Movement of the People Dance Company
Founded in 2005 by Bessie award winner Joya Powell, Movement of the People Dance Company is dedicated to unearthing historic and present sociocultural issues and addressing them through the healing elements of dance. Primarily a Dance Theater company, their choreography blends dynamic Contemporary Dance with traditional world folk dances, and develops a sensitive balance of pedestrian gestural phrases with grounded visceral movements that use breath and musicality at its core.
Over the years MOPDC has performed in various celebrated dance festivals and venues including: BAM Opera House, Lincoln Center Meet the Artist Saturdays, The Bronx Museum of Art, FLICfest, The Performance Project @ University Settlement (Artist-in-Residence 2012-2013), Amnesty International's Human Rights Art Festival (Maryland), SummerStage, York University (Toronto, ON), Casita Maria (Artist-in-Residence 2014-2015), Riverside Theatre, The Southern Vermont Dance Festival, Huntington Arts Festival (Long Island), Dance New Amsterdam, Jamaica Performing Arts Center, The FLEA Theater, BAAD!, chashama, Hammerstein Ballroom, Dixon Place, The TANK, Evoke’s Celebrate Dance Festival (San Diego), Triskelion Arts Theater, WOWcafe, White Wave’s John Ryan Theater, The Wild Project, Suffolk Community College, and the Children’s Museum in Brooklyn, among others.
Pam is a founding member of the company.
Solte Sua Samba (excerpt)
Performed in the Lively Arts Festival Series at Suffolk Community College, Long Island, New York, 2012
Dance of the Orixas
Performed in the Huntington Arts Festival at Smithtown Art Council’s Mills Pond House, Long Island, New York, 2011
Las Madres (excerpt)
Performed in the New York Boogie Down Dance Festival, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD), Bronx, New York, 2010
Las Madres
Performed in Amnesty International’s Human Rights Art Festival, Silver Spring, Maryland, 2010
Breathless (sextet)
Performed in the NuDance Festival, The Riverside Theatre at The Riverside Church, New York City, 2008
This 2008 extended version of Breathless is a Modern Dance piece that explores race in the U.S. Since the civil rights rally in Jena, La on September 20th, 2007 up to 50-60 noose related incidents have occurred in the U.S., nearly five times more than within the past decade. These occurrences are due to the nation's lack of education and apathetic stance towards racial relations. Breathless explores these issues and our responsibility as a nation to incite change.
Breathless (duet)
Performed in the Moving Beauty Dance Series at Webster Hall, New York City, 2010
30 Going on Hag
Performed in White Wave’s COOL New York Dance Festival at the John Ryan Theatre, DUMBO, New York
Shades of Gray (excerpt)
Performed in the Middle School 51 Benefit Concert, Brooklyn, New York, 2009