Meet Kasey Broekema

We recently connected with Kasey Broekema and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kasey, great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.

I think risk is something you either have inside of yourself or don’t, and honestly, I think the ability to take risk is one of the clearest indicators of whether someone can lead, not just a company, but a community.

Risk feels like that moment where you have no idea what you’re doing, but something in your gut says you have to do it anyway. You’re in the meeting, in the middle of the project, and you look around the room or set like, “Is it just me…. or am I insane?” You probably are a little insane, but that feeling? That’s, I think, the feeling of risk and the sign that you know you’re close to something real.

With Project III, I’ve taken an absurd amount of risk this year. New venues, new collaborators, formats going live with formats we’ve never tested. I led a lot of projects this year where people on my team told me straight up, “This isn’t going to work.” I’m stubborn, so I pushed forward anyway, and I’ve never regretted it. The projects that get the most pushback upfront are almost always the ones that end up being the most impactful. People don’t resist bad ideas; they resist unfamiliar ones.

Of course, there has to be a balance. Risk without any grounding is chaos. In my practice, risk outweighs sensibility nearly every time, and that’s where the fun is. If I have any advice at all, it’s this: trust your instincts, find the people who resonate with it, and leap together. The bigger the risk, the bigger the spark and the more transformative the art.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Project III is a creative incubator and performance studio reshaping how dance is made, experienced, and remembered. Project III sits at the intersection of classical dance, immersive performance, club culture, and ritual. We make work for people who might be intimidated by over-intellectualized art spaces. I usually tell first-timers: expect a little art, a little party, and a lot of community. All you have to do is show up, move, and mingle.

Since 2022, we’ve produced over 20 productions, working with 100+ artists across three countries. We don’t only produce live shows, we also make films, host community events, panels, and experimental screenings. My background is in classical ballet, but I was also raised with photojournalists, so documentary film has always shaped how I see movement. I don’t want dance to feel staged or overproduced. I want it to feel like it’s happening right now to you in real time.

This year was transformative. I used to talk frequently about interdisciplinary work, but honestly, that’s the baseline now. Everyone is interdisciplinary. What I’m more interested in lately in antidisciplinary art: not needing to define a lane, a niche, or a clean category. Artists should be allowed to try things, fail publicly, and change their minds. Resisting definition is the point of producing and experiencing art.

Project III also made a strategic shift this year: fewer projects, higher quality. I learned to slow down, prioritize, and resist the urge to do everything at once. That lesson has changed how I lead.

We just wrapped Pulse in Bushwick, a year-end show that brought together dance films, live performance, music, and community collaborators. It felt like a real exhale. Pulse sparked a wave of invitations for us to work with new venues, collaborators, and producers in 2026, which feels like a clear signal we’re resonating with the right audiences and gaining momentum.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Be resourceful. Limited funding taught me discipline, not defeat. Visibility does not equate value. The artists building real culture are working in apartment living rooms, clubs, and borrowed spaces. Showing up without institutional backing is political. Full stop.

So, make the work anyway. You need the right community to resonate with your art, not the flashiest watermark or brand stamps.

Community will always be my why. It is so undervalued and intrinsically important to find your communities and be present in them. When you radiate love and live with intention and care, it will come full circle back to you.

In my dance community specifically, someone recently told me there’s no dance scene in New York. Looked at me dead in the eyes and said that, while this dancer was attending a Project III show, mind you. To me, that’s absolutely absurd. It’s fantastic that dancers are getting booked in more commercial gigs in England and France right now, but to me, that’s not art. The real dance culture exists in the empty studios between open class hours, at 3 am in dance clubs, and on street corners. That’s impactful. So, stop waiting to be chosen, choose your people, show up in your community, and build the scene you wish existed.

Lastly–and I struggle with this one–never lose sight of your identity. Artists are so concerned about being original nowadays that no one actually takes action. Stop worrying about that! No one can see the world through your eyes, so even if your concept has been done before, no one will do it your way. That’s beautiful, and it’s so important that people share their perspectives. Everyone deserves to have a legacy.

For me, that identity showed up through classical dance training me and rave culture feeding me. I had to learn that movement doesn’t need permission to matter. Don’t force originality. Live your perspective consistently. No one else is in your body. Own it proudly.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I’m always looking for collaborators who want to push dance into new environments, whether that be galleries, clubs, warehouses, or other unconventional spaces. We’re based in New York but have produced work internationally, and 2026 is already filling fast.

We’re especially open to brands that believe culture is the new capital, producers of all forms, venue partners–both temporary and long-term–and artists working across movement, nightlife, and visual design.

Our talent roster is full at the moment, but I’ll never say no to a conversation, especially when the work resonates. Reach out. Great ideas start with a simple conversation; the rest belongs to the risk-takers who follow through.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.projectiii.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/project.iii/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasey-broekema-a728ab185
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@project.iii.

Image Credits

Gabi Broekema, Toryn Abbruzze