Moving Data transforms archival materials into data-driven designs that make visible the interconnections of performance history across time, space, and bodies. We believe that intentional data curation and visualization can reveal the most human aspects of ephemeral experience by giving shape to the past and, with it, constructing a framework for historical imagination.

Moving Data is led by Kate Elswit and Harmony Bench, growing from a decade of research collaborations. These projects include Dunham's Data; Visceral Histories, Visual Arguments; and Radical Accounting.

Moving Data is thrilled to be presenting the Radical Accounting: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Data as a Framework for Historical Imagination of three time-based interventions as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art's Edges of Ailey exhibition, open from September 25th, 2024 through February 9th, 2025.

These three time-based interventions transform archival materials to visualize the interconnections of time, space, and bodies across the history of The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The series traces the retention and transmission of embodied knowledge across generations of dancers. It particularizes how the AAADT grew from a small touring company to a global phenomenon. And it helps us understand the importance of Alvin Ailey not only as a choreographer but also as someone who shared a living history of dance with audiences around the world.

The underlying datasets were composed over three years from more than 30,000 documents gathered from archives across the United States. Materials ranged from programs and tour itineraries, to performer diaries and other personal materials, as well as data previously compiled by AAADT. Drawing movement out from static records, the process of intentional data curation and visualization constructs a new framework for historical imagination. Radical accounting brings each artist, performance venue, and choreography into view, foregrounding how dance histories are collective.

The Radical Accounting series consists of:

  • “Generations of Embodied Knowledge: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Dance Artists, 1958-2023”, Radical Accounting Series 1 of 3, 2024
  • “Global Architectures: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, City by City and Year by Year, 1958-89”, Radical Accounting Series 2 of 3, 2024
  • “Repertory as Living Dance Museum: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Performance History, 1958-89”, Radical Accounting Series 3 of 3, 2024


    • CREDITS

  • All datasets and underlying visualizations have been created by Moving Data, led by Kate Elswit and Harmony Bench, with project team members Antonio Jiménez-Mavillard and Tia-Monique Uzor.
  • Additional archival collection supported by assistants, primarily Amy Schofield and Wanda Hernández.
  • With Video Polishing by Nicolette Swift, and Technical Advisor Ben Gimpert

    • Special thanks to Adrienne Edwards, Engell Speyer Family Senior Curator and Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Whitney Museum of American Art, for her extraordinary vision; and to Dominique Singer, Archivist at Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, for her indefatigable support.

    The Radical Accounting series is supported by a commission from the Whitney Museum of American Art, under the direction of Adrienne Edwards.

    Further support has been provided by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council under the fellowship Visceral Histories, Visual Arguments: Dance-Based Approaches to Data (AHRC, ref: AH/W005034/1); by the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s Impact Acceleration Account (AHRC) and Knowledge Exchange funding schemes; and by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme at The Ohio State University.

    Dunham’s Data

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