The History of Cleveland Dance Fest

The Movement Project believes that artists can be catalysts for change in communities, especially when they are supported. We believe, in order to serve our community to our fullest capacity, it requires us to truly listen to what the community has to say. In 2015, The Movement Project held a series of community meetings focused on hearing directly from artists on their needs, concerns, and hopes for the future of dance in NE Ohio. It was evident that space, resource access, a platform to share work, and fair compensation was lacking in the community. Thus Cleveland Dance Fest was born in an effort to provide a platform to support Cleveland dance artists in the creation of new work, while making dance performance accessible and affordable to residents.

Over the past 10 seasons, Cleveland Dance Fest has grown into a sustainable ecosystem embraced by artists from across Ohio, the regional Midwest, and beyond. Through the years, CDF funding partners have fueled our ability to maximize artist support, allowing us to pay over $77,600 towards artists since CDF’s inaugural year. Cleveland Dance Fest marked its 10th anniversary by bringing the festival to Cleveland’s historic Playhouse Square.

CDF is heading into its 11th season, expanding, and engaging new artists and audiences each year. Today CDF serves over 600+ patrons, over 150+ professional artists, and 100+ pre-professional artists in 4 concerts, youth and professional master classes, and a virtual dance gallery. We have intentionally grown the festival through the years, making changes and additions based on the current and growing needs of our communities. The Movement Project is committed to providing a sustainable and equitable experience for artists, providing them with fair compensation, resource support, high quality production values, and above all an experience that values the diverse and inclusive gathering of artists to share their work to audiences in an accessible and affordable format.

As we continue to grow the festival, we hope to do more to support artists through increasing artist compensation, performance stipends for cast members, provide travel stipends to artists outside of NE Ohio, and provide subsidized rehearsal space for NE Ohio artists leading up to CDF.