CREATE programs provide time and space for us to do our deepest work. Our flagship program, and the heart of transcenDANCE, is the CREATE Performance Group.
Through this intensive program two cohorts (middle and high school) of 20-24 students explore dance and the performing arts through technical dance training and immersion in a social change/emotional resiliency curriculum that incorporates self-reflection, community-building, and life and leadership skills training. To promote a deep sense of identity and belonging, we intentionally provide a safe space as an outlet for self-expression. In this safe environment students engage in contemporary, hip-hop, modern, and other cultural dance forms, the performing arts including dance theatre, and the literary arts, mainly spoken word and storytelling.
Each year a relevant social change theme is selected to guide the process of the CREATE program and performance. Youth work together under the mentorship of professional dance teaching artists, choreographers, wellness providers, and program alumni and staff with the ultimate goal of co-creating and presenting a fully-staged public dance theatre show produced at the Lyceum Theatre in the summer, and at outreach performances in community spaces in the fall.
In addition to rigorous artistic training, students have access to 1:1 counseling, mentorship, healthy meals, college prep activities, and leadership opportunities.
CREATE Express Camps are a newer addition to the CREATE tier. They are an intensive all-day week long experience. Youth do not need to be enrolled in the Performing Group to participate in a camp.
If you would like more information about enrolling in camps or the performing group contact us.
Past CREATE themes and performances:
2019: Hearts in Action
2018: Light Within the Cracks
2017: United We Move
2016: 10 x Change
2015: Me to We
2014: Because… I’m Still Becoming
2013: RESPACE
2012: Peace of Courage
2011: Exit In