Features > PostcardsArtists write from the field

POSTCARDS: Danielle Diniz Tells Her Grandmother's Story in New Commission for Accent Dance NYC

Catch Her Choreography at NYC's Open Jar Studios on Friday, September 6, 2024

Hello from our final rehearsals for A Place for Us, a new work commissioned by Accent Dance!

My name is Danielle Diniz and I’m beyond thrilled to be choreographing on these beautiful, versatile dancers! Our first performance is quickly approaching on Friday, September 6, 2024 at Open Jar Studios (1601 Broadway 11th floor, New York, NY) and the excitement is certainly growing as the storytelling becomes clearer with each treasured session in-studio.

Accent Dance in the studio rehearsing A Place for Us

The process has been an extraordinary investment of heart and opening of eyes as Accent Dance has allowed me to not only tell my grandma’s story, immigrating to the US from a difficult life in Mexico, but expand the thesis to explore and promote other stories and journeys within the work. The piece’s focus is the journeys themselves (people arriving in a place full of new horizons) as so many of our families took similar strides through different lenses, modes and means; whether the travel stems from steps of unbridled enthusiasm towards a new opportunities, from a bravery to traverse rocky waters to reach a next chapter or from the pains of leaving loved ones behind to further a future, the audience can immerse itself in paths based in truth, courage and hope, encouraging acceptance and appreciation of differences in an assimilated place.

Accent Dance in the studio rehearsing A Place for Us

The organization’s mission of lifting up marginalized voices, further demonstrated by its longstanding and important educational initiatives and ties, partially is what drew me to applying. A chance to spread stories like this through dance, with hopefully a most engaging, honest approach, is a precious way to communicate with audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Dance has always been my preferred storytelling vehicle due to how visually striking and viscerally effective it can be, so I’m grateful to try to choreograph something intensely technical, effortlessly entertaining and universally appealing with a premise so personal at its core.

Accent Dance in the studio rehearsing A Place for Us

Accent Dance has been a wonderfully warm platform to impart something so important and freely explore artistically how to do so. I’m thrilled for this piece, influenced by a myriad of styles, to take the stage multiple times and continue to grow with each iteration! It will first premiere at the studio showing previously mentioned on September 6th, and tickets are now available here.

We would love to see you there.

 

The Dance Enthusiast is delighted to hear from you. Share your story with our enthusiastic audiences and be part of the conversation. Send a digital POSTCARD to The Dance Enthusiast at info@dance-enthusiast.com. Include your text (not a press release) and three to five properly credited pictures, or links to short video. If you have any questions, let us know.

For more POSTCARDS, click here

The Dance Enthusiast - News, Reviews, Interviews and an Open Invitation for YOU to join the Dance Conversation.