OFA DANCE PROGRAM WORKING MISSION

The Office for the Arts (OFA) Dance Program's mission is to promote dance as a way of knowing, understanding, and inquiring, and as an integral part of culture. We aim to advance dance literacy; create transformative dance experiences; and cultivate citizen-artist leaders, in beloved community, for a more just and promising world. 

Housed within the Harvard Dance Center at 66 Garden St, Cambridge, MA, the Dance Program offers meaningful engagement– on campus, and in our greater Cambridge and Boston communities and beyond them– that promotes access, inclusivity, reflection, dialogue, community, expression, research, and invention. No matter the point of entry, from community dance classes and visiting artist workshops and conversations, to student-led dance groups, our focus is to foster a transformative student experience and empower tomorrow's artists, innovators, and leaders.

The Dance Program offers non-credit community classes in a range of dance traditions taught by highly seasoned dance professionals, and which are free for Harvard students. We regularly host guest artists who lead workshops, talks, and conversations, cultivating exceptional opportunities for students to work with intergenerational professional artists who are groundbreakers in the field and in disciplines linked to dance. Programming, classes, and events are inclusive of all abilities and levels of experience.

Central to programming is partnerships with departments, programs, and student organizations across campus. In collaboration with partners, the Dance Program supports artist residencies, commissions, performances, and special events, and provides workshops and dialogues that aid in advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice (DEIJ). Additionally, we provide mentorship, support, and residency opportunities for over 25 student-led dance groups, representing traditions from across the globe.

DANCE STUDIES IN THEATER, DANCE & MEDIA

For Undergraduate students interested in concentrating in Theater, Dance & Media, visit the TDM course list.

Undergraduate students interested in more information about secondary and concentration opportunities in Theater, Dance & Media please email tdm@fas.harvard.edu and visit tdm.fas.harvard.edu.

ALL ARE WELCOME

The Harvard Dance Center is a space where every student can be fully self-expressed without fear of being made to feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or unsafe based on race, ethnicity, cultural background or tradition, biological sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, or physical or mental ability; a space where the social contract supports each person's self-respect and dignity, and encourages everyone to respect others.

We are anti-racist and actively challenging our own assumptions and biases as we work toward true equity for all. In that spirit, we do not tolerate racism, discrimination, bias, and intolerance of any kind from anyone in, associated with, or visiting the Harvard Dance Center in person or virtual spaces.

University Resources 

• Accessible Education Office (AEO): Partners with FAS students with visible and invisible disabilities to identify barriers and implement plans for access.
• Affinity Groups | Self-care and wellness space: Community spaces for affinity groups hosted throughout the spring. These spaces are part of a larger effort to support members of the community who are experiencing heightened anxiety in response to the current moment (Covid, racial injustice, world news, the political climate, etc.).
• Anonymous Reporting Hotline: If you have experienced, witnessed, or been impacted in any way by racial discrimination, you can contact the Anonymous Hotline, open 24/7. 
• Anti-Asian Racism Resource | Counseling and Mental Health Services: Resources and support for Asian and AAPI students experiencing COVID-19 related harassment.
• Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations: Offers programs, events, and grants designed to promote interracial and intercultural awareness and understanding in the Harvard community, as well as to highlight the cultural contributions of students from all backgrounds.
• Hate Crimes | Harvard University Police Department
• Office of Gender Equity: If you have experienced, witnessed, or been impacted in any way by sexual or gender-based harassment, OGS can provide you with options that feels right for you. A confidential space open to the entire Harvard community where people can process and understand their experiences and feel empowered to make the choice best suited to their needs. If you need immediate support call the 24-hour Crisis Hotline at 617.495.9100. 
• Office of BGLTQ Student Life: Provides support, resources, and leadership development for BGLTQ students.
• Office of Diversity Education and Support: Offers faciliated trainings, workshops, and dialogues that promote diversity and inclusion, as well as one-to-one support around issues of identity and belonging at Harvard.
• Undocumented Students Support: Where you can find a number of resources available for undocumented students at Harvard College.  

Land Acknowledgement

"Harvard University is situated on the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Massachusett people. Our University honors the historic Harvard Charter of 1650, which committed to our institution to “the education of English and Indian youth of this country.” As a chartered creation of the Massachusetts colonies and Commonwealth, Harvard evolved alongside the persistence of the Massachusett, Nipmuck, and Wampanoag Nations. Located near the Charles River, this place has long served as a site of meeting, exchange, and diplomacy among nations, with thousands of contemporary Native American people living in greater Boston and tens of thoughts in the state of Massachusetts." –Harvard's Native American Program: Land Acknowledgment

The Dance Program would like to pay its respects to elders of the Massachusett, Nipmuck, Pawtucket, Naumkeag, and Wampanoag peoples both past and present, and is committed to decolonizing its relationships with people and land at a local level in Cambridge, in Boston, and wherever its community members are located in virtual classrooms around the world. We understand that this acknowledgement is only a first step in restorative justice and repair of the harmful legacies of violence, displacement, migration, and settlement of Indigenous peoples.

Resources for learning more and taking action to decolonize relationships with people and land: 

Indianz
Indigenous Rising
LandMark: Global Platform of Indigenous and Community Lands  
MA Indigenous Legislative Agenda
Native Land   
United American Indians of New England

Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery

We would like to highlight Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery, a university-wide research effort anchored at the Radcliffe Institute, that includes a published report identifying more than 70 Black and Indigenous people who were enslaved by Harvard faculty, staff, and leaders, some of whom lived and worked on campus, while many other Harvard affiliates propagated discrimination and racism through their leadership and scholarship at the University. 

This research provides a strong foundation for a process of reckoning and repair and we encourage our Harvard colleagues especially to read the report and its recommendations.

READ THE REPORT ON THE PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE ON HARVARD & THE LEGACY OF SLAVERY 

Experience the Walking Tour which includes the dance film Initiation– In Love Solidarity and reflections from the creator Nailah Randall-Bellinger, Harvard Dance Center Teaching Artist and Fall 2021 Artist-in-Residence.