Hope Boykin
Two time “Bessie Award” winner, Hope Boykin was an original member of Complexions, danced with Philadanco, and completed 20 years with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Hope has choreographed for numerous dance companies including Philadanco, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Minnesota Dance Theater, Ballet X, Eisenhower Dance Detroit, Ballet Black of London, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, The Philadelphia Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and has created three works for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Along with many commissions including Vail Dance Festival, Hope has choreographed and co-directed for off-broadway and regional theater, including a Cornelia Street for the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City.
Hope has garnered much acclaim with her virtual work for Carolina Performing Arts, Guggenheim Works And Process Virtual Commissions initiative, and the National Black Theatre. As a motivator, Hope has been an annual keynote speaker for Lincoln Center Activate, a national education forum, which has included a special Weekend With Hope, a series of talks with friends and dance industry professionals, discussing crucial topics in our dance world.
As a director and dance-maker Hope received a grant from the Mellon Foundation for her own Covid Safe residency #BoykinBubble and in the fall of 2021 premiered a full evening of her choreography, An Evening of Hope at 92nd Street Y in New York City, to much acclaim. In 2022, Hope choreographed and directed The Other Side, bringing Jacqueline Woodson’s children’s book of the same name, to life for the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater as well as joining the creative team as choreographer of the Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS.
Hope serves as Artistic Advisor for Dance Education for the Kennedy Center and Artistic Lead for the Kennedy Center Dance Lab. She is Artist-In-Residence at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and was advisor for the Howard University Department of Dance for their 2021 spring semester. She is currently a 2022-23 Fellow of The Center for Ballet and the Arts.
Hope continues to build on her work, as a writer and filmmaker; blending her words and cadence as a the foundation of her developing movement-language. She released “Beauty Size & Color” a short film commenting on what has changed in the first twenty years of the 21st century on , which was most recently nominated for a 2023 NY Emmy Award, presented a weekend of her own work, Moments By Hope, … a concert, in fall of 2022, and is preparing for States Of Hope, a fully scripted, evening length, new dance theater work, which will be presented at the Joyce Theater in the fall of 2023.
As an educator, creator, mover, and motivator, Hope firmly believes there are no limits.
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