Creating

ripples
of care

Circle O reimagines a dance world where Black Disabled and other multiply marginalized creatives are central, and every body is worthy of care.

What we do

Performance

Explore past shows created and performed by Kayla Hamilton.

Education

Learn about Audio Description, access as creative possibility, and movement for every-body.

Consulting

Custom Disability Arts programs and access practices for cultural institutions.

Community

Share space with fellow artists, thinkers, and organizers moving us all to get free.

Where We Come From

From farming to dance, from Texarkana to The Bronx—learn about the legacy of Circle O.

Film without access features

Film with audio description & captions

Everything we do aims to be an invitation into a world with more creativity and care. An invitation to enter a space with an attunement to our own needs and our inherent interdependence.

In a world where there is no singular “right” way to look, move, or be—who might you become? What might we build together?

Kayla Hamilton

Founder and Artistic Director, Circle O

A headshot of Kayla Hamilton, who is a milk chocolate colored Black woman. She has medium length hair in locs. She is wearing light makeup, glasses and has a big smile on her face.

Bessie Award Winner • Jerome Hill Fellow • Pina Bausch Foundation Fellow • NEFA’s National Dance Project Grant Recipient • Wynn Newhouse Awards Recipient

Kayla Hamilton is a Texas-born, Bronx-based dancer, performance maker, educator, consultant, and artistic director of Circle O—a cultural organization uplifting Black Disabled and other multiply marginalized creatives.

She has developed & designed access-centered programming for the Mellon Foundation, Movement Research, DanceNYC, and UCLA, and is the co-director of Angela’s Pulse/Dancing While Black. 

In 2024-2025 Kayla will go on both a performance tour with her show ‘How to Bend Down/How to Pick It Up’ (premiering in Summer 2024 at The Shed in NYC) and an educational tour with a dance pedagogy she co-developed called ‘Crip Movement Lab’.

Featured

black and white image of 5 dancers in a rehearsal space. They are on their tip toes with arms raised above their heads. They are of different genders, races, and body types and all wear face masks.

⁠How to Bend Down / How to Pick it Up

An immersive dance performance honoring lineages of Black disabled imagination playing at The Shed in NYC from August 15-17, 2024.

A chocolate brown woman with short locs wearing glasses and a facemask stand in front of a group, teaching. She has her arms up, bent at the elbow, gesturing with her hands. The image is black and white.

Education

Check out the range of our educational offerings, from education for educators to the ins and outs of audio description.

black and white image of four dancers moving independently. One uses an assistive device, all wear face masks.

Access. Movement. Play. Residency

Learn more about the disability dance residency directed by Circle O.

Supported by

“I stood at the border, stood at the edge and claimed it as central. Claimed it as central, and let the rest of the world move over to where I was.”

TONI MORRISON

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