Moving to Live and Migrating to Survive Through Inclusive Digital Dance Practices

Abstract

Artists and educators Kim Jones and Fen Kennedy have known each other for over a decade. Kim Jones performed professionally with the Martha Graham Dance Company, makes dance and art around the world, and is an Associate Professor at University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and the Founder and Artistic Director of Movement Migration. Fen Kennedy is a dancer, scholar, and Labanotator who has restaged several of Martha Graham’s works and who teaches at the University of Alabama. They are a self-identified “professional dance geek” who happily writes, makes, performs, and organizes in many different contexts. Kim and Fen met at the Trinity Laban conservatoire in London when Kim visited in her role as Regisseur of the Martha Graham Dance Company, and during the pandemic they reconnected in Kim’s virtual dance classes. Both of them believe in making the world a better place through dancing, and this conversation—conducted in April 2021—explores how Kim’s virtual classrooms turned into spaces of inclusive community building through organizational and pedagogical approaches.