The Crossroads Project
BELOW: Left: An overview of The Crossroads Project.
Right: Excerpts from the 2025 Crossroads Project, currently in development at ARGS/Appomattox Regional Governor’s School (Petersburg, VA); Cora Dance Brooklyn (Red Hook, Brooklyn, NYC); Cora Dance Alleghany (Alleghany County, VA); and Vernon Johns Middle School (Petersburg, VA). For details on 2025 Crossroads performances on Thursday, February 13 at ARGS, click here.
“Crossroads was built from my love of 3 things: my rural Virginia roots, New York City, and the transformative power of dance. Recognizing that three such different things elicit the same feeling of home within me led me to create a project that defines home as something we all share and that inside this universal experience is a power to unite that is greater than the geographic and cultural divides that often polarize us.”
–Shannon Hummel
The Crossroads Project intersects rural and urban community members - primarily teens and young adults - through dance, writing, visualization, dynamic conversation, and performance, helping them work together on creating collaborative video/film and live performance work while finding common humanity, de-stigmatizing local identity, breaking down stereotypes, and achieving understanding across perceived divides. Identifying the state of feeling “at home” as it applies to our bodies, residences, communities, and country, Crossroads deepens participants’ awareness of America’s complex cultures and people and through fun, participant-directed, collaborative activities, builds trust between participants whose home communities are often publicly portrayed as divided. Crossroads provides authentic, avenues for urban rural cross-cultural exchange, a critical step toward finding lasting peace in our communities, our country and our time.
Join us for the culminating showings of the 2025 Crossroads Project on Thursday, February 13, at 11:00 AM and 12:30 PM in the Pittman Studio* at Appomattox Regional Governor’s School. Witness the power of art to connect and inspire across divides! FREE. Courtesy RSVP requested to dpurvis@args.us.
*The Pittman Studio is located behind Pittman Technical Annex, in the rear of 35 Pine Street (parking entrance on Wythe Street) adjacent to the campus of the Appomattox Regional Governor's School for the Arts and Technology, Petersburg, VA.
Click here to view The Crossroads Project Documentary and hear from past participants, facilitators, and Cora’s founders about the history and impact of the project.
The 2025 Crossroads Project has been facilitated by Artistic Director Shannon Hummel and Cora Dance company and faculty members, Juliana Marsh and Keon Washington with assistance by Dr. Denise Purvis, ARGS Dance Department Chair. Cohort leaders include Nikki Assanti (Cora Dance Brooklyn), Taylor Black (ARGS), McKenzie Page (Vernon Johns Middle School), and Ammara Shafqat (Cora Dance Brooklyn). Original music by Cora Dance company composer Hans Bilger. In addition to the culminating February 13 performances at ARGS, live public performances take place locally at each development site. For information about how The Crossroads Project can be a part of your studio, school, organization, or community, email company@coradance.org.
Past Crossroads Projects:
Below are a examples of Crossroads Projects developed during COVID that resulted in virtual productions taking place in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NYC; Lewisburg, WV; and Petersburg/Richmond, VA. Facilitators: Junie Marsh and Shannon Hummel. Original music by Cora composer, Hans Bilger. All footage for video projects is shot by youth participants and edited in collaboration with the facilitators.
