Performing Ourselves

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Sarah Maughan

Performing Ourselves participants.

More than 120 youth from local schools and community centers take the stage in the seventh annual spring showcase from Performing Ourselves. Since 2012, this program directed by UW-Madison dance professor Kate Corby and dancer Mariah LeFeber has helped hundreds of under-resourced kids find empowerment, creativity and leadership through dance.

press release: The program has provided a series of experiential movement and performance classes to over 350 under resourced local youth throughout the past year. The showcase performances are the culmination of a year of instruction by program staff and undergraduate dance majors who work collaboratively with preschool, elementary, middle and high school school youth to create new choreography.

This year the program partnered with: the Allied Learning Center, East Madison Community Center, Elver Park Neighborhood Center, Goodman Community Center, Kennedy Heights Community Center, Lussier Community Education Center, Mendota elementary School, Vera Court Neighborhood Center, Aldo Leopold Elementary School,  and the Madison Community Montessori School.

Performing Ourselves aims to foster creativity and connection, empower youth and develop leaders through dance. Corby says it facilitates an active learning experience for youth in Madison by engaging them in the process of creation and performance as a means of engendering empowerment and identity.

Since its launch in 2012, the program has grown exponentially. There are currently 11 UW student teachers, serving eleven community and school sites, under the leadership of Mary Patterson, the program's Outreach Specialist and Dance/Movement Therapist. 

PERFORMANCES: May 4, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., H’Doubler Performance Space, Lathrop Hall, 1050 University Avenue. Admission to the event is free. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This year's programming is supported by the UW Dance Department, Professional Learning and Community Education in the UW-Madison School of Education, American Girl Fund for Children, the Evjue Foundation, Inc., Endres Manufacturing Co. Foundation, the UW School of Education’s Virginia Horne Henry Fund for Women’s Physical Education and Movement, Dane Arts, Door Creek Church, Madison Arts Commission, the Wisconsin Arts Board and many generous individuals.

For more information on Performing Ourselves go to http://performingourselves.com or visit www.facebook.com/performingourselves.