SAVE THE DATE: January 19-21, 2024
Join us at the 2024 Alabama Dance Festival. As one of the largest gatherings of dancers and dance enthusiasts in the Southeast, the Alabama Dance Festival will immerse you in master classes with world-renowned teachers, audition opportunities, teacher training, networking, performances by regional dance groups, and a guest company. Each year, the Alabama Dance Festival boasts a weekend full of performances. Participants and public alike enjoy work presented in a range of styles and traditions by schools, studios, companies, and choreographers in our annual New Works Concert and Alabama Dance Festival Showcase.
Call for Artists
The Alabama Dance Council (ADC) is looking for experienced dance artists, educators, and choreographers to lead master classes and workshops for the 2024 Alabama Dance Festival. All genres are encouraged to apply. Click here for more information.
Application Deadline: May 31. Notification: July 30
Early Bird 🐦Registration (Green and Red Tracks) ends January 1, 2024. Online registration deadline January 10, 2024 11:59 pm.
Remember to purchase your ADC Membership!
Guest Company: KM Dance Project 
Raw Fruit is a multidisciplinary work led by Kesha McKey, Artistic Director of KM Dance Project and Catherine Caldwell, Associate Director of KM Dance Project. It is a collection of stories that reveal the essence of ancestral values which have been woven into the cultural fabric of Black folks’ lives. This work examines legacy, identity, socialization, unity, and friction inside the Black family dynamic. KMDP delves deep to expose the impact of race, class, gender and sexuality on maternal relationships and track how the retention of cultural values, morals and taboos have shaped the current existence of Black people in the south. They reflect on the elements that have contributed to their unique traditions and multifaceted ways of life, unveiling family and community values that are seldom challenged or contradicted. Raw Fruit is steeped in New Orleans culture and layered with visceral movement created from the female lens of the African American experience in the south. From crawfish boils to second lines, living room altars to junior daughters, and bread pudding to pecan pralines, these experiences, rituals and ancestral contributions have created a web of lineage connecting present experiences with customs rooted in the past. “We recognize and value what we have acquired, what we release, what we hold and what we will share with those who come after us.” – Kesha McKey
Dance for Schools
The Alabama Dance Festival includes a variety of events for educators and students. A free day-long arts integration workshop for which K12 educators can receive Continuing Education credit. Dance Across Birmingham offers teachers and students a free day of dance workshops/classes. Birmingham Dance Showcase a free concert that presents the talent of local dance artists and groups. Dance Performance Assessment gives public school dance students (grades 6+) an opportunity to perform for a standards-based evaluation ($5 fee/dancer/dance). School Show Raw Fruit is a full-length professional presentation of KM Dance Projects latest work. The show is free, but reservations are required.
Classes
The Alabama Dance Festival winter intensive offers a diverse range of master classes and workshops from a carefully curated faculty of emerging, experienced and renown dancers, artists, choreographers, and educators. Classes vary across styles and cultural traditions for pre-professional dancers (grades 6-12), college/professional dancers, and pedagogy and professional development workshops.
Studio Planning Guide
School (Field Trip) Planning Guide
2024 Class Schedule – COMING SOON!
Auditions
The Alabama Dance Festival offers valuable audition opportunities for dance students. Dancers may register to audition for local, regional, and national summer programs, college programs, and scholarships.
Performances
New Works Concert, Dorothy Jemison Day Theatre
Date: Jan 19, 2024 At: 8:00PM
Tickets – available at the door
(Festival Package includes a ticket to this show)
Alabama Screendance Festival, Alys Stephens Center
Date: Jan 20, 2024 At: 5:00PM
Tickets – available at the door
(Festival Package includes a ticket to this show)
Raw Fruit, Alys Stephens Center
Date: Jan 20, 2024 At: 8:00PM
Single Ticket Sales Click Here
(Festival Package includes a ticket to this show)
Alabama Dance Festival Showcase, Dorothy Jemison Day Theatre
Date: Jan 21, 2024 At: 2:30 PM
Tickets – very limited number available at the door
(Festival Package includes a ticket to this show)
