Kenneth Walker Dance Project is a contemporary ballet company dedicated to the expression of the modern condition through the lens of the classical vocabulary.

To achieve its mission the company will:

Provide a breadth of dance experience

Create original dance works

Engage with the audience via the work and dance literacy

Build upon the ballet tradition to create a more expansive form of expression

The vision of KWDP is to bring the artist and audience to the poetics of the human condition. Inherent in this vision are several tensions: taking artistic risks without leaving our audience behind, managing financial stability while allowing for artistic experimentation, being sensitive to the community while recognizing that ballet is not a mass art form. We believe the transforming capacity of art and its power to affect human life will fulfill these objectives.

Cultural equity:  KWDP believes that ballet belongs to everyone. 

Classical ballet is rooted in the differences between male and female bodies, in a hierarchical structure for performers, and was birthed through a system that valued the singular vision and demands of a choreographer or artistic director. We recognize the history of this artform, but as a contemporary ballet company serving the South Bay, we seek to re-define the relationships between all who are part of KWDP.

We provide opportunities for diverse artists to practice their craft. With the roots of ballet in Europe and Russia, we seek to add diversity to that legacy in order to serve the audience and artists of our community. We are the most diverse body-type contemporary ballet company. We take the position that artistry is expressed through talent, effort and commitment, not body-type.

We are a South Bay dance company and are committed to artists and audiences in this area. KWDP is one of very few professional contemporary dance companies in this community and therefore, few opportunities for local dancers to pursue their art. Additionally, we are committed to paying our artists and pay is not gender-based as it is in many dance companies.

The cultural goal of KWDP is to contribute to the dance landscape of our community and to broaden the audience by routinely performing in underserved communities and by making tickets accessible. We enjoy finding ways to use the ballet vocabulary to express the feelings of modern humans. To dive into the science of ballet technique and explode those notions to view the geometry of other movement modalities. To create dances to the music of the world without appropriating or pandering the cultures we borrow from so that our audiences feel included.