August 2025 Edition: Celebrating Community
Photo credit: Nuria Rius
Dear friend,
“How can we build a more inclusive future collectively, a world where everyone belongs? … “we need to develop and sustain containers that emphasize our shared humanity and enlarge our sense of a collective that is not defined by difference without denying difference.” - john a. powell and Stephen Menendian, Belonging without Othering
“Group improvisation is not a restriction of individual expression but rather an extension of it, enabling each of us to help create experiences far greater than any we could ever create alone.” - Barbara Mettler, Dance as an Element of Life
As summer draws to an end and we prepare for a new season, I have been reflecting on what it means for us to be part of a community. What are the tools that help us practice being in a group body in ways that not only reinforce our collective voices but also depend on our individuality?
Connecting in celebration and commemoration of several months of sustained collaboration with two communities of people living with dementia in Brooklyn and the Bronx, our team at DanceStream Projects has witnessed this action of being in community. We have seen how by connecting with a community through co-creative dance, we engage in a process that emphasizes the unique contribution and value of each individual while celebrating an enlarged experience of our group body. We have seen, as Barbara Mettler says, “a shift of our orientation from my movement to our movement” all the while celebrating that the unique contribution from each individual is irreplaceable.
In this month’s issue, check out some highlights from our culminating celebration with the New York Memory Center and join us in preparing for the United Nations General Assembly Healing Arts Week. This September 22, over 20 LGBTQIA+ elders and allies from the Queens Center for Gay Seniors will be performing at this international event urging global leaders to recognize the role of dance in health! Add your support to help make this happen and join us at this and several adjoining events across Queens!
As we take our first steps into Autumn, I invite all of us to explore more ways we can practice building spaces that emphasize our shared humanity and enlarge our sense of a collective through dance!
In love and solidarity,
