Dark Room Ballet with Krishna Washburn

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Dark Room Ballet with Krishna Washburn

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Ballet, audio description and anatomy for blind and visually impaired adults I.

Krishna Christine Washburn has performed with many leading dance companies including Jill Sigman’s thinkdance, Infinity Dance Theater, Heidi Latsky Dance, Marked Dance Project, and LEIMAY. Krishna has collaborated with many independent choreographers, including Patrice Miller, iele paloumpis, Perel, Vangeline, Micaela Mamede, Apollonia Holzer, and most notably with A. Merino, who especially created her signature role, Countess Erzsébet Bathory, and with whom she founded the artistic collective Historical Performances. Krishna boasts several ongoing artistic collaborations, including work with wearables artist Ntilit (Natalia Roumelioti). Krishna is the Artistic Director of The Dark Room, a multi-disciplinary project with fellow visually impaired dancer, Kayla Hamilton.

10/16/2026

Actor’s Toolbox: An Actor’s Practicum with Luna Vintner
Curious about acting? Join us for an eight-week, hands-on course designed to give you practical tools to get started in acting!
Through scene work, partner exercises, and short scripts, we’ll explore how to connect with a scene partner, listen and respond truthfully, analyze a script, understand character objectives, and make playable acting choices.
We’ll also work with audition-style material, exploring how to approach unfamiliar scripts and prepare under time constraints.
No previous acting experience required!
📅 January 17 – March 7, 2027 🕛 Sundays | 12–2 PM ET 💻 Online via Zoom
📩 For more information or to register, email [email protected]

Image Description: A vertical promotional poster with a black background and white text. At the top, large lettering reads “Actor’s Toolbox,” followed by “An Actor’s Practicum with Luna Vintner.” Below are the dates January 17 – March 7, 2027, and the schedule: Sundays, 12–2 PM ET, via Zoom.
The center features a photograph of two actors facing each other on a dimly lit theater stage. One wears a brown suit and gestures toward the other, who wears a dark coat and long skirt while holding a small red object. A desk, chair, bookshelf, and patterned rugs form the stage set.
At the bottom is the white Dark Room Ballet logo, including the words “Ballet with Krishna Washburn,” a line of Braille-style dots, and the tagline “An Arts Space By and For Blind Artists.”

10/14/2026

No Diagram Anatomy with Krishna Washburn
Join us for the final two workshops in our No Diagram Anatomy series!
Explore the fascinating structures of the human body with blind dance artist and educator Krishna Washburn, through an accessible, engaging approach to anatomy.
Upcoming workshops:
🦴 October 17 | Histology of Bone & Cartilage 🧬 October 24 | Histology of Connective Tissue
Both sessions take place from 4–6 PM ET.
Come explore anatomy beyond diagrams, through language, imagination, and curiosity!

Image Description: A promotional poster for Dark Room Ballet’s No Diagram Anatomy workshops. Against a reddish-brown brick wall, Krishna Washburn stands beside a life-size anatomical skeleton on a wheeled stand. She wears a black blouse, a bright red skirt, and ballet slippers, resting one arm across the skeleton’s shoulders. Large white and pink lettering on the left reads “No Diagram Anatomy with Krishna Washburn.” Below are the two remaining workshop dates, October 17 and 24, their topics, and the time, 4–6 PM ET.

10/07/2026

No Diagram Anatomy is back — and this time, it’s HISTOLOGY! 🦴
Join Krishna Washburn for a three-part workshop series exploring cells, tissues, and how those tissues function biomechanically in the body — without relying on visual diagrams.
Who is this for?
These workshops are for anyone interested in understanding the body through an accessible, nonvisual approach to anatomy. They may be especially useful for dancers, movement artists, performers, movement teachers, bodyworkers, and blind or visually impaired students who want to deepen their understanding of how the body is built and how it moves.
You do not need a background in anatomy, biology, or dance to participate. The workshops are open to all, with priority given to blind and visually impaired students.
October 10 | 4–6 PM ET
The Histology of Muscle
October 17 | 4–6 PM ET
The Histology of Bone & Cartilage
October 24 | 4–6 PM ET
The Histology of Connective Tissue
📍 Virtual on Zoom
To register or learn more, email [email protected].
Image description: Krishna Washburn, wearing a black blouse and bright red skirt, stands against a brick wall with her arm around a life-size skeleton, which appears to lean back against her. Large high-contrast text announces “No Diagram Anatomy with Krishna Washburn,” followed by the three October workshop dates and topics.

10/06/2026

Join us this Friday, October 9 at 4 PM ET for a FREE virtual workshop exploring choreography and movement beyond visual imitation.
Developed by visually impaired choreographer and performer Davian “DJ” Robinson, Sensory Beyond Sight uses breath, touch, spatial hearing, weight, and proprioception as tools for movement-making and choreography.
Participants will explore ways to:
• Discover imaginative movement without relying on visual imitation
• Deepen awareness of the body in time and space
• Build connections between verbal, tactile, and embodied information
• Explore accessible approaches to choreography and spatial thinking
Friday, October 9, 2026
4 PM ET | 90 minutes
Virtual on Zoom
To register, email [email protected].

