Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance

The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) was co-founded in 1998 in the Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood by the celebrated and award-winning dancer/choreographer Arthur Aviles and writer/activist/publicist Charles Rice-Gonzalez.

BAAD! began as a home for the Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre (AATT), a contemporary dance company that explores works on the margins of Latino and queer cultures. Their programming grew with support from the local Hunts Point community of dancers, queer artists, artists of color, and women artists, including sculptor Cassandra and performer/drag king Elizabeth “Macha” Marrero. With sweat equity and support from this community, Aviles and Rice-Gonzalez repurposed an unused, abandoned warehouse space in Hunts Point’s American Banknote building to create a performance space for Aviles’ dance company. This lead to BAAD! hosting annual multi-disciplinary arts festivals such as BAAD! Ass Women, Out Like That!, The BlakTino Performance Series, The Boogie Down Dance Series, and the annual holiday play, Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo. Since its inception, BAAD! has bloomed into a nationally-recognized arts organization firmly situated as a stakeholder in the Bronx that brings a queer perspective to the socio-political/cultural dialogue of the borough and city.

Top Photo: BlaKtinX Dance Compilation 2021. Image Credit: Richard Rivera