Who We Are
Oyo is a dance company where everyone belongs.
And audiences leave changed.
Oyo is a professional contemporary ballet company in Columbus with a simple conviction: dance belongs to every kind of body, background, and story.
We're building a place where dancers of all types thrive in an inclusive, nurturing environment while altering how audiences see the world around them.
What Oyo Is
We’re a dance company built on belief. Not just skill.
Most companies ask dancers to fit a single aesthetic. We don't. Oyo features dancers of all backgrounds, ages, and body types. Instead of chasing one look, we emphasize the beauty that lives within each individual performer. Our dancers train across many styles, and our productions are lively, varied, and story-driven.
We engage the public through workshops, classes, and performances that highlight issues of social justice and cultural diversity because we believe art should do more than entertain. It should open eyes and bring all types of people together.
What We Believe
Diversity is beautiful.
Dance talent comes in many types, so that is reflected in our dancers. That allows us to celebrate the diverse audience we perform for.
Access isn’t a program. It’s a principle.
Cost should never decide who gets to experience dance. We all need the arts and should all have access to them.
Art should change us.
We use dance to spark emotions and conversations about important justice issues that we all face together in our world.
Where “Oyo” Comes From
Long before it was "Ohio," the Iroquois word was Oyo, which means "the great river." When French and English explorers wrote it down, they never quite got it right, and the spelling drifted into the name we know today. We took the original back.
A great river is built by multiple inputs: every current, every source, all moving together toward something larger. That's the company we set out to build.
A track record of making a difference.
Since our founding in 2015, Oyo has:
Given free tickets to hundreds of Columbus students and nearly 500 CPS students attended a single children's show at no cost
Produced our annual benefit for She Has a Name, bringing central Ohio's artists together to fight human trafficking
Made over 1,200 masks during the 2020 lockdown when we turned our costume shop into a community lifeline
Sponsored by
