Tyde-Courtney Edwards (born 1987) [1] is an American dancer and businesswoman. She founded Ballet After Dark, an organization that offers ballet classes to survivors of trauma and assault. [2]
Edwards was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. [3] She began ballet lessons at age three. Edwards attended Baltimore School for the Arts for high school, where she majored in dance. [2] After high school she worked several part-time jobs while working as a freelance dancer.
In 2012, Edwards was attacked in a parking structure by a stranger and awakened in the woods, where her attacker beat her up and raped her. [3] [2] Edwards' mental health deteriorated as she failed to receive support from her family, then-fiancé, and the police. [4] She spent time in a psychiatric facility and began attending counseling sessions at a center for sexual assault survivors. [2] Edwards returned to taking dance classes and credits them with helping her cope with the trauma. [4] [5]
In May 2015 Edwards founded Ballet After Dark, a "ballet-based fitness program that includes a self-care workshop for sexual and domestic assault survivors." [2] [6] The Baltimore-based organization was the subject of a documentary film by the same name, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2019. [7] [2] Ballet After Dark was directed by B. Monet and produced and distributed by Queen Latifah's talent company Queen Collective. [8]