The Healing Power of Movement
An Interview with Lucy Wallace, Director of Dance To Be Free
BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT
Lucy Wallace is the director of Dance To Be Free, an organization that facilitates dance in prisons for women and more recently men and transgendered people. Its mission is to reduce anxiety and depression through the healing power of movement. Lucy shares how Dance To Be Free got started, how it has expanded over the past decade, and how dance can be transformative for people in prison.

Photo by Chloe Weber
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Can you tell me a little about dance history? How did you get into dance and what was your dance practice before founding Dance To Be Free?
I grew up on Long Island. I starting dancing when I was five. I started in ballet, and stuck with it in high school. I went to a performing arts high school half day, so I did quite a bit of dancing throughout my childhood and high school. Then I was a dance major at Ohio University. My New York dance world was mainly ballet with a little bit of jazz, and then in college it was modern.
I fell out of love and stopped dancing from when I was 20 to about 30. I was so lost without dancing. Then I found this brilliant class in Boulder, CO offered by a woman named Chantal who was such an awesome mentor. She created her own style that was in the jazz and Nia world. She had the best music, and I realized I missed dance. That was about 2003, when I was in my early 30s. She got pregnant and needed someone to teach for her. She held a teacher training in 2007. I was in total self-doubt and had no sense of confidence. But in the end I did it. I made my own choreography and taught an hour-long class to people here in Boulder, and it started to grow. And then I bought the dance studio I was teaching in.
What was the impetus for starting Dance To Be Free?
Around that time, I got my master’s in Psychology from Naropa University. I was running the studio, called Alchemy of Movement, for several years, and then my ex-boyfriend threw out the idea of making the studio a nonprofit. I didn’t know anything about 501c3s or boards or fundraising. A woman came into my studio five minutes later for a separate meeting, and I threw the idea at her. She said, “What if you had a nonprofit arm off the studio and worked with women in prison?” I said, “That’s amazing!” and that was it. The story is so weird; I’ve told it a million times.
I didn’t know there was a prison 40 minutes away from Boulder. It was this huge facility called Denver Women’s Correctional Facility. I started in the dark. I started a board with the woman I had the meeting with. Another person in my dance community with a legal background joined the board. Another knew a CPA. We got our 501c3 status in a month.

Lucy Wallace, Photo by Chloe Weber
How did you gain access to working with incarcerated women?
I got ahold of a captain at Denver Women’s, and I asked if I could bring dance to the facility, and he said to become a volunteer. I went to that volunteer training and said I wanted to ship DVDs of my class to the prison. The guy leading the training asked why I wouldn’t just go in person. I thought, “Oh my god, right, great question. Because I’m scared.”
In Colorado, you have to get a tour of every facility before you work in that facility. Walking around that prison was one of the most awkward experiences. I had so many assumptions and stereotypes in my head. I thought the women would glare at me. I didn’t know if I should smile. I was so uncomfortable. But the women were so friendly. They must feel like zoo animals as we look at their home, where they eat and work. It looked like a high school but everyone wore the same color.
How has Dance To Be Free expanded since it was founded?
I started teaching in July 2015. My idea was to teach a class each Sunday, but then I decided to teach the women how to teach each other. I modified the curriculum I was taught through my mentor but made it prison appropriate. I incorporated a lot of writing, poetry, and journal prompts. I wanted it to be about healing. That was January 2016. And then we went down to Pueblo, CO where there’s another women’s prison. There are only two prisons that house women in Colorado. Then I made a connection in Nebraska, then Arkansas, and now we’re in 14 states. We’ve been to 24 prisons total. That doesn’t mean that 24 prisons are actively dancing, but we have offered workshop trainings in 24 prisons.
In 2023 we started working with men. I had been going to Mississippi for years to work with the women. I met this woman who worked with male veterans at this prison in Jackson. She said, “I think you should work with my guys.” That was January 2023. I was scared, but that was my favorite training to this day. They were grateful, smiling, collaborative, respectful. When I tell women to go into a corner and respond to their writing prompts, they want to talk. They are there to see their girlfriend. There’s also more competition among women. In my second training for men, there were like 35 guys. It was easy, powerful, and deep.
Then I went to an infamous prison called Parchman that’s a former slave plantation converted into a prison in the deep south. It has a very corrupt history. I can’t go back right now because the director doesn’t want us back because he says the victims must be considered. Every state has a governor appointed director. This guy is 80. He said I can’t go back through text. I had been going for seven years and spent close to one hundred thousand dollars. In that prison, they now have rodeos called Convict Poker where men sit at a table and a 2000 lb. bull charges at the men, and the last guy to run wins. The public pays to see it. The prison makes a lot of money off the rodeos. It’s gladiator stuff.
This year we’ve expanded to men in Nebraska and Colorado. I just got back from Sterling. The staff and inmates had no idea we were coming. The guy I had been contacting was off on Tuesdays and we started on a Tuesday, but he didn’t tell me that. That stuff happens so often. The second day we were supposed to teach, the room wasn’t available. Instead, we met the transgender unit. That’s people born male, and who transitioned to female, and are in a men’s prison and are separated for safety. The program is four months old. We met with them to share what we offer. They are interested. We came back the third day and set up all our materials. Finally, four guys ended up with us, and we worked with them for two hours. It ended up being really beautiful. The men and transgendered people are new parts of our mission.

