Mission

The Iowa Choreography Festival exists to create space where dance is made — not just performed. We bring together musicians, choreographers, designers, and dancers in a working environment built for genuine collaboration, giving artists at every stage of their career the room, resources, and community to create new work.

Vision

We envision a festival where the making of dance is as valued as the showing of it — where Iowa is known as a place artists return to, year after year, because the work happens honestly here. A place where an early-career choreographer and a retired performer can be in the same room, contributing as equals, and where the artistic process itself is treated as worthy of an audience.

Values

Welcome, at every stage Whether you're just starting out, mid-career, deep into a working professional practice, or returning after retirement, there's a place for you here. We don't gatekeep by résumé — we look for artists ready to do the work.

Process over polish - We value the making as much as the finished piece. Experimentation, risk, and works-in-progress are not just tolerated — they're the point.

Collaboration by design - Our process brings musicians, choreographers, designers, and dancers together deliberately and in sequence, because good collaboration doesn't happen by accident — it's built into how we structure the festival from the first invitation to opening night.

Community that lasts beyond the festival - The relationships built during ICF — between artists, between disciplines, between generations — are meant to outlast the week itself.