Justice Dance Performance Project, Inc.

JDPP enriches public dialogue and awareness of historic and contemporary social issues through dance theater performances. Known for its innovative fusion of movement, spoken word, music, and visual design, the JDPP repertory plumbs the darkness to discover the light, drawing audiences into stories that build understanding and inspire reflection. JDPP’s award-winning work has been performed throughout New England in theaters, at colleges and universities, prisons, and inner-city schools, and in major cities across the United States and Europe.

JDPP engages high-need students in schools through creative expression that supports literacy, expands awareness, and builds lifelong skills for resilient living. Recognized as a national model, the Moving Matters! program brings trained teaching artists into the classroom to lead multi-arts residencies in which kids help create a performance from dance, visual art, and story inspired by a theme text.

JDPP supports individuals and families impacted by incarceration through residencies in carceral settings and schools and performances in the community. Participants in Bridging Boundaries programs build interpersonal connection, process trauma, recover voice, and reimagine self through dance and movement, autobiographical writing, visual arts, and song-making led by JDPP teaching artists often in tandem with social workers. Audiences experience the human story of prison and its impact through individual and group performance by returned citizens alongside professional artists.