Help us bring dance and health to a global stage
DanceStream Projects at the UN General Assembly Healing Arts Week
We’ve been invited to the UN GA Healing Arts Week — and we need your help.
DanceStream Projects has been invited to perform at the 2025 United Nations General Assembly Healing Arts Week (hyperlink). Our mission is to show the power of dance in promoting brain health, community, and belonging — especially among older adults and LGBTQIA+ elders in Queens.
We need to raise $5,000 to bring our vision, dance and health to a global stage.
Our Week at a Glance
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Since 2022, DanceStream Projects has been collaborating with Queens Center for Gay Seniors elders on the dance program “Rainbow Stories in the Moment”. Located in Jackson Heights, Queen, the most diverse community in the US (48% foreign-born), this center serves LGBTQIA+ elders and allies, many of whom are first generation immigrants.
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The performers collaborated on “Let’s Move the World”, a dance co-created by QCGS elders and DanceStream Projects artists which premiered internationally October 1, 2024 for the UN International Day of Older Persons. The dance celebrates themes of resilience and wellbeing, embodying and inviting all of us to explore belonging as an action we can take together as modeled by these diverse elders. The 11-minute dance will be accompanied by a slideshow featuring reflections from participants on the impact dance makes on their health and sense of social cohesion. As shared by one participant: “We are more open. More open than we were before. This is very important for me. Because I am from another country that was not open. And especially this program, you teach us to be more open.”
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Research indicates that LGBTQIA+ and immigrant elders face a 30% and 70% increased risk of dementia, respectively. “Rainbow Stories” applies applies evidence-informed benefits of dance to support brain health while fostering social cohesion and cultivating creative expression.
Dance is more than movement — Dance supports not just brain health but builds solidarity, community and belonging
Our work centers the role dance plays in not only promoting brain health, but cultivating belonging, connection and space to showcase the voices of older adults and people living with dementia. Voices we don’t hear often enough. Voices which are often showcased in one note narratives that focus more on deficits rather than the vitality, novelty and creativity we witness with these communities.
With your donation, we’re not just traveling to the UN GA Healing Arts Week — we’re elevating voices, stories, and lives through the power of dance.
Bonus Impact: Any funds raised beyond $5,000 will go toward expanding our free dance programs in Queens and beyond.
You can help us take the stage.
→ Donate:
Every dollar helps cover accessible travel for over 25 older adults to the performance site in Manhattan, dedicated time for 10 weeks of rehearsals, technical production of the show, artist fees.
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