Mission, Vision, & Legacy

Mission

Fueled by generosity and curiosity, Dance Exchange expands who gets to dance, where dance happens, what dance is about, and why dance matters.

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Vision

Dance Exchange harnesses the power of creativity and inquiry through dance to connect communities, to deepen our understanding of ourselves and to foster a more embodied, resilient and just world.

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Legacy

Dance Exchange collaborates across generations, disciplines, and communities to channel the power of dancemaking as a means for dialogue, a source of critical reflection, and a creative engine for thought and action. The work we cultivate and steward today grows from a legacy and commitment to intergenerational and community exchange, artmaking at the intersection of social relevance and community participation, and moving as a way to notice our world and noticing as way to move our world.  Founded in 1976 by Liz Lerman and under the artistic direction of Cassie Meador since 2011, Dance Exchange is a non-profit dance organization based in Takoma Park, Maryland. 

Since our founding, Dance Exchange has created and supported more than 250 groundbreaking performance projects that explore content as far ranging as nuclear physics, immigration, ecology, prayer and action, aging, and the advancement of racial equity. Over the years, we have collaborated with and/or been commissioned by wide-ranging partners both nationally and internationally such as NASA, Facing Race, National Park Service, the Kennedy Center, Kohler Arts Center, Jacob’s Pillow, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Bealtaine Festival, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University, and Harvard Law School.

Dance Exchange is committed to dancemaking and creative practices that engage individuals and communities of all ages and backgrounds to cultivate a deeper understanding of themselves and advance how we come together through process and performance to envision and deepen understanding of our shared world.

Land Acknowledgement

You are invited to take three or four deep, grounding breaths before engaging with Dance Exchange’s Land Acknowledgement.

In the spirit of gratitude and respect, Dance Exchange recognizes that our facility and local programming are located on the occupied ancestral territory of the Piscataway and Nacotchtank (Anacostan) People whose presence, leadership, and care have stewarded this land for generations. We also recognize that the deep history of this land is marred by the impacts of colonialism, genocide, slavery, and cultural erasure. We are aware of the profound connections between the Indigenous struggles against settler colonialism, the movements for Civil Rights and Black liberation, and resistance to contemporary fascism and ideological oppression. 

By working to embody these connections, Dance Exchange aims to foster deeper understanding and solidarity among diverse communities striving for justice and equity. We recognize that healing and justice require understanding past and current harms, and ideating a different, healthy, connected, and meaningful way forward. Dance Exchange continues to embrace how our actions and relationships with the land and each other are fundamental to building a just, sustainable, and life-giving future. We commit ourselves to noticing, respecting, and honoring those who came before us; and to actively work toward a future where all communities can thrive in harmony with the land.

This land acknowledgement is offered as a living, working, and evolving invitation to consider the complexities and nuances of power, oppression, intersectionality, land and property ownership, our changing climate, written and unwritten history, and what it means to be part of a legacy dance organization with intention and commitments to embody creativity, equity and justice.