International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD)
The Third Coast, Our Community in Motion
37th Annual International Conference and
Festival of Blacks in Dance
The International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) hosts its 37th Annual International Conference and Festival of Blacks in Dance – The Third Coast, Our Community in Motion – in Chicago, Illinois, January 20- 24, 2027, in partnership with The Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project and Deeply Rooted Dance Theater.
The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago is proud to be a space partner for workshops and classes led by extraordinary dance artists including: Cleo Parker Robinson, Ronald K. Brown and Arcell Cabuag, Theara J. Ward, Shirley Black Brown Coward, Alicia Graf Mack, Dr. Iquail Shaheed, Erin Barnett, Nena Gilreath, Willie Anderson, Janine Beckles, Gary Abbott, Tommie-Waheed Evans, Sandella Malloy, Jessica Diouf, Lauren Anderson, Kurt Douglas, Dr. yaTande Whitney Hunter, Alexandria Best, Simone Stevens, Marcus Isaiah, Kareem Goodwin, Caroline Rocher Barnes, Bril Barrett, along with our own Dr. Ayo Walker.
IABD's Conference and Festival is the broadest international gathering of Black Dance professionals, agents, artistic directors, artists, choreographers, company managers, executive directors, historians, presenters, scholars, teachers, to share ideas, cultures and experiences.
The Third Coast, Our Community in Motion celebrates Black dance as a living archive of movement, migration, and collective possibility.
Honoring the currents and legacy of the Great Migration when generations of Black artists carried culture and creativity in memory, rhythm, and ritual, flowing along routes that led them into new communities and new futures. As families, traditions, and artistic practices traveled, they converged in Chicago and transformed the city into a thriving center for Black innovation, where dance became both a reflection of lived experience and a catalyst for cultural change.
This is the idea of Chicago as the Third Coast - a city built where waterways once met and became the routes that carried people, culture, and possibility. Here, Black dance is the current that still runs through every line: the tradition that keeps flowing, and the hub where every arrival leaves its mark.
