This nonprofit is featured in the WALTER Guide to Giving 2026, a curated guide to Raleigh and Wake County organizations that depend on holiday-season support.
Based in Raleigh and working across North Carolina, Black Box Dance Theatre brings artists together with people and communities to explore things that matter—building empathy, strengthening our shared humanity, and creating meaningful, real connection.
For more than a decade, BBDT has worked alongside veterans, active-duty service members, and military families using movement as a way to connect, heal, and create truly moving art. This work is personal: founding company member and associate artistic director Alfredo Hurtado is a Purple Heart recipient and combat-wounded U.S. Army veteran. Today, BBDT offers free weekly classes in Raleigh for veterans and military-connected participants.
The impact of this work is captured in We Lift Each Other, a documentary exploring the power of art in America. Veterans will once again take the stage alongside BBDT in PATRIOT, presented by NC State LIVE March 5-6, 2027—a must-see performance. BBDT also reaches thousands of K–12 students each year through performances, residencies, and workshops in schools across NC.
Its arts-integrated programs use dance to make learning active and memorable—and its collaborations with scientists and researchers are finding new ways to humanize complex science and make it meaningful. Whether the collaboration begins with a veteran’s story, a fifth-grade science lesson, or a question from a physicist, BBDT believes movement can help us understand something differently and understand one another more deeply.
In 2026, founding artistic director Michelle Pearson received the Raleigh Medal of Arts, recognizing her artistic leadership and contributions to Raleigh’s cultural community.
YOUR GIFT PUTS THIS WORK IN MOTION!
- $120 supports six weeks of free classes for a veteran.
- $500 helps bring an arts-integrated BBDT experience to K–12 students.
- $3,000 brings BBDT performance and workshops to new schools and communities.
Invest in artists. Invest in connection. Invest in work that truly moves people.
Sponsored by Black Box Dance Theatre. blackboxdancetheatre.org
Keep exploring the Guide to Giving: Next up, Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center — or see all 18 nonprofits.
A version of this article originally appeared in the November 2026 issue of WALTER Magazine.
