Our Mission & Vision
WADE (Wandering Avian Dance Experience) is a women-led multifaceted performing arts company working at the intersection of art and social justice. We serve to support the voices and artistic expressions of women and historically underrepresented artists, giving center stage to the universal themes of gender-based violence and LGBTQIA+ rights. WADE offers numerous points of entry into art and activism through educational programs and curated festivals across the US and Europe, expanding its coalition of advocates dedicated to combating gender-based violence.
At WADE we envision a world without violence against women, girls and non-binary folks. A world where global communities come together to investigate the deep rooted, systemic and patriarchal structures that create and condone such violence. A world that believes in survivors and holds perpetrators accountable for their actions. We believe that the performing arts are the best tool to initiate such important conversations and to heal the world. We strive to galvine artists and thinkers toward this collective action in an effort to find new creative solutions and approach the issue differently with a pioneering investment.
From Founder and Artistic Director, Giada Matteini:
WADE was born as an act of love with the desire to bring awareness to gender-based violence, to offer programs that prevent violence and to heal survivors using dance and the performing arts.
WADE was born from my own personal experience with domestic violence. What most people do not understand is that finding the courage to leave a domestic violence situation, many time doesn’t put a stop to the abuse. In my case, I did leave, but my ex’s abuse followed me for over six years. He understood that calling the Child Welfare System of New York and making up false allegations about me, would fulfill his need to control and hurt me even from far away. The ACS agents would come to my house, to my son’s school, they would speak with family members, neighbors, teachers, and investigate his imagined abuses six times. Since all the investigations were unfounded, my son never left my side; but for many women who find themselves in a different situation I was in, these kind of investigations do sometimes cause removal of their children from their care. Others do not have the support or resources needed to leave an abusive environment and are entangled in a complex layer of institutional abuse on top of the harm caused by the intimate relationship.
I was lucky to be able to leave such existence behind finding the courage and healing through the practice of dance. But it wasn’t an easy journey. As I was trying to navigate all of this on my own, I started to doubt myself and think that maybe there was some truth in their claim. Maybe I was a bad mother after all. I suffered tremendous anxiety and panic attacks for years. I would agonize over the choice of waking my sleeping child to go to the hospital with me or sitting there on my own, imagining welcoming death and my son discovering my lifeless body in the morning, sprawled across our living room floor. The pain of this trauma still lives in my body and the many chronic conditions that haunt it. I have invested years of research about somatic practices such as meditation, mindfulness, Bartenieff, yoga, Qi Gong, and dance to deal with my own experience with domestic violence and ACS harassment. These practices have helped me combat anxiety and improve my physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing during the hardest period of my life. They have given me agency and confidence.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we were asked to shelter in place at home. This was 10 years after I left that abusive relationship and I have had the chance to rebuild my home with my son. I felt safer dealing with such a devastating health crisis because of that, but many women (and some men) were sheltering with their oppressors.
WADE was born as a response to this situation, of this global increase of violence against women and girls. It was and is my way to contribute a message of hope and responsibility towards others guided by the love for art and personal expression.
“WADE is at the nexus of activism and performance and there is nothing more powerful. This model of change uses entertainment, media, and visuals to really get people to sit up, look and listen to messages that other wise would pass them by. We are both in the business of model of change being essentially a trojan horse, where you’re entertaining people while you’re raising their awareness and hopefully revolutionizing the world”
— Dr. Caroline Heldman
Executive Director, The Representation Project
The inspiration behind our name
The majestic Wandering Albatross has the longest wingspan of any living bird, up to 11 feet wide. They are capable of remaining in the air without flapping their wings for several hours at the time and their dynamic soaring flying pattern is so efficient that they actually use up less energy in the air than they would by sitting in their nest. Often misunderstood as solitary birds, the most well-traveled birds in the world have one of the most elaborate courtship rituals in the animal kingdom, mate for life (up to 60 years) and dutifully share parental duties. They are complicated and fascinating beings, graceful in the air, clumsy on the ground, and as wandering birds require international cooperation to ensure their future away from extinction due to the unsafe longline fishing methods of commercial fisheries.