our story
What Moves Us
Blue13 strives to drive a substantive shift in the perception and practice of American dance through performance, community access, and education.
20 Years of Blue13
Blue13 Dance Company is an American dance theatre ensemble based in Los Angeles, with a mission to drive a substantive shift in the perception and practice of American dance through performance, outreach, and education. For over 20 years, Blue13 has connected audiences through the power of live, aesthetically and culturally daring dance, performing in the U.S. and abroad in its highly energetic and theatrical modern dance style that is inspired in part by the classical and cultural art forms of the Indian subcontinent.
A first-generation South Asian American, Blue13’s Founding Artistic director, Achinta S. McDaniel pulls precision, humor, and deep emotion from her ensemble to create work as rebellious and unconventional as its architect. Storytelling through dance is central to the company, as is a continual exploration of technique with its cast of dancers of many backgrounds. The work is moody, rhythmic, and charged, presenting the audience with an intelligent experience of performance that turns the cultural stereotype of Indian dance on its head.
ABIDE
Access
Belonging
Inclusion
Diversity
Equity
ABIDE is the cornerstone of the Blue13 ethos, conceived by Executive Director and Founding Artistic Director, Achinta S. McDaniel, and woven into all facets of our organizational and artistic practices. Blue13 is an Indian woman-founded dance company, with a highly diverse cast, board, and staff. When you contribute to Blue13, you center Global Majority artists as the important and exciting voices and movers of our generation. Help us increase cultural knowledge where it is needed most, and partner with Blue13’s commitment to ABIDE.
Blue13 acknowledges the land on which we live, work, and gather is the traditional territory of the Tongva, Chumash, and Kizh peoples. We pay our respects to their elders, past and present, and extend our gratitude for their ongoing stewardship of this land. We also honor the legacy of the African Diaspora and recognize that this country would not exist without the free, enslaved labor of Black people. As we continue to inhabit and benefit from this place, we recognize our responsibility to honor the histories, cultures, and contributions of Indigenous peoples and to work towards justice and reconciliation.
Blue13 Dance Company is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.
Photos Courtesy of Daniel Valentine & Kevin Parry respectively
Our work has always been rooted in unveiling inequity and celebrating with radical joy in the face of adversity. We are not any one thing to serve to satisfy white centered ideology. We are not inferior in our Bollywood, in our abstract work, on stage, or in a cypher. We are a Brown and Black global majority dance company, and our blood is Blue.
