Community-Engaged Performance

Several lines of students are mid bounce/step, focused on executing the choreography. All face front toward a wall lined with mirrors. The instructor stands in the middle of the front row of dancers. Participants wear a variety of athletic wear–workout sweats, tanks, shorts, long-sleeve zip ups–and most dance in sneakers.
Photo: Kirwei Lo
  • Reviews

Variety and Conformity in Community Work

Zoe Farnsworth

The enthusiasm and community were vibrant, but the choreography left me wanting more at Philly Dance Day's 2026 Showcase

A giant discoball hangs at the back of the theater, Philadelphia’s “biggest”. The stage is awash in red with a spotlight at the lip of the stage. The theater is empty; there is a sense of anticipation as the discoball takes over the frame of the photo.
Photo: Paige Phillips
  • Interviews

‘Don’t Stop Me Now’: A Philadelphia Dance Extravaganza

Zoe Farnsworth

A community dance extravaganza full of queerness, flirtiness and wild Queen Interpretations.

Three performers stand in a triangle in Studio 34. The camera blurs the background and focuses on their upper torsos and faces. The two dancers in backwear jeans and t-shirts; one laughs and the other holds a serious expression, bracing for impact. Together, they support the front dancer’s hips and shoulders. This third performer looks expectantly forward for the shove of another performer not in the photo.
Photo: Rachel Warriner
  • Interviews

Resistance and Art-Making: ‘Dancing Collective Power’

Zoe Farnsworth

Integrating improvisational dance skills into direct action protest

A crowd of predominantly white people wear white dresses, t-shirts, and gauze veils draped over their heads, faces visible. Most have painted their faces white with pink around their eyes and are wearing KN95 masks. They are walking forward toward the camera, a tall shadowed building, tree foliage, stop lights, and a square of blue sky behind them. Two people in the front open their mouths mid-song and scrunch their eyebrows together, maybe from the sun and maybe with concern. Deeper into the crowd, people hold a white banner with bold black letters, “WE ARE HAUNTED BY WHAT WE SEE IN GAZA.”
Photo: Rachael Warriner
  • Reviews, thINKpieces

There is a Shoah in Gaza

Xander Cobb

Philadelphian Jews dance and sing in protest of Mural Arts Holocaust Memorial Mural that excludes Arabic and Palestine.