My last InHale

October 19th will be my last time serving as KYL/D's InHale Performance Series curator. Kun-Yang and I founded InHale in 2008 and over the past 11 years, have presented over 1000 performance artists to more than 1500 audience members.

The tagline for InHale has been: Diversity. Opportunity. Community.

These words are very meaningful to me and meaningful to what I've been able to bring to the Philadelphia Dance stage through InHale.

Diversity at InHale has embodied many layers. It has referred to

• racial diversity of artists, directors and performers - whether apparent or not
• age of artists
• gender 
• career trajectory of artists and where they are when they present (in college, long time professional)
• genre of the work (ballet, hip hop, modern, classical Indian, etc)
• context and subject matter
• process of development (work in progress, finished work, excerpts)
• medium (dance performance, dance on film, theatre, music, spoken word) 

Opportunity. 

• InHale artists received a safe space to present, try out new ideas, meet new audiences, interact with other artists and create collaborative potential with technical professionalism and marketin. Additionally, InHale artists often received feedback from audience members to help reflect on or continue their process, video, photos, and a published review of their work. 
• InHale audiences also received the benefit of these elements to the artists as well as the potential to see a vast amount of dance in one evening, for a very affordable price. 

Community. 

• InHale provided an intimate space and created an informal, yet professional environment for these opportunities. 
• Audience development occurred in the presentation of multiple, diverse artists in one evening and allowing the artists and audience members to communicate through written feedback and in informal gatherings after the shows. 
• InHale had applications and participating artists from all over the country - bringing their experiences of dance from MA, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD, DC, VA, NC, GA, LA,  IL, IA, and WI.  
• I executed a Service Learning project in collaboration with Alvernia University that allowed students to experience the value of service through professional performance, technical production, and curation. 
• I mentored many additional students and young professionals through the process of arts administration, technical production, and performance. 

I'm so grateful to everyone I've met and worked with over the past 11 years. Thank you to KYL/D for this opportunity. Thank you to the artists who have applied and been a part of the InHale community. Thank you for the diverse ways you all have helped me grow - in my thoughts about dance and community, in my artistry in creating and performing my own work, in technical theatre production, in my development as as an administrator, in my understanding of presenting and event planning, and so much more. 

I'm confident that, as I pass the torch, InHale will continue to grow in new ways. 

I'm excited for new adventures on my horizon as I to continue to serve and grow in the dance community.