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Smashworks Dance is a New York-based group of movers dedicated to accessible dance performance and confidence-building education.

Home: Welcome

OUR MISSION:

 

Smashworks Dance is a New York-based dance company founded and directed by choreographer Ashley McQueen. We dance to advocate for women’s empowerment through performing arts, educational programming, and community outreach. We make dance accessible and inspire audiences to take action through our performances both onstage and in site-specific environments. We view artistic expression as power—smashing stereotypes and promoting dance as a unifying and confidence-building practice for all.

Smashworks Dance

WHAT WE'VE ACCOMPLISHED

  • Rebel Girls Book - Smashworks Dance collaborated with Rebel Girls on a series of empowering activities for their latest chapter book, Alicia Alonso Takes The Stage! Published worldwide August 2020.​

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  • CITY STORIES - Smashworks collaborated with Swedish visual artist Benny Cruz to create a multidisciplinary performance experience at CPR-Center for Performance Research (2022). The work featured a three wall projection installation created by Ashley McQueen featuring Benny Cruz's subway map artwork.

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  • No Uterus, No Opinion - Smashworks, visual artist Benny Cruz, and photographer Jens Franzen staged a public installation at Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY.​

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  • Box Factory Gallery x Benny Cruz - Smashworks performed at Benny Cruz’s art gallery opening reception at Box Factory Gallery.​

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  • For Which It Stands - evening length political satire performance - featured in "Brooklyn's Top 20 Things To Do," "Time Out NY," and the Dance Enthusiast.

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  • Partnership with Girl Scouts of Greater New York - Smashworks Dance leads original confidence-building Dance Badge Workshops for troops in the NY area.

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  • Company Tours to Santa Barbara, CA; St. Louis, MO; Kalamazoo, MI; San Antonio, TX; Milwaukee, WI; Oneonto, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Tarbes, France; and Zurich, Switzerland. 

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  • Girls Move Free - a benefit performance in support of Global Girls Alliance, a program of the Obama Foundation that seeks to empower adolescent girls around the world through education. Hosted by Hope Salas, GIRLS MOVE FREE featured guest performances by Kiva Carman-Frank and The Ephyras.

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  • Smashworks Film Festival provided a free platform for artists to present their dance films, with all proceeds benefitting Planned Parenthood.

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  • Partnership with Dancers Responding to AIDs - accepting donations at public performances.

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  • Partnership with Yap About It - Smashworks Dance has partnered with Yap About It (a nonprofit org that works to destigmatize talk therapy through arts and talk therapy) to teach Ballet & Creative Movement classes to their youth.​​​

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  • Collaboration with Lake Arts Project and Bright Hill Press - created original choreography in response to war veterans' workshops with Feast of Crispian and local students’ poetry; sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.

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  • Village Voice "Voice Choices" for City Stories, our first evening length performance at Center for Performance Research.​​​​

Smashworks Dance
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