Dance as an Xcape In a predominantly white community, Xcape Dance Academy is a safe space for marginalized individuals to come together and dance. Written by Nika Bartoo-Smith I Photographed by Ilka Sankari
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room full of people move their hips, stomp their feet and sway their arms in time to upbeat music. Everyone is in workout clothes and dancing with looks of dual intensity and focus, watching themselves in the wall of mirrors in front of them. Leading the movements and providing words of encouragement in front of the class is Vanessa Fuller, Xcape Dance Academy’s founder. Xcape Dance Academy dance studio offers classes with styles rooted in the African diaspora, like jazz and hip-hop, to people of all ages and levels — from toddlers to adults and beginners to professionals. The studio focuses on creating a safe and inclusive space for people of all different backgrounds in Eugene. Fuller says Xcape is both a studio and a community. Living in Eugene as a young Black girl, Fuller says she was not surrounded by people that looked like her. Eugene’s population is less than 2% Black and almost 84% white, according to the 2010 census. Fuller says that it can be challenging to feel comfortable being a dancer of color when surrounded by mostly white dancers and studio owners. “Being in Eugene and being a person of color is very difficult,” Fuller says. “This community is racist.”
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At 3-years-old, Fuller went to her mother and told her she wanted to learn to tap dance, and she has not stopped dancing ever since. For her, dance was the only place she felt like she belonged. While she loved tap dancing, Fuller remembers not having many spaces in Eugene where she could practice hip hop, a style of dance that she had become interested in from watching MTV dance videos while growing up. Many studios primarily offered ballet and modern dance classes. Fuller honors her roots by practicing styles of dance rooted in the African diaspora, which Fuller says most studios in Eugene did not offer. And when she created a space, she says she remembers other dancers and Eugene locals seeing it as too “raunchy.” “At first, the challenges had a lot to do with the way my body moved naturally on the dance end,” Fuller says. “There were white people doing that here, and then when I started doing it, it was a huge fucking deal.” In 2012, Fuller applied to teach hip-hop at her alma mater, the University of Oregon, but was rejected because she didn’t have a master’s degree. When Fuller applied to get her master’s degree to comply with the requirements, she was denied. Fi-
