Black History Month highlight: Dance Canvas

In honor of Black History Month, we are highlighting a few Black-founded and led nonprofit organizations that are making a difference and impact every day. The first organization in our series is Dance Canvas.

Dance Canvas
Dance Canvas is a nonprofit dance organization with a mission to provide opportunities and venues to increase the awareness of professional dance in metro Atlanta. Founded in 2008 by Angela Harris, Dance Canvas’ professional program serves as a “hub” to support the entrepreneurial and creative spirit of choreographers at work in Atlanta. Dance Canvas provides a platform for artists to incubate and premiere new work and its programs grow and strengthen the creative workforce in Atlanta. Dance Canvas provides career development for emerging professional choreographers, youth outreach/exposure and leadership, and audience/community engagement.

Over 14 seasons, Dance Canvas has presented 150+ dance works by 126 choreographers, partnering with Atlanta Contemporary, Georgia Tech and Rialto Center for the Arts, as well as featured 500+ professional dancers and performed for 20,000+ audiences. Dance Canvas’ youth programs range from enrichment/after-school programs to intensive summer training programs and have reached 10,000+ students, partnering with the City of Atlanta’s Department of Recreation on the Centers of Hope program, as well as public high school programs across Georgia.

About Angela Harris
Angela Harris is a director, choreographer and founding executive artistic director of Dance Canvas, Inc., a career development organization for emerging professional choreographers and youth. Harris has choreographed for professional companies and schools across the country and her choreography has been seen on Atlanta stages, including Actor’s Express, Aurora Theatre, Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State University, Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theater Company and Theatrical Outfit. She recently presented a TEDxEmory talk in 2021 on Arts Entrepreneurship and is currently on faculty within the dance departments of Brenau University, Emory University, Spelman College. Harris was the recipient of the National Emerging Leader Award from Americans for the Arts and American Express, and was recognized by the City of Atlanta with an Emerging Artist Award in 2012. She was also selected to be one of the Inaugural National Visiting Fellows at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet, assisting the school with diversity initiatives. Angela has developed youth dance programs for the City of Atlanta’s Office of Cultural Affairs, recording artist Usher’s New Look Foundation, and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation. Before founding Dance Canvas, Angela danced professionally with The Georgia Ballet (GA), Columbia City Ballet (SC), and Urban Ballet Theater (NYC), and performed in theater productions locally and nationally.

To see Dance Canvas’ professional choreographers in action, mark your calendar for upcoming performances on March 24th – 26th at the Ferst Center for the Arts. Visit www.dancecanvas.com for tickets and information.

Photo by Richard Calmes; Courtesy of Dance Canvas, Inc.