Dancing While Black

Dancing While Black, a program of Angela’s Pulse, centers the voices of Black dance artists, providing opportunities to self-determine the languages and lenses that define our work. Since the inception of DWB in 2012, they have supported more than 30 emerging Black artists as Fellows, incubated more than two dozen new works, published a landmark digital journal and held countless intergenerational convenings for community members to share, connect and simply be.

Dancing While Black operates at the intersection of aesthetics and organizing. Central to the work is building partnerships – with presenters, organizers, curators and artists. In our first five years, Dancing While Black established ongoing partnerships with BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, NYU’s Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, the Human Rights Project at the Urban Justice Center, PURPOSE Productions, Urban Bush Women and Junebug Productions.

The DWB Co-leadership team includes Kayla Hamilton, Marguerite Hemmings, Joya Powell and founder Paloma McGregor.

  • Studies Project Organizer
  • Studies Project Participant
Against a black background we see four people standing looking at the camera, arms around each other’s backs. From left to right we see Paloma McGregor, butterscotch skinned, wearing a black and white pinstriped suit with hoop earrings and curly black hair in a ponytail. Followed by Marguerite Hemmings deep cocoa skinned wearing a black face mask, grey checkered sleeveless top with black pants, hair is in a messy bun. Followed by Joya Powell butterscotch skinned wearing a white face mask, glasses, long flowy multi-patterned jumpsuit. Followed by Kayla Hamilton, caramel skinned, wearing a white mask, glasses, brown knitted cardigan over a white shirt and mud colored linen pants. Photo by Whitney Browne.
ID: Against a black background we see four people standing looking at the camera, arms around each other’s backs. From left to right we see Paloma McGregor, butterscotch skinned, wearing a black and white pinstriped suit with hoop earrings and curly black hair in a ponytail. Followed by Marguerite Hemmings deep cocoa skinned wearing a black face mask, grey checkered sleeveless top with black pants, hair is in a messy bun. Followed by Joya Powell butterscotch skinned wearing a white face mask, glasses, long flowy multi-patterned jumpsuit. Followed by Kayla Hamilton, caramel skinned, wearing a white mask, glasses, brown knitted cardigan over a white shirt and mud colored linen pants. Photo by Whitney Browne.