A Brief History of CDA
From the collective desire to nurture Columbus’ growing community of dancers, a conversation began around collaboration, better communication and mutual support among our many different movement artists and organizations. Born in 2016, CDA has worked to increase awareness, knowledge, and resources for dance and performance art through fostering education for individual artists, dance programs and organizations, and the public. This includes the curation of dance performance opportunities as well as providing support for the advancement of dance and performance art making, teaching, research, and community engaged advocacy.
At its inception, CDA was established as an LLC with an initial goal of providing a showcase style platform for dance and performance artists to share work. Thus, beginning in 2018 CDA WORKS was one of the first projects launched by Columbus Dance Alliance. Its aim was to build community in and through dance, to share new and recent work by a diverse range of dance and movement artists, to inspire dialogue, and to bridge connections between local dancers. WORKS maintained a commitment to inclusivity and championed diversity in its programming. This endeavor was realized with the help and support of the Wexner Center for the Arts, who generously hosted CDA WORKS for all of its performances thus far. Each WORKS program is designed and curated by a small committee of CDA Members to create an overall picture of the variety of dance in central Ohio.
Another ongoing initiative for CDA is our Community Spotlight. Started in 2020, this initiative is a meant to celebrate and illuminate the awesome dance and performance work going on in the greater Columbus metro area. Community Spotlight is a three-fold, artist-led project that utilizes our virtual and person-to-person networks in celebration of the vibrancy and multiplicity of dance and performance art within our community, broadly speaking. As a part of its current design, Community Spotlight include a blog-spot interview featured on our website, and shared over social media and email. Our process also involves sharing information about how best to continue following the work of the artists we feature. Over time, we have come to see this initiative as a living archive of dance and performance art and artists in Columbus and beyond.
In mid-2021, CDA was able to submit documentation with state and federal agencies toward securing our status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. In September of 2021, we officially gained this designation. Since this time we have expanded our reach and community support initiative, launching other successful campaigns such as our Community Spotlight series from 2020, and our ongoing Dance at the Market series.
As an entirely volunteer led organization, we continue to organize, plan, and execute new and innovative initiatives that will bolster a sustainable and thriving Columbus dance community. If you are interested in volunteering to support CDA’s growth or are you curious about partnership opportunities, contact us to learn about how you can get involved in building community and coalition for dance + performance art in Columbus with CDA by emailing info@columbusdancealliance.org.