Embodiment Project envisions a world where dance is integrated as a critical dimension of social and cultural revolution. We envision a concert dance landscape in the United States that uplifts underheard and silenced stories, honors the ancestral lineages of its participants, and advances our capacity for collective liberation.

Embodiment Project is a Bay Area Performing Arts Organization that began as a street dance theater company. We honor and express Black Social Dances and street dance forms and recognize them as healing modalities. We draw on other dance traditions including modern dance and use choreo poetry, documentary theater, live song, and video art to articulate and hold stories of liberation. Our work uplifts the narratives of Black Indigenous and People of Color, the voices of survivors of sexual violence, youth, and communities impacted by the carceral system. We are a diverse team that centers the experience of BIPOC through our leadership, Sociocratic organizational model, performances, community partnerships, and educational programming.

Over the last 16 years we’ve stabilized our core programming and projects and doubled our revenue. These expenses are currently supported by grants and generous individuals who believe in our mission and wish to support our continued work. EP is now at a pivotal point where we are ready to deepen our impact, expand our reach and introduce new initiatives, but we need to diversify our revenue streams so that we have a healthy portfolio of funding sources and eliminate being heavily reliant upon grants which have an average life-cycle of 3-5 years*.

*On average, foundations will fund an organization for 3-5 years before they decrease or sunset their funding. Dollars raised from supporters like you will help EP close that gap*

With your support, in 2025, we intend to prioritize and immediately:

Support the premier and touring of Belly of the Whale. BOW has been in the initial stages of development since early 2023. It moved into public workshopping in mid-2024. We plan to formally premier the evening-length work in San Francisco in April 2025, and tour the work throughout the second half of 2025. Securing funding by January 1^st will ensure that production costs, artist fees, and other overhead costs are paid in a timely manner, and that EP has the foundational dollars to comfortably plan for touring.
Build out our internal operations. EP is a small organization with a great depth of impact. We need to scale our operations, stabilize our staff, hire and retain external consultants. Currently, all of EP’s leadership and staff are 1099 Independent Contractors. We aspire to move our leadership to full-time salaried employees with benefits. Supporting EP means ensuring we have a team of qualified individuals who not only bring our vision to life and delivery our mission but are handled with care equitably.
Increase our marketing. While EP currently operates primarily in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, we want everyone in the Bay area who is mission and value aligned to learn about our work. To do that, we need to boost our visibility and invest in marketing and public relations initiatives. This includes but is not limited to: the appointment of marketing staff or a marketing consultant, travel costs associated with touring our works, and mainstream advertising. As a first step, this fall, we hired a Marketing consultant who will begin to support these efforts.
Develop new works. Since its inception, EP has partner closely with artists and cultural practitioners from these communities, creating original multi-disciplinary performances that embody autobiographical stories often believed to be incommunicable. We want to continue to create works that uplift the stories of the unseen, unheard, and those who’ve been silenced. In the nonprofit landscape, opportunities to fund new works are limited as Grantmakers are challenged with supporting programs and projects that have proven outcomes and impact that has already been measured. Unrestricted support will support EP with getting new works off the ground while building the metrics that Grantmakers need to provide funding opportunities.
Create and lead community spaces. Our organization is multi-faceted. Over the past 16 years, EP has built strong relationships in the arts, restorative justice, and healing communities. An abundance of unrestricted funding will support us in: developing more community arts partnerships to host movement healing workshops, continuing to build curriculum that serves the needs of system-impacted people, and modeling the sociocracy frameworks that we’ve implemented for all of our operations.

Our goal is to raise $25,000 by the end of the 2024 calendar year. These funds will allow us to continue providing quality dance programming in the Bay and be able to pay our core dance artists a living wage.

If you want to know what your support can do, a gift of $5,000 can help us to cover the cost of one month of rehearsal fee and $2,500 can help us to four dancers performing inside of Soledad Prison.

Gifts of any size are deeply appreciated!

Embodiment Project's Dance-Giving Campaign

By Embodiment Project

Embodiment Project's Dance-Giving Campaign

Support us to keep thriving after 16 years of providing free dance programming for the people

Team Members