The Fellowship Project: Dance in the Community

The Fellowship Project is a multi-dimensional initiative of Shannon Hummel/Cora Dance that brings professional dancers and community members together through short- and long-term creative processes and performances. Meaningful and approachable, the project creates inclusive pathways for engagement—welcoming everyone from seasoned dancers to those experiencing dance for the first time. Collectively, The Fellowship Project initiatives celebrate dance as a powerful tool for connection, personal expression, and social cohesion, fostering understanding between people and affirming art as a vital force for community well-being. Initiatives are as follows:

COMMON DANCES (2015)

Common Dances is a suite of short works performed by the dancers of Shannon Hummel/Cora Dance, unfolding in everyday, unexpected locations. Each piece is inspired by the common moments we share and the spaces in which we share them, through small gestures of care, reflection, struggle, and joy. Intimate offerings of dance, these short gems invite audiences to reimagine the familiar as something special and moving, where community is lived and felt. Every space can be a stage. Every moment is a chance to connect.

Choreography: Shannon Hummel in collaboration with the performers

Original Performers: Cora Dance Company Members: Kelly Bartnik, Sarah Burke, Katie Dean, Solomon Goodwin, Nadia Tykulsker; Supporting cast: Yancy Greene, Megan Chu, Angelic Ortiz, Karen Ross, AJ Sharp, Isabel Umali; Guest Performers: Stephanie Batchelder, Cynthia Thompson, Carolyn Hall, and members of the Cora Youth Company: Mykie Laidlow, Dontae McCoy, Phoebe Pfaffman, Claire Sifton, Mateo Vidals.

Community Company: Previously Add Water, Make Dance

Community Company experiences are interactive workshops designed to include dancers of all ages, abilities, and experience levels, taking participants from inspiration to performance over a short period of time, often within a single session. Workshops begin with simple gestural choreography led by SH/CD dancers who facilitate exploration of variations that organically build upon the foundational gestures before assembling and presenting these collaborative creations in a live performance as a “community company”. The format invites newcomers to engage in the full arc of dancemaking while offering seasoned dancers the unique opportunity to collaborate across generations, backgrounds, and physical abilities. Workshops range in length from several hours to multiple days and may take place seated to maximize accessibility.

The Crossroads Project

BELOW: Left: Crossroads Project overview, by Katie Dean.

Right: Excerpts from the 2025 Crossroads Project excerpts: Cora Dance Brooklyn (Red Hook, Brooklyn, NYC); Cora Dance Alleghany (Alleghany County, VA); and Vernon Johns Middle School (Petersburg, VA).

“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

Crossroads is the most in-depth initiative within The Fellowship Project, designed to connect diverse communities—primarily teens and young adults across the nation’s rural and urban divide—by exploring the question: What is home?

Crossroads begins with intensive multi-day workshops led by Shannon Hummel and members of SH/CD. During projects in which multiple communities participate simultaneously, each local cohort engages in movement, storytelling, writing, and reflection sessions, building trust between participants, encouraging vulnerability, and generating dance-theatre material that investigates home within each locality. Cohorts collaboratively create an original performance reflecting these investigations for fellow community members and, in more expansive projects, come together in person, intersecting multiple groups to engage in meaningful dialogue and build on a co-created final performance. These final works embody the understanding and empathy formed across geographic, cultural, and social lines, fostering a deeper sense of connection to one another and to the broader idea of how we can peacefully, productively share a sense of home in America. Through joyful, participant-led creation and exchange, Crossroads breaks down stereotypes, de-stigmatizes identity, and builds lasting bridges between communities, offering an authentic and hopeful path toward unity in a divided time.

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 is facilitated by Founder and Professional Company & Mobile Programs, Director Shannon Hummel and Cora Dance company and faculty members. 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.