09/30/2026

New to audio description for dance? This is a great place to start!
Join Krishna Washburn for Four Strategies to De-Center Sight in Audio Description for Dance, a FREE online workshop exploring ways to move beyond the “say what you see” approach.
📅 October 3 | 4 PM ET | Zoom | FREE
📧 To register, email [email protected]
Presented for the UNC Greensboro + Dark Room Ballet communities.

Image Description: Krishna Washburn poses in front of a white-painted brick wall, wearing a black sleeveless outfit. Her long, dark hair is braided over one shoulder. Her head is tilted dramatically backward, and both arms extend outward. Black fabric cuffs with white buttons hang from her wrists. A white plastic cup and a black cylindrical object are positioned over her eyes, partially obscuring her face. The photograph has a bright white background that contrasts sharply with her black costume and the unusual objects covering her eyes.

09/24/2026

Meet Bill Porter, MFA, one of our Visiting Teaching Artists at Dark Room Ballet.
Bill brings over 30 years of teaching experience into the classroom, along with his own perspective as a Blind artist with low vision. He conceived and taught Dark Room Ballet’s first-ever studio art course.
Our fundraiser is still going. Your donation helps keep Dark Room Ballet’s classes tuition-free, giving disabled artists real access to arts education and the chance to develop their practice with professional teaching artists, opportunities too many disabled artists still don’t have. Link in bio to donate, all donations are tax-deductible.

Image description: Bill Porter, a man with a reddish-brown beard, sits on a green couch, hands clasped in his lap, smiling gently at the camera. He wears a gray trucker cap with a bear patch, a navy button-front henley, and jeans. Behind him is a colorful abstract painting on the wall, a window air conditioning unit, and a cluttered worktable with tools and small objects, suggesting an art studio setting.

09/20/2026

Our fundraiser for blind and low-vision artists is still going, thank you to everyone who’s already given.
“I am profoundly grateful to Krishna Washburn and the rest of the Dark Room Ballet staff and students for providing me with ongoing opportunities to develop my craft in a compassionate community. I am transformed by the process every time.” — Dr. H. May, Visiting Teaching Artist
Dr. May is a Professor of Theatre and Humanities at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, trained in ableist, sighted-centered models throughout their career before going legally blind in middle age. Dark Room Ballet gave them a place to develop their craft in community with people who understand that experience firsthand.
If you haven’t yet, there’s still time to help us keep classes tuition-free and pay the artists who teach them. Link in bio to donate, all donations are tax-deductible.

Image description: A close-up portrait of a person with short, dark hair styled up and swept back, shaved close on the sides, taken against a plain black background. They have light eyes and a serious, direct expression, looking slightly to the side. They wear a navy and white gingham-checked button-down shirt under a blue denim blazer, with a thin necklace visible at the collar.

09/19/2026

“Dark Room Ballet created a space where disability was not something we had to work around; our shared experiences of blindness and low vision became part of the knowledge, perspective, and creative practice we brought to the work.” — Bill Porter, MFA, Visiting Teaching Artist
Bill has taught art for over 30 years, but teaching through Dark Room Ballet, as a Blind artist himself, was the most meaningful teaching experience of his career.
Your donation helps pay teaching artists like Bill and keeps classes tuition-free for disabled students. Link in bio to donate, all donations are tax-deductible.

Image description: A man with a reddish-brown beard sits on a green couch, hands clasped in his lap, smiling gently at the camera. He wears a gray trucker cap with a bear patch, a navy button-front henley, and jeans. Behind him is a colorful abstract painting on the wall, a window air conditioning unit, and a cluttered worktable with tools and small objects, suggesting an art studio setting.

09/16/2026

SENSORY BEYOND SIGHT is BACK!
A movement intensive with Davian “DJ” Robinson

What happens when you take sight out of the equation?

In Sensory Beyond Sight, visually impaired choreographer and performer DJ Robinson invites you to explore movement through breath, touch, spatial hearing, weight, and proprioception.

✨ Discover movement without visual imitation
✨ Deepen your awareness of your body in space
✨ Build trust and connection through movement partnerships
✨ Explore tactile tools for creating and communicating choreography

This cumulative workshop series offers a different way to experience movement — one rooted in sensation, imagination, adaptability, and connection.

Upcoming session:
📅 Friday, September 18
🕓 4 PM ET
💻 Zoom
⏱️ 90 minutes
E-mail: [email protected]

09/11/2026

Our Labor Day fundraiser is still going . thank you to everyone who’s already given.
Meet a few of the students Dark Room Ballet has reached this year: Morgaihne, a creative audio describer who found a “family” in this community. Rocco, who joined this year and found a new understanding of movement through detailed description. Ansley, who found confidence Ansley had been looking for for a long time. And Jo, whose creativity was fueled by breaking through isolation and reconnecting with the body through dance.
Four different paths, one community — and it only stays possible with your support.
If you haven’t yet, there’s still time to help us keep classes tuition-free and pay the artists who teach them. Link in bio to donate — all donations are tax-deductible.

Address

Harlem, NY

Website

https://darkroomballet.com/

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