Brown Girls Do Ballet
Founded by TaKiyah Wallace
Brown Girls Do Ballet®, a philanthropic organization often featured for its noteworthy Instagram movement, began in 2013 as a personal photography project by TaKiyah Wallace in an effort to highlight girls of African, Asian, East Indian, Hispanic, and Native American ancestry in Ballet programs. Wallace was taken by surprise upon discovering the lack of cultural diversity in local ballet schools while searching for a program for her then 3-year-old. Like any mom, she grew concerned about how her daughter would feel in a class where no one resembled her.
Through her engagement with dancers, their families, and the ballet community, TaKiyah developed a passion for re-defining a classically Euro-centric art form to reflect what America is today: beautifully diverse. Striving to touch the lives of little ballerinas, she set out to simply provide a media outlet highlighting the diversity. Little did she know, a movement would be born, and this photo project would become so much more.
