Kayla Hamilton Launches Circle O, a New Cultural Organization

Dance artist/choreographer/educator/cultural consultant Kayla Hamilton has established Circle O, a new cultural organization created by and for Black Disabled and other multiply marginalized creatives. Based in the Bronx, NY, Circle O centers access as creative innovation, from process to outcome, operating in three different wings: Performance, Education, and Consultation.

"Circle O reimagines a (dance) world where Black Disabled, and other multiply marginalized creatives are central, and every body is worthy of care," shared Kayla Hamilton. "Everything we do aims to be an invitation into a world with more creativity and care. An invitation to enter a space with an attunement to our own needs and our inherent interdependence. In a world where there is no singular 'right' way to look, move or be, who might you become? What might we build together?"

Circle O was born out of a necessity to create a space where intersecting worlds that are often compartmentalized or seen as disparate, are instead integrated as central. For example:

• A space where Black Disabled artists are not asked to "choose" between being the only Black person in a disability centered space or the only disabled person in a Black space;

• Where access is viewed as essential to creative innovation and not as a DEI afterthought;

• Where performance, education, and the design and implementation of programming are all part of the same model looking to transform the dance ecology as a whole;

• Where multi-marginalized folks across difference get to come together and dismantle hierarchical, singular modes of being, moving or making work.

"I worked with Kayla as a consultant over the course of an 18-month contract and cannot overstate the positive impact of her work and expertise," shared culture worker Emily Waters. "During our engagement, I was continually impressed by Kayla's commitment to open and honest dialogue between key stakeholders. She consistently designed solutions that bridged the needs of the disabled arts community and institutional structures to get us to YES again and again. And in all of her work she provided ongoing resources and on-the-spot tutorials about accessibility and disability justice frameworks to ensure that she was not just educating but laying the groundwork for us to carry the work forward. I believe Kayla to be one of the most thoughtful and considered minds working in our field today and would recommend Circle O's services to anyone seeking to center access and disability justice as part of their ongoing work."

The Circle O team includes Kayla Hamilton (Founder & Artistic Director), Ellen Chenoweth (Management and Programs Partner), Vanessa Hernández Cruz (Social Media), Joselia Hughes (Researcher, Describer, Creative Consulting), Ziiomi Law (Administrative Care Coordinator), Shannon Meredith (Finance and Operations Consultant), Elisabeth Motley (Co-Conspirator, Crip Movement Lab), and Ita Segev (Grant Writer, Creative & Strategic Advisor).

Kayla Hamilton/Circle O has been presented and supported by BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance; Dance/NYC; Danspace Project; Gibney; Jacob's Pillow; New York Live Arts; NYC Department of Education; Performance Space NY; River to River Festival; The Shed; UCLA Disability Studies Inclusion Labs; and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Circle O Wings

Performance:

The Circle O Performance Wing will support the development and presentation of work by Hamilton. Upcoming performances include the world premiere of How to Bend Down/How to Pick it Up (HTBD/HTPU) at The Shed, August 15-17. HTBD/HTPU is an immersive, community specific, multidisciplinary dance performance exploring lineages of Black Disabled imagination and alternative world building. The work utilizes an elaborate multimedia design, multiple audio descriptions, ASL, a multi vantage-point performance space, and a performance structure that can reconfigure every night based on the performers' changing needs.

HTBD/HTPU recently received an NEFA National Dance Project grant to support U.S. touring 2024-2026. Contact Ellen Chenoweth at ellen@circleo.org for tour conversations.

Education:

Circle O creates pedagogical spaces that allow people to question hierarchical models that prioritize a euro-centric "sameness" of perception, movement and form. Across many disciplines, Circle O educators invite rigorous curiosity, embolden agency and provide a container of alternative lineages that marginalized communities have forged to make art and be together.

Educational offerings include Crip Movement Lab, a movement methodology co-created by Kayla Hamilton and Elisabeth Motley for folks across Disabilities and non-disabled accomplices; Audio Description in Performance, an an in-depth dive into the art of audio description; TEACHING Dance for Every-Body, a training model for dance instructors who wish to prioritize the inclusion of students across disabilities; and K-12 Education, which brings Hamilton's 12 years of experience as a full-time special education teacher in the New York City public school system and introduces educators to practical practices intended to support students with disabilities.

Consultation:

Circle O works with organizations and foundations offering analysis, strategy and implementation of custom-built Disability Arts programming and intersectional access practices. They engage with collaborators who wish to deeply integrate the art & process of access as a foundational and transformational model. Past consultation clients and collaborations include Axis Dance Company; Access. Movement. Play. (A.M.P.) Residency at Movement Research; Interdisciplinary Disability Education and Access (IDEA) pilot program with Dance/NYC; UCLA Dancing Disability Lab; the Mellon Foundation; Summer Disability Dance Experience with Embraced Body; among others.

About Kayla Hamilton

Kayla Hamilton is a Texas-born, Bronx-based performance maker, dancer, educator, and consultant. She is 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, A 2023-2024 Pina Bausch Foundation Fellow, a 2024 NEFA National Dance Project Production Grant recipient, and a 2023-2024 Bronx Cultural Visions Fund recipient.

Her past performances have been presented at the Whitney Museum, Gibney, Performance Space NY, New York Live Arts, and Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. As a dancer, Kayla Hamilton was part of the Bessie Award-winning ensemble Skeleton Architecture while also performing with MBDance/Maria Bauman, Sydnie L. Mosley/SLMDances, and Gesel Mason.

Hamilton has developed/designed access-centered programming for the Mellon Foundation, Movement Research, DanceNYC, and UCLA Dancing Disability Lab. She is the co-director of Angela's Pulse/Dancing While Black with Marguerite Hemmings, Paloma McGregor, and Joya Powell. As an educator she co-developed 'Crip Movement Lab' with collaborator Elisabeth Motley; a pedagogical framework centering cross-disability movement practices which they have taught in multiple dance centers and universities around the country. She has also worked as a K-12 public school special education teacher in NYC for 12 years.

Image Description: This is a black & white dance image of Kayla Hamilton, who is a dark-skinned black woman. She is in front of a textured wall that has horizontal layers. Her arms are energetically reaching down to the diagonal as her head is tilting to the diagonal with her dread moving back in that same direction. She is wearing a diagonally striped long sleeve shirt with pants