Ballet After Dark uses movement to heal trauma survivors

With every arabesque, every jete and every pirouette, members of Baltimore’s Ballet After Dark dance away their pain. The group, which was founded in 2014 by dancer Tyde-Courtney Edwards, toe-shoed their way into the national consciousness this summer when they performed during the audition segment of the NBC’s reality television show, “America’s Got Talent.” The group might not have made the show’s finale. But they made their point. “We’re trauma survivors and dancers that use performance to reclaim relationships with our bodies and lives using the healing power of dance,” Edwards, 35, said during the broadcast, which NBC network says reaches an estimated six million homes.