About
Sydnie L. Mosley is an award winning artist-activist and educator who is interested in creative work that is both artistically sound and socially aware. She produces experiential dance works with her collective SLMDances. Through their choreographic work, the collective works in communities to organize for gender and racial justice. Her evening length dances The Window Sex Project and BodyBusiness, their creative processes and performance experiences are a model for dance-activism. Her dances have been performed extensively throughout New York City and she was listed by TheRoot.com as one of twenty-five “Up and Coming: Young Minority Artists and Entrepreneurs.”
A versatile dancer, Sydnie is a part of the 2017 Bessie Award winning cast of the skeleton architecture, the future of our worlds curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa. Sydnie danced with Christal Brown's INSPIRIT, a dance company (2010-2013) and continues to appear as a guest artist for Brooklyn Ballet since 2009.
As a dance educator, Sydnie's technique classes pull together orientations from the African diaspora, attention to the architecture of traditional modern dance, and the language of Laban/Bartenieff Fundamentals grounded in the use of breath, voice, and personal choices. She teaches babies (really!), K-12, undergraduates, non-dancers and professionals alike, with the motto: every body can dance! She has been an Adjunct Lecturer with the Barnard College Dance Department, and in 2012 designed the College's Dance in the City, Pre-College Program which she continues to teach.
She graduated from Barnard College in Dance and Africana Studies and earned an MFA in Dance Choreography from the University of Iowa.
Sydnie resides in Harlem, New York City. When she isn’t dancing, she is writing, listening to music, and cooking.
I won't soon forget... the woman who stood in the center of a sea of floor-bound bodies, allowing her arms to bloom up and open luxuriously in a gracious, centuries-old convention with radiant pride and pleasure.
Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times
Recognitions + Support
In February 2017, Sydnie was recognized by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray for using her talents in dance to fuel social change.
Currently, SLMDances is a recipient of the Harlem Stage Fund for New Work toward the development of their newest work, PURPLE. This follows a multi-year development residency through Lincoln Center Education as the Manhattan Community Artists in Residence (2018-2020). They also received LMCC Creative Engagement funding to support PURPLE (2020) and The Window Sex Project: Community Workshops (2017 + 2019).
Other support includes: CUNY Dance Initiative (2016 + 2017 Artist in Residence), Dancing While Black Artist Fellowship (2015-2016), and The Field Leadership Fund (2015-2017). The Performance Project @ University Settlement (Artist in Residence 2015-2016). She is a 2013 alumna of the Create Change Fellowship with The Laundromat Project, and the Gibney Dance Institute for Community Action Training. In 2011, she became the inaugural Barnard Center for Research on Women Alumnae Fellow and continues to collaborate with BCRW.
Skills, Skills, Skills
Sydnie’s skills extend beyond the creative. Her research and writing explores modern dance, movement in the African Diaspora, spirituality, and feminism, such as her work: “Dancing Black Christianity: Revealing African American and Ghanaian Cultural Identity through Movement in Christian Worship.” She has also contributed writing to Essence Magazine, Girls Like Us Magazine, Brooklyn Rail and Dance Magazine.
She applies her diverse know-how as a visionary strategist, producer, and more in the arts and culture field as a consultant and coach. She has collaborated with PURPOSE Productions, 651ARTS, Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative, Well Read Black Girl and Hollaback!. She is an advocate for the dance field currently serving on the Dance/NYC Advisory Board, after a four year tenure on the Dance/NYC Junior Committee which represents the interests of dance professionals in New York City ages 21-30. She served as Vice Chair 2014-2015.
Sydnie is frequently invited to be a guest speaker, panel moderator, and facilitator.
Economic Profile
Inspired by SLMDances’ 2015 work BodyBusiness and fellow artist jumatatu m. poe, learn about Sydnie's financial background, as jumatatu says, “in the interest of being a resource to folks looking for specific models of how others have made things work as artists.”