Photo courtesy Dance To Be Free
What’s the process of finding someone in the prison who is interested in teaching dance?
It starts with me reaching the volunteer director or rec director and sharing that I’d like to bring my program for people who are possibly interested in teaching and possibly interested in a little self-growth. I’ll usually teach 12 to 20 people. There are almost always a couple that are interested in teaching. I leave them with a disk wallet of DVDs that are of me teaching and CDs of music that match the class.
It’s really up to the staff, because if the staff is too busy or fried or don’t care, it won’t go anywhere. So many of these places are understaffed. The prisoners can’t go into a gym without a staff member. In Mississippi, there was no infrastructure at all. But in Nebraska and Colorado, there’s more structure and involvement and people who care. Ideally, I’ll go back to the facility a bunch of times. I’ve probably been to Pueblo about 20 times. I work with people in the original training as well as new people. There’s a lot of turn-over in prison. I keep going back because the people I originally trained have often been released or moved. If the participants don’t end up teaching and just have the experience as a workshop, I think it’s just as beneficial. Sometimes people ask me about stats and recidivism, and I tell them that the emotional release these people have from dancing, writing, and sharing is so profound. The people who seem the most resistant write the most beautiful things. We do poetry exercises, though I don’t call it poetry. I ask them to write a blurb instead. What they share is incredible:
“I’m writing in pencil just in case I mess up, ima come right out and say it I don’t gotta front.
I got my guard up I’m definitely insecure about letting go and just boogie, that don’t mean I don’t feel that beat bump…that those melodies don’t make my soul fly and my heart jump.
Maybe I’m a little too stiff and I need to relax, I’m telling you I’m intrigued, I came back to class.
I am yearning for healing that will last, heal thoroughly some things from my past. I’m trying to express myself in other ways, so why not dance?
Why not here, now? It’s not too soon and never too late, I am falling into love with the energy y’all generate.
That says a lot to me, I know it will do a lot for me, I pushin past my insecurity, I’m becoming a strong woman of my own security.
Fierceness, endurance, limitless ambition, y’all don’t know what you’re truly doing with something as simple as a little rhythm.”
– Written by a Dance To Be Free graduate at La Vista Correctional Facility
How do you make dance accessible and fun for people who might not have a lot of experience with dance or confidence being in a dance environment?
Generally, people don’t have a dance background. The movement is repetitive enough that people can follow, and it changes enough that people aren’t bored. Hopefully it’s cathartic, not just bopping to music for exercise. It’s not Zumba or Jazzercise. It’s therapeutic and meaningful. I choose all kinds of music; some are cathartic songs, others are empowering or emotional or fast.
We’ll start off with a two- or three-day format. If the workshop is only two days, we don’t learn how to choreograph. If it’s three days, we learn how to map out the song and count out music. If it’s just two days, we do exercises around the elements: earth, fire, water, air, and metal. I’ll dance out a song based on one of the elements, and they’ll guess the element. Then we’ll free associate. Take metal. In prison, their reality is harsh clanking doors and cold surfaces. And then we’ll move onto water. It might be a slow song that is flowing and emotional with gestures. We’ll free associate on water and what that brings up. One guy said empathy, spirituality, prayer. Then I’ll choose a word from the free association. I asked the man to show us prayer with his movement. It was the most beautiful thing. His hands were like drinking water. We’ll do that with all the elements.
We’ll watch videos of other incarcerated people in other states. Sometimes I’ll start with a video of other men dancing: “This is what it looks like, you can do it too.” I’ll pull videos from Instagram of kids, elders, even animals dancing with total freedom and abandon. It breaks the ice; there’s so much laughter. They get the mission of dance to be free, not dance to be in control, or dance to be guarded. I start with that, then I move into the elements. Then there’s some writing and sharing. Sharing is a big part. This recent group shared their life stories, which is rare because if there’s a big group that doesn’t always happen. That was really powerful.
Why is Dance To Be Free important? How does it help people who are incarcerated?
I think it’s so different from any other programming they are getting. A lot of the programs are verbal and are about religion; they are faith based. What we’re doing is spiritual without talking about spirituality. Once you start moving to music, it’s healing. It’s so singular and different in an environment that’s so restrictive and punishing. They experience freedom and connection. And there’s no judgement; it’s a safe space.
Trauma is stuck in the body in the muscles and posturing. When you’re traumatized, you’re out of control of your body. When you dance, you are in control of your body. It’s healing and empowering, because they’re learning to lead. It’s a population that hasn’t been given the opportunity to dance, let alone lead.
There’s this great trauma specialist, Bruce Perry, who talks about the six “R’s” for healing trauma: repetition, rhythm, reward, relevance, respect, and relationship. We’re hitting on all those.
What’s next for you? Do you have an upcoming project or focus you’d like to share more about?
In the spring, Dance To Be Free is turning 10 years old, and we’re going to do a big celebration if people want to donate. We’re fully supported by donors. The prisons and department of corrections don’t pay.
We always need help with growth and expansion. We need a director of development. We need help with fundraising. People always want to come to prison and dance, and that’s the least place I need help with, but that’s the magic.
Our goal is to have the prisoners when they get out go back and lead the workshops. I’m hoping in 2025 we can start paying for that. That’s where I see expansion.

Photo courtesy Dance To Be Free
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To learn more, visit www.dancetobefree.org.
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