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Why We Dance: An UpRising

"Why We Dance: An UpRising" in collaboration with One Billion Rising will take place on February 12th in Downtown LA's Play Collaborate Arts Venue to celebrate the paradigm-shifting film "Why I Dance" that turns pole movement into social movement. The event will feature live drumming, dancing, slam poets, pole, musicians, screenings, live art, photography, feminist speakers, and general bad-assery. Profits from the event will benefit the California Women's Law Center.

Shot in one weekend on an all-women set in Downtown LA, "Why I Dance" is a testament to the passion and power of sixteen dancers of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors, and backgrounds. Through their individual performances of unified choreography, we witness the radical process of women taking ownership of their bodies and their sexualities in a world that so often alienates them from both. The women in the film have learned to use the power of the pole to dance through the traumas of their past, to cherish themselves because of their strength rather than hide themselves because of their scars. "Why I Dance" fills a hollowed space that internalized sexism has left in so many women, showing girls everywhere that consent means more than not saying no. It means embracing yourself as a sexual being without apology, without shame, and without fear. Each dancer's personal voice is displayed through her unique movement as well as through her written declarations of why she dances. The women in this film have become warriors for each other and for themselves, encouraging one another along their paths of self-discovery and finding joy through embracing their own bodies exactly as they are.

Launched in February of 2012, One Billion Rising is now the world's largest mass action to end violence against women. Uprising events stretch across class and religion to rise up and show people in more than 200 countries that violence against women is a global human issue. One Billion Rising also believes in creating an intersection for art and activism, stating that dance is "one of the most powerful forces on the earth and we have only just begun to tap into where it can take us."