About
MIDDAY
MISSION: Founded in 2015, Midday Movement Series (“MIDDAY”) is a BIPOC-led grassroots initiative cultivating a new, diverse generation of dance leaders through professional development, mentorship, and advocacy. By providing focused support to emerging contemporary dance teachers, MIDDAY is creating a leadership pipeline, improving talent retention, and increasing workforce readiness in Metro Boston.
"What began as a one-off teaching gig
blossomed into one of the most supportive and transformative mentorships and professional support systems I have experienced thus far in my career.”
Using principles of eco-conservation, MIDDAY regards teacher-choreographers as "keystone artists" in the dance ecosystem, impacting professional dancers, artistic collaborators, studios and performance venues, funding institutions, audiences, and more through the nature of their work. By helping emerging artists to thrive, MIDDAY is creating far-reaching and long-lasting change in the professional dance sector by harnessing the power of movement to spark individual passion, ignite community spirit, and create cultural transformation.
VISION:
We believe in an interdependent dance sector that fosters empowerment, optimism, and imagination.
We envision a world where dance can belong to everyone, and where embodied knowledge and empathy makes transformation and discovery feel possible.
"MIDDAY allowed me to have ongoing company classes and really hone my process. I've also been able to teach at Gibney Dance in New York City and at various local high schools because I've had a significant amount of teaching experience through MIDDAY."
COMMITMENTS:
MIDDAY Note: We refer to our values as our 'commitments,' as we are committed to actively and tangibly implementing these values into our organizational, teaching, and community practices.
BRAVERY: We believe it takes courageous action to create the sector (and world) that we want. We commit to decentering whiteness and patriarchy, to not avoiding conflict, and to challenging our depth.
DIRECTNESS: We commit to truth-telling and candor, asking for and acknowledging feedback, being upfront, and asking for what we need. We commit to centering consent, intentionality, and to physical as well as verbal listening.
POWER: We believe we do not have to be given power, we already have power. We commit to respecting and taking all people seriously, respecting our craft, and respecting ourselves. We acknowledge that in every interaction we are either creating or destroying trust, and it is our choice to determine which we will do. We accept that, as new leaders we are also gate-keepers, and we commit to asking ourselves - are we keeping the gates closed or open, and to who?
ECOLOGICAL TIME: We believe in bottom-up work and staying committed to the holistic grassroots dance community by sharing resources, recognizing our collective abundance and power, believing that others’ success is our success, and working for others’ benefit even when they are not present to advocate for themselves. We believe transformation takes time. We are living and working with and for those who came before us and those who will come after us. It is not our job to do everything; rather, we commit to being a part of the work.
