Community Engagement

ADF strives to provide arts education for all by offering yearround community engagement opportunities. ADF encourages everyone–individuals of all movement experiences–to take part in modern dance. Programs at ADF’s SHS Studios are dedicated to providing a sound scientific and aesthetic base for all levels of training. ADF’s Samuel H. Scripps Studios serve as a center for creative activity in which students learn in a welcoming and non-competitive environment from faculty who are experts in their fields.

ADF’S SAMUEL H. SCRIPPS STUDIOS

After shutting our doors due to COVID-19 in March 2020, more than 700 participants attended virtual classes at ADF’s SHS Studios during 2020-2021. In July and August 2021, the SHS Studios offered a limited number of classes in person.

Workshops and Masterclasses

In addition to weekly classes, ADF’s SHS Studios offered a mix of masterclasses, workshops, and open discussions with local and national choreographers, companies, and faculty including Andrea Bains and Michael Dailey, Gerri Houlihan, Rodney Hill of Rennie Harris Puremovement, Murielle Elizéon, Dafi Altabeb, Emily Kent of Pilobolus, Elisabet Torras, Elizabeth Corbett, Janis Brenner, Jessie Young, Leah Wilks, Tracey Durbin, Robbie Cook, and Justin Tornow. In collaboration with the ADF School, a series of virtual drop-in classes was also offered in the fall of 2020 and again in the summer of 2021, including Matt Pardo, Leah Cox, Jesse Zaritt, Nia Love, Momar Ndiaye, Jessie Young, Kate Walker, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Michelle Gibson, Charles O. Anderson, Quilan Arnold, Robbie Cook, and Monique Haley. A series of Gatherings for Educators in collaboration with the school also provided space for participant-led discussions around dance education in the time of COVID.

ADF’s Parkinson’s Program

The Parkinson’s Movement Initiative (PMI) program, offered in collaboration with Poe Wellness Solutions and NC Dance for Parkinson’s, completed its third successful year. PMI is supported by a Community Grant from the Parkinson’s Foundation, which enables ADF to offer all PMI classes cost-free for people living with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and their caregivers. In addition to weekly classes, the 2020-2021 PMI continued our Community Connections initiative that works to form a lasting network of meaningful relationships in the community. In an exciting move toward inclusion and accessibility, through the formation of the Parkinson’s Disease Resources Outreach Committee (PD ROC) group spearheaded by one of our PMI participants, PMI faculty and facilitators joined the mission to increase inclusion of underserved PD communities in Durham, NC, by promoting awareness of resources and programming. The first event put on by this new committee was an information session through the Durham County Library, attended by nearly 50 people and recorded in a webinar format to be available on our website and YouTube channel. Due to COVID-19, our PMI classes remained online for the duration of 2020-2021. Free live online classes via Zoom were initiated in September of 2020 and carried on through May of 2021, with 1,552 visits by 91 total unique attendees, 56 of whom were brand new to our program! When met with continued demand after the conclusion of our Parkinson’s Foundation community grant, PMI created a pay-what-you-can structure to enable us to continue to offer accessible virtual movement classes for Parkinson’s movers, which met great success with an enrollment of 19+ in each class, with 26 unique attendees enrolling in the full 6-week series. Our YouTube channel of over 30 videos also remained accessible for those unable to make our weekly class times, available as a free resource to anyone who needed it. American Dance Festival is proud to offer the Parkinson’s Movement Initiative classes in partnership with NC Dance for Parkinson’s and Poe Wellness Solutions and supported by a community grant from the Parkinson’s Foundation. Through this support, all classes offered through the Parkinson’s Movement