Moving for Change Since 1989

Our Mission

Judy Dworin Performance Project (JDPP) is an arts non-profit that harnesses creative expression as a catalyst for positive change. JDPP uses dance theater performance and multi-arts engagement to examine social issues, build bridges of understanding across diverse communities, and inspire both individual growth and collective action. Participants in JDPP’s programs discover untapped resources as they grow and heal, opening new and productive channels in the present and for the future.

About JDPP

JDPP reaches out to its audiences and residency participants through arts engagement that reminds us of our collective humanity. JDPP sees its role in the community as further building a diverse and innovative cultural mix of offerings at the highest professional level and giving voice to populations who have been silent or unheard. A primary focus of the organization is to serve underserved populations.

JDPP is the home for three distinct programmatic offerings. The Ensemble inspires change through innovative, movement-based, multi-arts performance on stage that examines social and personal issues of our time; the Moving Matters! Residency Program brings dance/theater into schools through collaborative projects and arts education programs that explore movement and the creative arts as tools for learning and personal growth; and the Bridging Boundaries Arts Intervention Program couples arts intervention with social work, to bridge the forced separations of populations affected by incarceration.

Our Impact

702

702 Children Served in 2018

14

14 Residencies in the Greater Hartford Area and Connecticut

27

27 Cities and Towns Performed in

20300

20,300 Viewers of Making Me Whole. Prison, Art and Healing.

JDPP From the Beginning

  • 1989

    JDPP incorporated as 501c3 organization on the name MetaArts. Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble is formally instituted, and makes its international debut at the National Theater, Sofia, Bulgaria.

  • 1996

    JDPP initiates its first Parkville Community School Residency with the 5th grades - now a whole school engagement.

  • 2005

    MetaArts is renamed Judy Dworin Performance Project.

  • 2005

    JDPP initiates its first year-long performance residency at York Correctional Institution for women in Niantic, the only state prison for women in CT.

  • 2008 and 2012

    JDPP Ensemble receives Merit Awards from National and State Local History Organizations for ‘The Witching Hour’ and ‘In This House’

  • 2010

    JDPP awarded the Hartford Courant Tapestry award for its bridging of diverse sectors of the community and begins its Moms & Kids outreach at York and its in-school and after school programs in Hartford.

  • 2015

    JDPP invited by the Department of Correction to begin a Dads & Kids program at Cybulski Reintegration Center in Enfield, CT as part of Governor Malloy’s Second Chance Initiative.

  • 2016

    JDPP was selected as 1 of only 6 organizations nationwide to receive a Creativity Connects: National Demonstration Projects grant award from the Andrew G. Mellon Foundation and Mid-America Arts Alliance, New England Foundation for the Arts and the Department of Economic and Community Development: Connecticut Office of the Arts.

2018

JDPP Executive/Artistic Director Judy Dworin is awarded the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the CT Department of Economic Development Office of the Arts.

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Judy Dworin Performance Project, Inc. is a 501c(3) organization.