Still dancing to break barriers and support DEI

As the Trump administration has pushed to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives nationwide, nonprofits are digging-in and continuing on with their programs. With creative spaces under threat, MOVE|NYC| has remained a haven for budding performance artists across New York City, by honoring tenets of accessibility and inclusivity. 

At MOVE|NYC|, founders Chanel DaSilva and Nigel Campbell aim to create a rigorous, free curriculum that prepares youth dancers for collegiate and professional careers. As alums of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and the Juilliard School, both DaSilva and Campbell were often the only BIPOC dancers in the room. Now, they bring their expertise navigating prestigious dance careers to expand the field of access for students hailing from under-resourced communities.

What started as a free three-week summer intensive course in 2015, MOVE|NYC|’s year-long Young Professionals program nurtures dance students from 9th through 12th grade with hands-on mentorship and college preparatory programs. The nonprofit has since expanded its pipeline through its pre-Young Professionals program, which cultivates dancers in seventh and eighth grade for successful performance arts high school experiences. 

New York Nonprofit Media caught up with MOVE|NYC| co-founders Chanel DaSilva and Nigel Campbell as they pull back the curtain on the industry by keeping diversity, equity and inclusion at the forefront of their work.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

So how did you get MOVE|NYC| off the ground? 

Campbell: Chanel and I met when we were 10-years-old at church in Brooklyn. We ended up going to the same local dance studio before going to high school and college together. We then embarked on our respective careers, mine mostly in Europe, and Chanel in the United States. We realized for most of our training careers, we had been the only people of color in the room. Chanel came to visit me in Sweden, and we had an “aha” moment where we asked ourselves – why don't more people from our communities have access to the beautiful life that art had given us? We started asking directors and all of them said that not many people of color were auditioning, and the ones that are, aren't ready and don't fit the right artistic and technical aesthetic they’re looking for. We saw the same homogeneity at the collegiate level. But when we went back to New York City, we saw a great deal of diversity at the high school level – we identified that there was a gap between high school and college, where we were going from diversity to homogeneity. And that's when we started thinking, how can we be a part of filling that gap to see a dance field that's more reflective of the world? We basically made the program we wish we had, and took pieces of all the programs that trained us to create the young professionals program. 

You speak of readiness as being the biggest barrier of access into the industry. What do they mean by that? 

DaSilva: I think, [readiness] is sometimes used as code for not polished, not highly recommended. We heard of readiness, and thought, what part of this can we address? Because there are things that preceded our lives that are historical systems. We knew that in order to be in the rooms where things are happening, you have to have certain credentials. You have to have a resume, a head shot, professional dance action shots, know how to speak in public and you need to be ready for your college auditions a year in advance. You need to be ready in junior year. So these are the sort of non-negotiables for readiness that no one really tells you. Most times, those additions to dance training come at a cost, and a lot of young people from different demographics can't afford to spend the extra money for the mentorship and professional development that it takes to jump into the collegiate space. If you don't have that, you're locked out. And that's where to Nigel's point, that gap between diversity and homogeneity begins to get wider and wider, because young people from families of color are not as savvy in that way. And so our mission was to learn everything about what that coded word “readiness" meant, and then give it all to these young people at the very vital and pivotal 13- to 18-year-old time span. 

Campbell: And to do it for free. Because money was one of the primary barriers – the big experiment was, if we remove the barrier of cost, will we see a shift in demographics? 

Did you see a shift in demographics? 

DaSilva: We did! And it's hard, because when you start something, people are looking for instantaneous results. But this type of impactful work is really more qualitative than quantitative. It takes the actual statistics of them matriculating into these institutions collegiately and professionally, for us to then say to the world, “look, the grand experiment worked.” But it took eight years for us to see our first class of freshmen dancers make it out of college and then start to enter the field. Now in our 10th year, we really can see that ripple of change happen in the field. We're seeing our dancers all over the globe, not just in New York City, but all over the United States, performing in Canada, Europe and on Broadway. 

Amidst President Trump's executive order to rid government agencies and nonprofits of diversity, equity and inclusion-based language and programming, why should we fight to maintain it?

DaSilva: It was scary to hear that news coming down as executive orders from this administration. As a diversity led organization, we are going to stand 10 toes down in our mission. We've always believed in excellence, and in some ways that's the same thing that our administration is talking about. Excellence is meritocracy, right? But excellence requires access. You don't just show up in the room. You either need to be invited, born in the room, or you pay to get in the room. You can't really divide access from race and gender conversations, because that's the way the world is set up. MOVE|NYC| is going to continue to lean into excellence and provide access for excellence to be cultivated. And we will continue to prioritize diversity and equity, because in speaking for the dance field and for all other mediums and genres, if we don't diversify, our art form will die. It needs to stay diverse and invite more audiences, voices, colors and ideas so that we can continue to move the conversation forward and stay interesting, alive and vital. 

You mentioned that when you both studied at Juilliard, you were often the only people of color. Is this still the experience of BIPOC students entering these institutions today? 

Campbell: That’s a loaded question. We have absolutely seen a shift in the demographics of the collegiate landscape, and 10 years in, we feel proud to be a part of that. But we wanted to make sure that when our students got into these institutions, they felt grounded and secure in who they were, whether the institution is diverse or not. Our job is to prepare them and empower them at the earliest stages, so that no matter what environment they walk into, they feel fortified. Chanel and I were lucky enough to have each other. Now fast forward to 2025, our young dancers have built a community. So when they go into these spaces, they know who they are, they have the language and tools, and they're ready for the program and rigor. 

Why is dance one of the best mediums to initiate conversations on racial justice and equity?

Campbell: I think art is such a wonderful vehicle because of the capacity for radical storytelling, radial honesty and radical listening. We live in a world where everyone is yelling over each other all the time, and none of us are hearing each other. And when you go down and you sit in your seat and you watch a show, you have to listen to that person's entire story, and then you comment once you've heard the whole thing. And that creates the opportunity for empathy and for conversation without being argumentative. We're here to provide beauty and creation and community. I can't think of anything more important than that, to balance all the madness that's happening in the world.

So what's next for MOVE|NYC|? What does the next 10 years look like? 

DaSilva: We live in a tumultuous world, so we are feeling really blessed to have made it to 10 years as a nonprofit. Now, we're thinking more about sustainability, longevity, deepening our roots, so that we can stand strong and tall for a very long time. 

Campbell: I'll just add, in speaking of legacy, we don't exist in a silo. Chanel, and I may have started this 10 years ago, but we stand on the shoulders of everybody who's come before us, who trained us, and the people who trained them, and the family and the legacy that built us up to this moment. So when I think about the future of MOVE|NYC| I think about all the young people whose lives we've impacted.