The mission of Leslie Parker Dance Project (LPDP) is to move Black culture(s) into the future through making and performing danceart. LPDP takes necessary risks to center collaboration, dialogue, and action; cross-pollinating across sectors and cultural communities as a means to further anti-racism. Across projects, LPDP adapts collaboratively to create models of working that unfold in real time, embodying improvisation in every sense of the word.

Leslie Parker initiated Leslie Parker Dance Project as a means to experience dance art more intuitively. Leslie Parker is a dance artist, director, improviser, and performer born in the traditional homeland of Indigenous people, mostly the Dakhóta and Ojibwe, also known as the Twin Cities, Minnesota. Parker's earlier beginnings of informal training began with community activists who founded the Lou Wiley High Steppers (Rhythm & Drill team); and founders of the Rainbow Children's Theatre Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. Growing up in the St. Paul Rondo community rooted her in socially engaged art and motivated her research of dance forms of the Sene-Gambian region, Guinea, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire. LPDP’s model creates openings for artists entering the generative artistic space, including nontraditional artists and pathways. LPDP’s vision for moving Black cultures forward is both local and global, from solo performances to field-wide change that will help the next generation of artists thrive.

Jerome Foundation supports Leslie Parker Dance Project’s Black Dance Improvisation Initiative Residency program. Black Dance Improvisation (BDI) provides professional development and performance opportunities to cohorts of early career artists. LPDP initiated BDI as a form and an initiative: as a form, BDI is an embodiment of multiple dance techniques, freestyles, and various improvisation modes drawing mostly from Pan Black/African consciousness; as an initiative, it hones aesthetics, audience engagement, and professional development, creating openings for artists entering the generative artistic space who may be following unconventional pathways. BDI supports at least 2 early career artists each year to participate in 2 weeks of facilitated Intensive sessions with expert artists. Artists rehearse and develop 30 minutes of original solo dancemaking, culminating in two evenings of performances. BDI offers pathways for early career artists to forge relationships, expand networking platforms, and build professional advanced dance experience with LPDP.