“Wiggle your toes at first and then as the music in your heart grows louder and more insistent, sway back and forth. Feel the melody rise up your body until you move about the room with wild abandon, or stand in sweet stillness. That too is the dance.”

One such dancer is Emily Nussdorfer, founder and executive director of the Philadelphia based Moving Creations, Inc. the credo of which is “Changing Lives One Performance At A Time”. It began as a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts residency/pilot study in 2001 as part of Emily’s masters’ thesis research in the field of creative arts therapy and community change. She witnessed the impact of crime and disenfranchisement on the lives of inner city youth; girls in particular, and had the passion, willingness and ability to have a positive impact. She gathered around her the most gifted teachers and performers she knew, to create a mentoring program that incorporated ritual, art, theater, poetry, movement and music, framed by anthropological and cultural awareness that would have meaning for these young women.

Over the past 9 years, Emily has been gratified to witness the hugely healing and transformative power of the program. I have been mesmerized by their performances and a few years ago when I wrote an article about the Girls On The Move, called “Dancing Goddesses”, one of them shared tearfully, words to the effect that “If not for Emily and this program, I could have become a statistic.”

To learn more and get involved, go to www.movingcreationsinc.org