Open Arms Dance Project creates greater joy and compassion with dance that opens hearts, minds, and arms.

Open Arms Dance Project is a community of dancers with diverse bodies, ages, and abilities, creating powerful art together in Boise, Idaho since 2008.  As a dance company with a range of physical and neuro-diversity, Open Arms Dance Project has a mission to create greater joy and compassion with dance that opens hearts, minds, and arms.

You can find us performing everywhere from city sidewalks to main stages, including the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts. We carry our art and advocacy to school age audiences through our Upstanders with Open Arms anti-bullying program and Spiraling, our new one hour compassion building program for middle and high school students, both in partnership with the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights.

SOARING

May 8th, 2024

Pioneer Room, 6th Floor Jack’s Urban Meeting Place

Wednesday 10:00 AM & 12:30 PM

Join us for performances that will make your heart soar with joy. Revel in Monarch Migration’s kaleidoscope of butterflies and witness recent photographs of our universe come to life in INFRARED. Plus, see how the act of valuing all bodies makes everyone, in the audience and onstage, feel Good to Be Alive! 

Wednesday 7:00 PM

Open Arms Dance Project fills a niche in our community that no other arts organization can. Open Arms' commitment to creating a community of artists, accepting them as they are, and challenging each artist to give generously of themselves, in whatever capacity, is uplifting and full of hope. Get your tickets now and be part of something truly special!

UPCOMING EVENTS

  • March 24, 2024

    KIDFORT: Monarch Migration

    Julia Davis Park, Boise

    5:45-6:30 PM, Free

    Come watch our monarch themed performance, learn a special American Sign Language poem about monarchs, make-a-dance, and we’ll end with a dance party!

    KIDFORT Schedule

  • April 23, 2024

    BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY: Flash Mob

    BSU Quad

    12:00 PM, Free

    As the culmination of a semester long collaboration with the BSU Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies’ Body Politics class, we will enliven campus with our powerful art and diverse bodies!

    BSU Department of Humanities & Cultural Studies

  • April 25, 2024

    HUMAN RIGHTS CELEBRATION

    Anne Frank Memorial, 770 S. 8th St., Boise

    6:00 PM, Free

    Open Arms is honored to be included in this celebration of human rights! Again, we will enliven the space with our signature, inclusive movement. Plus we hope to have some of our Uptanders with Open Arms 2nd graders and Sprial Towards Justice students join us to perform!

    The Idaho Anne Frank Memorial

“This dance is about how I envisioned my life, in a spirit of sharing and hope, during a time of grief. It is based on a poem I wrote in 2004, titled, ‘How Should My Life Go?’”

- Gail C. Hawkins, age 75

Root. Grow. Release. Repeat.

Root, Grow, Release, Repeat features the solo choreography of 12 Open Arms Dance Project dancers woven together by Artistic Director Megan Brandel and Cinematographer April Frame. It was created during online rehearsals in the Fall of 2020 and filmed at the Idaho Botanical Garden in Boise, Idaho. Many dancers made full artistic choices in creating their own solos, while the natural, non-choreographed movement of other dancers was celebrated. The descriptive, poetic script makes this film accessible for viewers who are blind or low vision and adds a layer of artistry for all viewers.

“I made this dance because Open Arms makes me feel very awesome.”

- Keely Burns, age 25

“I created this solo because many of us had to “slow down” this past year. I wanted to show that in slowing down my hope is you find peace. Feel the air…breath.”

- Shirley Hurley, age 64

Flipping the Script

Go behind-the-scenes of the Open Arms Dance Project in Boise as it rehearses for its biggest concert ever, and then performs. You’ll also meet some of the members of this inclusive, multi-generational company, which includes dancers with disabilities and others who identify as able-bodied.

I love dance. I just love the ability you have to express yourself through movement.”

- Heather Marie

Box me inside/ Outside the box

Box Me Inside/Outside the Box: A Movement Memoir, March 2020-March 2021 was conceived in June 2020 and created during a 10-day artist residency at Surel’s Place in Garden City, Idaho, in October 2020. It was completed and filmed in March 2021 in Ms. Brandel's home office/dining room in Boise and the Owyhee mountain range outside of Marsing, Idaho. Essential collaborators in creating this piece were April Frame, Jessie Proksa, and Anne Boyles.

Movement invention came from reoccurring pandemic themes: -touching surfaces with body parts other than hands, -helping kids with schoolwork, -home projects, -fighting to concentrate in a noisy home, -massive changes, -constant adapting, -quarantining/freezing -starting again, -escapes into Nature and creative projects.

“When I’m dancing I feel free to express my emotions without fear of being judged.”

- Heather Marie, OADP Dancer & Ambassador

“It makes me happy that I’m dancing.”

- Hava Fisherman, OADP Dancer & Ambassador

Donations to Open Arms Dance Project help provide scholarships, costumes, and cover operational costs that the sliding scale tuition is not able to cover. Some seasons nearly half our dancers are given scholarships. All donations support us in fulfilling our mission of creating greater joy and compassion in the community with dance that opens hearts, minds, and arms.

Thank you so much!

Learn more about our mission, our vision, and how we work

Learn more about how we came to be

Learn more about our anti-bullying program in partnership with the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights

Enjoy a gallery of our award-winning dance films