NWD Projects Inc.

Dale Andree, director of NWD Projects, has been on a mission for the past decade to use the visceral power of dance to bring attention to our collective responsibility to act on behalf of nature. The company was founded in 2014 to support National Water Dance, a bi-annual event across the United States that brings dancers of all levels together to support environmental awareness. This live-streamed event represents the focus on community and collective engagement that is at the core of NWD Projects' mission. 

Through collaborations with artists of all disciplines, NWD Projects creates new work in performance and film. Memories of Future Past, a film by Claudio Marcotulli and NWD Projects, premiered in Miami in January at Screendance Miami.  With the support of Betty Osceola of the Panther Clan of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, the film reflects on humans' generational impact on the Everglades. 

This past spring, National Water Dance 2024 Miami was a huge success thanks to a fearless group of artists who embraced the sun, salt, sand, and mosquitos! Collaborating with Live Arts Miami and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center, we had a capacity audience who traveled the trails from performance to performance, ending on the beach with all the dancers, musicians, and Miami Sound Choir. there to greet them. This was the 10th year we presented National Water Dance. 25 states and 73 separate organizations participated across the United States, and hundreds of dancers moved together using shared movement phrases. We are looking forward to 2026!

ARTSAIL* commissioned NWD Projects to collaborate with conservation artist Deborah Mitchell on creating a new work for the 15th Annual Southeast Regional Climate Summit, which was held on Miami Beach and featured multiple Miami artists whose work focuses on the environment. The season concluded with an additional commission from ArtSail for a new work, Weaving with Water. The company with musicians Ray Robinson and Pedro Ortiz danced in the waters of Biscayne Bay for the final event held at the Rosenstiel School on Virginia Key.

Engagement with the community is also a collaborative process. NWD Projects continues collaborating with Live Arts Miami and Dream in Green with their workshops in Miami-Dade Public Schools from Miami Beach to Homestead. This past year, we included field trip opportunities for students with the support of Biscayne Nature Center. Naturalists guided the students through the abundant natural trails, discovering music, spoken word, and dance and focusing on the question, "Where do we find  home?" One of the students' written responses best describes their experience. 

"It feels like nature is greeting me gently, welcoming me home."

NWD Projects with Girl Trek Overtown is building bridges through “A Walk Through Our Neighborhoods”, an environmental performance project created out of a series of neighborhood walks. Begun in 2023 the walks will continue through this season with the first one in October in Little Haiti.  This project is co-sponsored by Dade Heritage Trust.

NWD Projects is unique in engaging dance artists eager and willing to create and perform work in challenging locations, from the mangrove forests of Matheson Hammock to the cypress sloughs of the Everglades, to the sandbar at Biscayne Nature Center. This company of dance artists represents not only the diversity of race and culture but the wealth of experience through their ages which range over four decades. The dancers working with NWD Projects this season are Barbie Freeman, Sunyoung Park, Mary Spring, Natalie Rodriguez and TJ Anderson.

*ARTSAIL facilitates collaborations between artists, scientists, marine experts and activists in the creation of artwork with enduring advocacy value.