Cover photo credits: Photographer Miana Jun, Dancer Dale Andree
Our Mission
The mission of NWD Projects is to promote dance as a vehicle for social change by increasing awareness of environmental and social issues through collaboration with the artistic, educational and scientific communities. NWD Projects makes use of the internet to create a national community, which offers platforms for educating students and supporting artistic exchange among professional artists, while engaging and informing the public.
As artists we know that creativity is born from conflict: conflict that is fed by questions, by self-evaluation, by new and diverse ideas from those who challenge us as we begin the process necessary to change. NWD Projects commits to this journey of creativity and to the goal of equity for all by supporting diversity in its many forms. We recognize that our present systems are based on inequality and we eagerly step into the work to correct the past structures and find a more balanced future.
Our Staff
Dale Andree
DIRECTOR
For me, the joy of dancing lies in the beauty of discovery that evolves through deep self-exploration and expansive collaboration. Working with dancers, musicians, visual artists, photographers and videographers inspires me. My work reflects the contributions of those collaborative efforts. For 15 years I directed Mary Street Dance Theatre. As I choreographed and toured with the company my methods of composition gradually turned more and more to improvisation. With my young daughter Thryn, I organized and directed The Good for Something Dancers, a children’s dance company based on improvisation. It continued for 10 years. I am now relaunching my choreographic career with NWD Projects. My greatest joy is working in the studio with eager and curious dancers, constantly learning through their movement discoveries. For over 20 years I taught at New World School of the Arts creating projects and choreographic opportunities with the students, particularly site-specific work. It’s there that I first conceived of the concept that led to National Water Dance. I deeply believe in the knowledge of the body and the memory that it holds. This is what guides me on a continual path of discovery. This is what I want to share.
Kristin O’Neal
OUTREACH COORDINATOR
Outreach Coordinator and all-around cheerleader for National Water Dance, I have worked with Dale on a myriad of engaging projects for nearly two decades from dancer to administrator, including the Florida Waterways Dance Project 2011 that inspired Dale’s vision for the national project. After receiving my MFA in Dance/Choreography from Hollins University/ADF I taught at the University of Florida (2008-2014) where I continued my graduate research of solo performance and character creation. My character investigations led to an unfolding series of solos inspired by the lives of my Grandmothers, Glenna and Dorothy as well as Aunts and Great Aunts named June, Helen, Diane, Constance, and Nell. Kristin lives in Decatur, GA where she creates dances and dance films with her husband Gregory Catellier of Catellier Dance Projects and where she also teaches dance courses at Agnes Scott College and Emory University.