DanceMotion USA

Ririe-Woodbury is thrilled to be one of three American dance companies selected to participate in the seventh season of DanceMotion USA℠ —the dynamic cultural diplomacy program. DanceMotion USA℠ is a people-to-people international exchange initiative of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, administered by The Brooklyn Acadamy of Music (BAM).

Season Seven features the following companies and world regions:

  • Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company (Salt Lake City, UT) will travel to South Korea and Mongolia.
  • Bebe Miller Company (Columbus, OH) will travel to Colombia and Peru.
  • Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (Dayton, OH) will travel to Kazakhstan and Russia.

Companies participating in the program will embark on consecutive, four-week-long international professional development and performance residencies. DanceMotion USA℠ presents professional American dance to global audiences who may not otherwise be exposed to the work. Companies engage in outreach events, workshops, master classes, and media interviews. They organize discussions about arts management and technical production with local artists and audiences in a variety of venues and settings.

A particular area of focus is working with diverse communities and promoting the empowerment of women, people with disabilities, and at-risk youth. In addition, a week-long capacity-building and professional advancement program will take place at BAM in the summer of 2018. This Brooklyn-based program pairs six foreign artists who participated in workshops and collaborated with the DanceMotion USA℠ companies abroad with six local artists.

To date, DanceMotion USA℠ has engaged with more than 114,000 participants in 55 countries and has reached more than 40 million people online. It is an integral part of the US State Department’s effort to connect people—particularly youth and marginalized communities—through cultural exchanges worldwide. The program also has provided rich experiences for the US-based dance companies and choreographers, who advance their own careers and professional development opportunities through their work with internationally-based artistic colleagues.

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