JUMP, or Jack’s Urban Meeting Place, is a nonprofit, interactive creative center and community gathering place. It’s a place for everyone to discover new possibilities and explore their potential. Joined by our complementary philosophies - Open Arms Dance Project has been enlivening spaces in and around JUMP with our performances, while JUMP has helped elevate and amplify our art since they opened their doors in 2015. We love JUMP!

Our separate missions both promote inclusion and respect for all and naturally led to this partnership. Using the Wassmuth Center’s Upstander tool-kit, Artistic Director Megan Brandel developed the powerful Upstanders with Open Arms anti-bullying dance program for elementary students. Learn more about Wassmuth Center for Human Rights.

Coming out of the social isolation of the pandemic, Megan felt the need to create a dancing public service announcement about emotional regulation. This collaboration between the co-creator of The Grump Meter, Janet Kaufman, and Open Arms Dance Project led to a piece of choreography for our 22.23 season. It also helped enrich our Upstanders with Open Arms program with emotional regulation education.

While developing the Upstanders with Open Arms program during our 21.22 season, Megan collaborated with the Afrosonics & Global Lounge to create the song Stand Up - a rockin' soundtrack for kindness, inclusion, and diversity!

Megan, along with Open Arms dancers, occasionally teach joyful multi-generational and inclusive community dance classes in partnership with LED.

A teaching team of Open Arms dancers with and without disabilities teaches adaptive dance classes for the AdVenture program. This is such a win-win: the community receives high quality adaptive dance classes and Open Arms trains, pays, and empowers one of our dancers with a disability to teach these classes and become a leader in our community!

We are excited to often work behind the scenes with the Idaho Access Project to promote greater access. Since our earliest days, Open Arms Dance Project has loved flash mobbing accessible community spaces - parks, sidewalks, and more. Spontaneously and joyfully dancing through these areas, helps draw awareness to the importance of access throughout communities.