MODArts Dance Collective
MODArts Dance Collective (MADC) is a Harlem-based, nonprofit multicultural professional dance company founded in 2011 by Founding Artistic Director Leah Tubbs and Executive Director Shaun Tubbs. The company centers Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists, while creating space for them to show up as their authentic selves both in and beyond the studio.
MADC cultivates platforms for BIPOC dancers, choreographers, and cinematographers to share their lived experiences, amplifying their reach and impact. MADC also provides open, supported environments where Black and Brown communities can heal, grow, and thrive. Through its choreographic work, festivals, concerns, residencies, and workshops, MADC is dedicated to holding space for BIPOC artists, audiences, and communities.
MADC's annual public programs include: Collective Thread Dance Festival & Residency, a platform for BIPOC women choreographers; Move to Change Festival & Residency, a social justice and arts-activism initiative for BIPOC choreographers and filmmakers; Me < We: A Solo Dance Concert, the company’s annual performance; Me < We: A Workshop, a creative resource for teenage BIPOC artists; and Self-Care is Community Care: a free mindfulness and mobility/stretching workshop for BIPOC women.
Since its inception, MADC has served 382 BIPOC choreographers, 140 BIPOC youth, more than 500 performing artists, and over 2,554 audience members.
About Collective Thread Residency
Collective Thread serves as an incubator for BIPOC *women-identifying dancers and choreographers, supporting their reconnection to all forms of self—emotional, mental, spiritual and physical—and their creative practice through seasonal themes. This year’s theme, Self Care is Community Care centers on cultivating thoughtful concepts, methods and approaches to the creative process while exploring pathways to positive community impact. The residency is offered free of charge to participating artists of all career levels, and concentrates on mindfulness practices, mobility, contemporary dance technique, composition and creative exploration, roundtable discussions, and reflective writing.
*MADC uses the term “women” to encompass all those who self-identify as women, including cisgender, transgender, nonbinary, and/or gender non-conforming.
MADC is grateful to be receiving funding for its 2025/26 season from the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) COHI | MOVE Gamma Collective Cohort with the Mellon Foundation (2024-26); New York Foundation for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts Reserve Fund Grant; 2025 West Harlem Development Corporation Community Benefits Grant; New York State Council on the Arts Support for Organizations Grant; and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Development Fund Grant. Development support for the Move to Change and Collective Thread Residency is provided by Hi-ARTS.
Leah Tubbs
Image credit: Alexander Sargent
Programming
Stay tuned!
Creative Team
Leah Tubbs
Founding Artistic Director
Shaun Tubbs
Executive Director
Collective Thread Residency Participants
Collective Thread Residency Participants
Shanik Garcia
Sama Bajonero Moreno
Nisha Pradeep
Roxanne L. Young
Jessica Watkins
Jacquelyn Batten
Chloe Cappo
Nailah Roberts
Aja Jett
Angelique Agudo
Aryanna Allen
Wendy Ann Powell
Kim Lopez Diaz
Image courtesy of Leah Tubbs
Residency Highlights
Come back for more soon!