Moving forward: sustainability in dance for film through tender steps

Tender Steps is a dance film responding to a lived experience of baby loss and perinatal mental health. This presentation explores how the project models a sustainable creative practice emotionally, socially, and structurally. It supports emotional sustainability by offering space for grief, healing, and shared experience. It builds social sustainability through partnerships that strengthen community networks, and it also demonstrates a non-extractive, care-led artistic model rooted in long-term civic engagement. Tender Steps reminds us that sustainability begins with how we connect, collaborate, and care.