This week’s episode features Dwana Smallwood, International Dance Icon and Founder and Executive Director of the Dwana Smallwood Performing Arts Center in Brooklyn, New York. Dwana spent more than a decade as the Principal Dancer of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and founded the dance program for the prestigious Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. 

 

Listen as we discuss her journey into the world of dance at the professional level, her perspective on race, diversity and inclusion in the dance and entertainment industry as a whole, the importance of the arts and artistic expression in the development of young Black girls, and her commitment to bringing dance back to her community in Brooklyn amid the pandemic.