Mission Statement
For dancers, by dancers, We Are Dancers USA is a harm reduction and advocacy organization seeking to empower our community by providing comprehensive needs-based information and resources.
Who We Are
We Are Dancers USA, formerly We Are Dancers NYC, was founded by former and current dancers in response to the gap in resources specifically tailored for our community. After being well received in NYC, it was time to expand the scope of our organization and start reaching out to dancers nationwide. Today, We Are Dancers USA (WAD USA) provides information and resources on topics relevant to dancers including, but are not limited to: health, beauty, self care/mental health, legal, safety, and financial assistance.
What We Do
As an organization, We Are Dancers USA provides a nationwide, comprehensive directory of information, resources, and support with three main focuses:
What We Believe
We believe that ALL dancers are deserving of equal rights and protections regardless of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, able bodied, et cetera. As an organization, we are always inclusive, never exclusive. Moreover, we do not tolerate any form of prejudice, discrimination, and bias-driven hatred.
We believe in organizing through an intersectional lens because dancers are a diverse population with multifaceted identities, experiencing different and varying degrees of power, privilege, oppression, and marginalization. While WAD USA supports all dancers, we want to especially elevate and advocate for the marginalized dancers who are often disregarded and silenced.
We believe that all dancers have the right to work in a safe environment with safety protocols, labor law protections, proactive and professional management, repercussions for disrespectful and violent customers, and up to date infrastructure within the building. Moreover, all dancers have the innate right to determine our personal boundaries and comfort level, being treated with dignity and respect with consent not being optional, but mandatory. A lack of clothing and our occupation is not an open invitation to violations in or out of our workplaces.
We believe that dancers are the experts on their own lives and that our programming and resources are to be developed based off of the voiced needs and concerns from our community. With that in mind, our organizers regularly seek the input from our diverse community of dancers, making sure to account for the different voices and experiences of dancers.
We believe that each dancer has innate agency and autonomy. Each of us not only has the right to our own feelings, beliefs, and self expression, but right to choose what our boundaries and comfort level is. We are all entitled to choose what best suits us and feel respected and validated in our choices. Empowerment looks different for everyone.
We stand against the stigma that dancing carries as it is not only wrong, but problematic. Like any other job, stripping is a form of labor with evolving parameters, rules, and policies we are expected to adhere to. When we are not taken seriously and ultimately dehumanized through stigma and negative stereotypes, our abuse and denial of basic rights becomes justified. We will not tolerate being treated like second class citizens, being pushed out of the margins of society as sluts. We are people, too, and deserve equal rights and protections.
We reject sex worker hierarchy politics that divides and alienates dancers from full service sex work providers. Rather, we believe all forms of erotic labor, while different, are still equal and deserving of rights and protections.