DC Dance Network

✨LIMINAL BEST OF FEST 2026 - Partner Awards✨ Thank you to our incredible festival partners for creating these awards to recognize powerful films from this year’s LIMINAL Dance Film Festival. The DC Dance Network Momentum Award was presented by founder and director of DCDN, Jane Raleigh on the final day of the festival. Awarded to the film, WithIN ME by Makayla Allman. Photo credit: Peter Leibold VI #liminaldancefilmfestival #liminaldff2026

DONATION LINK IN BIO “Ceremonials” premieres two months from today at @danceplacedc , in a co-presentation w @dcdancenetwork and we are at a little over 1/3 towards our fundraising goal. Funds collected during our spring campaign go directly towards our collaborators @ahameline @javipadilla26 @sydneyyamiraa @akblythe @joeyrauch @jofairie and @drewscamms If you have the capacity, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Brendan Drake/COMMUNITY EXORCISMS (the creative umbrella, under which I engage in all my creative projects). Your support helps experimental performance thrive in DC during a fraught political climate. Put it this way, wouldn’t it feel nice to know you helped finance a pseudo-gay-porn bloody baptism a mere two miles from the White House? Personally, I think that’s neat:) Ceremonials. July 10th and 11th at Dance Place DC Drawing inspiration from Catholic iconography and Gay Porn, “Ceremonials” is an hour long performance work exploring the not-so-subtle similarities between Christianity and eroticism. The work connects 14th-century Christian mystic Julian of Norwich’s text Revelations of Divine Love with images of contemporary queer smut to consider how sorrow and ecstasy are such strange but familiar bedfellows. Ceremonials is a utopic fever dream that lives somewhere between passion play and an elegiac orgy. A bacchanalian parade of images, complete with fallen angels, messianic delusions, beautiful boyx drenched in holy water, and Mother Mary herself. It is a raucous meditation on pleasure, pain, and surrender as well as a call for hope, despite the horrors Sorrow is the content, ecstasy is the form. Donation link in Bio Photo credit: @e.mertz.photography

🏆 THE DCDN MOMENTUM AWARD 🏆 We are thrilled to announce that WithIN ME has been awarded THE DC DANCE NETWORK MOMENTUM AWARD at the inaugural LIMINAL Dance Film Festival. Directed by Makayla Allman, WithIN ME was recognized as a film that catalyzes movement, connection, and reflects the vitality and artistry of the DMV dance community. Congratulations to this incredible artist on this well-deserved recognition. And thank you for sharing your work with LIMINAL, helping us build a space where dance and film illuminate movement’s profound ability to connect, transform, and reveal. 3 days. 70 films. 18 countries. 1 LIMINAL. #liminaldancefilmfestival #liminaldff2026

What an incredible weekend at the inaugural @liminaldancefilmfestival at @danceplacedc ! We spent the weekend meeting new friends, reconnecting with community artists, lobby chatting, and diving into the world of so many awesome dance films from around the globe 🌏! So grateful for the opportunity to be an official festival partner, and so in awe of the work @orangegrovedance continues to do across the DMV. Congratulations @makayla.allman on your well-deserved Momentum Award! - - #weekend #goodtimes #dc #dance #community

Our first ever Nexus Night was a big success! Thanks to those who came out to hang, snack, chat, and see some incredible dance films at @danceplacedc - it was awesome to meet so many folks, including some of the featured festival filmmakers! @dcdancenetwork is proud to be a festival partner of @liminaldancefilmfestival - and there are still two days left! We’ll be back at the festival Sunday afternoon for the Awards and Best of Fest closing block…see you there? #filmfest #dcdance #fridayfun #dc community

Happy Hump Day DC! Plan your Friday with DCDN! Come hang out, meet new friends, and catch some awesome dance films with LIMINAL at Dance Place! (Did we mention the $20 cash discount if you sign up to sit with us???) #linkinbio #fridaynight

