DIAVOLO, a Los Angeles-based dance company, has made it a mission of their Veterans Project to utilize their unique style of movement as a tool to help restore veterans' physical, mental, and emotional strengths through workshops and public performances in communities all around the country.

Over the past three years, more than 500 veterans in the Los Angeles area have participated in the DIAVOLO Veterans Project. In March, the Veterans Project expanded to a national program, bringing the initiative to Kansas State University where DIAVOLO partnered with KSU—whose student body includes a large population of service members and veterans—McCain Auditorium, and Fort Riley.

With National Endowment for the Arts support, the program included movement workshops, a performance by workshop participants, a discussion panel, and the creation of a handbook to document the residency’s methodologies and best practices so that other organizations might replicate the program. The Kansas State residency served as a pilot, with hopes of expansion to communities across the country.

Art DeGroat, veteran and executive director of the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs and the VA Innovation Center at KSU, began working with DIAVOLO about two years ago after learning of its Veterans project. DeGroat said, “They realized that a public performance was not only therapeutic for veterans performing it, but also a major service for the public to see these veterans as strong and artistic [people].”

DIAVOLO also partnered with the Straz Center and the University of South Florida as part of the NEA Creative Forces Community Connections projects in June, engaging local veterans and civilians, culminating in a performance at the Congressional Medal of Honor Convention on October 25.

DIAVOLO continues the National Veterans Program with a six-week residency at Chapman University in Orange County, CA.  The original piece created from this workshop series will premiere on Sept. 21, 2019 at The Musco Center for the Arts.

For more information on Creative Forces Community Connections Projects, visit Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network.

To find more information about arts & military programming and organizations in your area, visit the National Initiative for Arts & Health in the Military at Americans for the Arts at www.ArtsAcrosstheMilitary.org.