Alexandra Joye Warren, C’2003, has partnered with the City of Greensboro, North Carolina, to offer Uplift Girls, an empowerment program for girls ages 9 to 18. Warren is founding artistic director of Joyemovement Dance, a contemporary dance company based in Greensboro.
The Washington, D.C. native started Uplift Girls in 2016 to give the city’s preteen and teenage girls an opportunity to learn new skills in a creative and interactive environment. With funding through Greensboro’s City Arts, Uplift Girls will offer a 17-week workshop series that will focus on self-care, entrepreneurship, movement and global citizenship. Participants will engage in activities such as field trips, yoga, dance, writing, and theater during the program, which began Aug. 7.
“We just really want [girls] to have the safe space to be able to process and respond to what’s going on in the world around them,” Warren said in an interview with WGHP TV Fox 8 News in High Point, North Carolina.
Warren received her B.A. degree in drama with a concentration in dance/pre-medicine from Spelman and a Master of Fine Arts degree in dance performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Founded in 2014, Joyemovement's mission is to tell stories of the African Diaspora that inspire audience members and participants to reexamine embedded societal ideas.