Time Machine

Guardian’s Time Machine is designed to teach K-12 audiences about African American history through dance. Beginning in Ancient Africa, and traveling toward the present, this interactive, edutainment piece includes Jazz and Lindy Hop, Breaking, Locking, Baltimore Club, and Guinean dances.

Heroes and Villains

In this piece, Guardian recommends actions to address the crises of racial tensions in Baltimore and beyond. Through movement, we suggest that by challenging our visceral reactions to people's differences, being vulnerable before one another, and developing a vision of how we can work and live together, we can overcome the challenges of our time. In three vignettes, the company illustrates the possibilities of this process.

Dancing White

From generation to generation, Dancing White chronicles the interaction between blacks and whites in this country, as we together built what it means to be American. At a time in history when concerns about race relations in America have returned to a central position in the public sphere, Dancing White is an examination of our cultural norms through the lens of dance.

Harlem Renaissance at Harford Heights

An example of Guardian’s Jazz Residency focused on the Harlem Renaissance at Hartford Heights, June 2017.

Guardian's NMAAHC Performance

Guardian performs at the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Showtime at the Apollo

This trailer showcases the New Song Academy 2016 end-of-year show and highlights Guardian's after-school dance program.

TEDxHampdenWomen: Integration, Anyone?

This TEDx talk explores the barriers to desegregating schools in Baltimore, with the goal of promoting dialogue between communities, and recommending actions for overcoming divisions.

Plant and Water (2016)

Regular Black Radio discusses arts education as an intentional element of racial reconciliation in Baltimore and beyond.

Dancing White: Race, America, and the Black Body’s Role

In the wake of a resurgence of international attention to ongoing racial tensions, namely #BlackLivesMatter, Dancing White joins the conversation by asking through discussion, lecture and performance, whether freedom is available to all bodies, or only those of certain hue?

Art and the Road to Improved Race Relations in Baltimore

Bigotry and systemic injustice are characterized by emotional detachment and resistance to accountability. This lecture explore the potential of Arts Education to make progress not through legislation but through the power of understanding.

Race Relations and the Arts (2016)

A conversation with Breai Mason-Campbell about the intersection of race relations and the arts.

Teach Me How to Kuku

As a culminating activity for their study of the Guinean dance, Kuku the 1st Grade students at New Song Academy created this music video which bridges African and African America culture through the use of traditional, African movement and contemporary, African-American music.

Closer (Community Movement)

Locating Art in the community to which it is indigenous is one of Guardian's top priorities. Our Community Movement series is an annual undertaking designed to celebrate the contributions that black people have made to American culture for audiences who may not otherwise have access to Arts performances or education. Closer is a collage of vernacular traditions spanning the distance between the period of Reconstruction to the Millennium.

North (Community Movement) - 2010

This 2010 installment of Guardian's Community Movement series which brings dance performances to communities with limited access to the performing Arts, is an edutainment choreography which tells the story of the Great Migration of African Americans through movement.

You Can’t Stop the Beat

The ideals raised in American, public consciousness by the Civil Rights Movement remain the subject of our conversations today as we work to bridge the divide between disparate communities here in Baltimore and beyond. This Community Movement project invited white allies to work in Sandtown, Baltimore on the issue of desegregation and equal access to resources.

Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation's Harlem Rennaissance Festival