Get outside and enjoy this gorgeous, breezy Saturday…but FIRST! Make sure you’re signed up for NEXUS NIGHTS with @dcdancenetwork next Friday, April 24th! $20 cash in your pocket, but you’ve gotta be signed up first! - - #dance #community #dc #cashback #fridaynight

POV: you’ve been meaning to sign up to join DC Dance Network at LIMINAL film festival, but aren’t sure how! - - #community #nightout #dance #film #party

Some snacks 🧀 some drinks 🍷 and some community 👯! @dcdancenetwork was honored to host a fundraiser last night in support of @brendandrakechoreography and their upcoming premiere of Ceremonials, commissioned by DC Dance Network! - - When we champion artists for their art, but also uplift and value their skills, experiences, relationships and willingness to give just as much, our circle grows stronger. Thank you to those who have already given! You can help us reach our $5,000 fundraising goal by donating today at the link in our bio! - - Want to see the results of your donation in action? SAVE THE DATE for the premiere, July 10th and 11th at Dance Place!

Contribute to Brendan Drake / Community Exorcisms Spring 2026 Fundraising Campaign **Donation Link in Bio** . . . Happy Sunday! As many of you are aware, I have been hard at work on my newest evening length performance project “Ceremonials” set to premiere at @danceplacedc July 10th and 11th, 2026. is my honor to develop this work as the inaugural commissioned artist through the @dcdancenetwork and I am so thrilled to bring this project to DC audiences this summer. DC Dance Network and I are launching a month-long campaign to generate additional funds to support the creation of “Ceremonials.” If you have enjoyed my dances in the past, are curious to witness it for the first time, or simply want to help a deeply queer project find some financial footing in an increasingly anti queer landscape, I hope you will consider supporting me and my hard working collaborators this April. “Ceremonials” will be an hour long work using dance, sound manipulation, and magical realism to explore the not-so-subtle similarities between Catholic iconography and Queerness: A Pasolini-fever-dream meets Body Oratorio, complete with fallen angels, messianic delusions, beautiful boyx drenched in holy water, and Mother Mary herself. The work is a prayer in service of the pleasure and pain of surrender and, despite the horrors, our necessary insistence on hope. Donations are tax-deductible through my fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas and 100% of the proceeds generated through FA for this campaign go towards the Performers and Design Teams Income. Thank you for considering.

It’s no fun to go to the theater alone sooooo...come with us instead? - 👯‍♂️ DCDN is hosting a group outing for the opening Night of the @liminaldancefilmfestival produced by @orangegrovedance . Part social, part performance. Hang out with DC Dance Network for the launch party, sit together as a group so we can chat between films during the showings, and make new friends and connections in between. - 💰WHY should I come with DC Dance Network? If you’re one of the first 30 people to sign up to attend with DC Dance Network and check-in on arrival, you’ll receive $20 cash back. Literally...we’ll hand you $20 cash. Think of it as an after-the-fact discount, or the start of a tab at the bar. - 📝 HOW do I reserve my spot? Fill out the Google Form at the link in our bio to reserve your spot to watch with DC Dance Network (and lock in that $20 cash). *NOTE: This form does NOT include a ticket to the film festival, so once you’ve signed up to attend with us, be sure to purchase your LIMINAL ticket on the Dance Place website too! Space is limited! Reserve your spot today!

Save The Date: July 10th and 11th at @danceplacedc Ceremonials - A Body Oratorio in III Parts Commissioned through the @dcdancenetwork Directed by @brendandrakechoreography Starring @javipadilla26 @ahameline @akblythe @drewscamms @joeyrauch @jofairie @ppattengill “It seemed to me that I was all right as I was, for my gaze was fixed upwards onto heaven, where I trusted I was going. So that he would fill my body with recollection of the feeling of his blessed passion. I wanted his passions to be my passions. “ -Julian of Norwich, 1373 More to come