Who We Are

Through performance, education, and consulting, Circle O reimagines a dance world where Black Disabled and other multiply marginalized creatives are central and every body is worthy of care.

Where We Come From

From farming to dance, from Texarkana to The Bronx—learn about the origins of Circle O.

Circle O film

Circle O film with audio description & captions

What We Do

Performance

Explore past shows created and performed by Kayla Hamilton & her collaborators.

Education

Learn about Audio Description, access as creative possibility, and movement for every-body.

Consulting

Custom Disability Arts programs and access practices for cultural institutions.

Community

Share space with fellow artists, thinkers, and organizers moving us all to get free.

Questions We Ask Ourselves

What risks can our work take?

How do we dare dive deeper into the questions instead of clinging to the answers?

How do we center play and find humor even while confronting the crushing generational weight of systemic violence and oppression?

How do we honor difference?

What parts of ourselves do we conceal in order to belong?

Where does that leave the folks who can’t participate in this unspoken agreement?

How does this inform the ways we are in relationship to ourselves, one another, and the world around us?

How do we build collective capacity to come as we are and make meaning together?

Underneath all the titles, genres and identity formations—how do we carve out spaces to practice the simple but profound art of being ourselves, with others?

Kayla Hamilton

Founder and Artistic Director, Circle O

A headshot of Kayla Hamilton, who is a milk chocolate colored Black woman. She is posing in front of a blurred brick wall, wearing a long sleeve black & tan striped shirt. She has light makeup and is smiling. Her black & golden locs are down.

Kayla Hamilton is a Texas-born, Bronx-based dancer, performance maker, educator, consultant and artistic director of Circle O—a cultural organization uplifting Black Disabled and other multiply marginalized creatives.

She is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, a 2023-2024 Pina Bausch Foundation Fellow, a 2024 NEFA National Dance Project grant recipient, and a 2023-2024 Bronx Cultural Visions Fund recipient.

Her past performances have been presented at the Whitney Museum, Gibney, Performance Space NY, New York Live Arts and Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance.

As a dancer, Kayla was part of the Bessie award winning ensemble Skeleton Architecture while also performing with MBDance/Maria Bauman, Sydnie L. Mosley/SLMDances and Gesel Mason.

Kayla has developed/designed access centered programming for the Mellon Foundation, Movement Research, DanceNYC and UCLA Dancing Disability Lab. She is the co-director of Angela’s Pulse/Dancing While Black with Marguerite Hemmings, Paloma McGregor and Joya Powell.

As an educator Kayla co-developed ‘Crip Movement Lab’ with collaborator Elisabeth Motley- a pedagogical framework centering cross-disability movement practices which they have taught in multiple dance centers and universities around the country. Kayla has also worked as a K-12 public school special education teacher in NYC for 12 years.

In 2024-25 Kayla will go on both a performance tour with her show ‘How to Bend Down/How to Pick It Up’ (premiering in Summer 2024 at The Shed in NYC) and an educational tour with ‘Crip Movement Lab’.

Meet the Rest of the Circle O Team

  • A white woman with chin-length brown hair and brown eyes smiles at the camera in front of a colorful wall. Photo: Phil Dembinski

    Ellen Chenoweth

    Management and Programs Partner

  • Black woman in black circle frames and white tank. She poses with head tilted and hands pressed together. She wears a red headscarf with a bow tied to the front. Bright light illuminates her face. Behind her is a white wall with two pieces of art.

    Joselia Hughes

    Researcher, Describer, Creative Consulting

  • A headshot of a white woman wearing a black button-up shirt and sweater. She has dark brown hair, wears glasses and is smiling directly into the camera. Photo by: Shannon Meredith

    Shannon Meredith

    Finance and Operations Consultant

  • A Chicana with caramel skin, in pink lighting. She is in front of pink flower vines. She is posing with a black gothic shoulder cut dress, leaning on her walker and gazing upwards. Her dark hair is down with two space buns.

    Vanessa Hernández Cruz

    Social Media

  • Ziiomi, a brown skinned, femme with a blonde fade laughs with a profiled view. they wear a white fitted tank top that exposes their shoulders. they have three piercings, all are silver. one in their lower lip, a hanging septum, and a hoop nose ring

    Ziiomi Law

    Administrative Care Coordinator

“Kayla Hamilton is a transformative arts professional whose widely-respected work spans the fields of dance, education, and disability activism. I know I am among many who treasure her down-to-earth, community-minded spirit.”

EVA YAA ASANTEWAA
Retired Dance Journalist, Critic, and Curator

"Kayla is not just willing but committed to questioning access and social justice practices, to expanding and deepening her communities’ self-knowledge in ways that are organic & creative instead of reactive to ableist, Eurocentric ideas."

LESLIE FREEMAN TAUB
Movement Artist/Choreographer, she/her

“Kayla Hamilton’s intelligence, wit, and deep compassion run through her creative work, whether she is leading a group, advocating for the field, or performing onstage.”

VICTORIA MARKS
Choreographer, UCLA Professor, and Faculty Director: Dancing Disability Lab

Presented & Supported By