Close your eyes and imagine a dance performance. What do you see and hear? Graceful ballerinas in tulle tutus performing jetés and pliés to classical music? Perhaps it’s jazz music and the rhythmic, percussive tap-tap-tap of metal-soled shoes. How about breaking, popping and locking over old-school hip-hop beats?
Now imagine your eyes remain closed for the entirety of the performance. What do you hear, feel and smell? What if you couldn’t hear the music or the rhythmic footfalls?
At ShaLeigh Dance Works (SDW) in Durham, this is not an abstract mental exercise. SDW works at the intersections of cultures, ages and abilities to create immersive dance-theatre performances that embody the transformative power of shared experience. Artistic Director ShaLeigh Comerford collaborates with experts who bring their own lived experiences and otherwise untold stories to performances, thereby providing living wages to people disproportionately un- and underemployed.
“It’s about sharing an experience, and about stepping into the shoes of people that live in a world that’s not dominated by sight,” says ShaLeigh. “Because this is a world that we, the hearing and sighted, will never understand unless we step into it.”
One collaborator is blind dancer DJ Robinson, who worked with ShaLeigh Dance Works to create an immersive dance performance not only for audiences with visual impairment, but also for blindfolded audience members to experience artistic expression through hearing and touch, moving through several sensory stations on-stage.
“These performances are not meant to be viewed but experienced,” says Comerford, who aims to bring parallel performances to deaf audiences in 2027, with American Sign Language providers and other language justice expertise.
SDW, however, is navigating an all-too-common challenge in today’s shifting landscape. As a nonprofit dedicated to employing and celebrating artists with disabilities, it has found itself caught in broader debates about arts funding and inclusion. Because of recent attacks on DEI at the federal level, the National Endowment for the Arts informed the dance company it had officiall withdrawn its grant due to the agency's new priorities, with future arts funding likely to prioritize projects centered on themes such as the Declaration of Independence.
As a result, SDW is now preparing for the likelihood of reduced grant support and actively pursuing alternative revenue streams critical to sustaining its world-class dance instruction, workforce development for artists with disabilities, and transformative performances for audiences of all backgrounds.
A declaration of independence indeed.
The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation understands and honors the value of ShaLeigh DanceWork’s vision and mission, and is partnering with the performing arts company under MDBF’s new grantmaking approach, which aims to be more accessible, reducing red tape and helping organizations be more effective and innovative. Under this new approach, MDBF hopes to foster creativity, innovation and learning in the Triangle with meaningful collaboration and reliable, flexible general operating resources. Its goals include helping nonprofit arts education organizations like SDW build momentum, stay curious and creative, and shape Triangle communities into being the best places to live, work, learn and play.
ShaLeigh Dance Works recognizes the power of expressive, shared humanity expressed through art to transform lives, extend beyond the stage and shape a more compassionate society. The creatives behind the magic invite you to visit their website and take part in an inclusive, immersive experience unlike any other.