More Giving Back
In our November issue, Dance Spirit featured four young dancers who had started organizations to give back to their communities. But they’re not the only ones out there doing some serious good. Here are more dancers just like you who have started organizations in their areas:
ALI DIETZ
Dancer’s Giving Back
Orchard Park, NY
This organization started as a benefit performance and workshop for Ali’s friend, Jacquie Hirsch, who was battling Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. Though Hirsch lost her battle with cancer, Ali continues to organize this annual dance event to raise money for research and to support cancer patients and their families. Former DS cover girl Ida Saki, who lost a close friend to Leukemia, has even taught master classes for them.
LAUREN PELLETTIERI and ELIZABETH FIELDER
Liberated Movement
New York, NY
Lauren and Elizabeth danced together in college but couldn’t afford classes once they moved to NYC. Inspired by donation-based models for financially accessible yoga, they created Liberated Movement, a program that offers donation-based dance classes in NYC.
SARA POTLER
Dance 4 Peace
Washington, DC, and New York, NY
Sara Potler created Dance 4 Peace, a program that fuses her interests in dance, international development, peace-building and education. They use dance and creative moment to educate young people in schools about empathy, mediation skills, anger management and conflict transformation.
KATIE PAUL and RACHEL GORDON
KPRG Movement
Katie and Rachel, founders of KPRG Movement, use hip hop to raise money through fundraisers and t-shirt sales for spinal cord injury research and the Travis Roy Foundation so that one day paraplegics and quadriplegics will be dancing with them.
WENDY LEMON
Tap & Soul
Carlsbad, CA
Wendy founded non-profit dance company Tap & Soul to use tap dance to promote awareness for various charitable organizations in her community. On behalf of her former dance student Claire Devins, Wendy’s first Tap & Soul concert raised money for Cure ATRT Now, an organization that hopes to find a cure for pediatric brain tumors.
Do you know of other dancers giving back in their community using dance? Tell us about them in the comments!
