was a reason that prompted diversity training sessions during dc dance summit 2017, to begin addressing race within the community. in 2019, ngoma center for dance founding director shawn short wanted to take an active approach to address the lack of diversity, while still creating an opportunity for supporters of black dance artists; expanding the public’s exposure to the work of african-american dance artists in the dc area.