Women's movement: out choreographer Gina Gibney shows battered women how dance can help rebuild their lives.

Battered women in shelters don't put therapeutic dance workshops high on their list of priorities. Choreographer Gina Gibney kept that in mind the first time she offered her services to such a group from New York's outer boroughs.

They greeted her with folded arms and steely attitudes. "They were like, The tryin' to gel my lire together. Dance? Girl, what are you talking about?'"

That was in 2000, the year Gibney, an out and proud lesbian throughout her career, took her artistic work ethic-mutual respect, expressive improvisation, and cooperation-into community outreach by starting the Women al Work Domestic Violence Project.

Will no blueprint other than her intuition, Gibney felt that battered women and their children could be helped by movement workshops. "With these women there's so much about self-esteem--and their relationships to their own physicality and sense of autonomy--that it seemed like a great fit with how we work as a company," says Gibney. With a grant from the Altria Group, Gibney hooked up with the advocacy groups Sanctuary for Families and Safe Horizon to create Women at Work, which conducts dance workshops in the context of support groups.

Gibney, a spunky redhead who stands 5 foot 3, emphasizes a person's power to make choices. For instance, a participant might be asked to create a gesture representing her obstacle or inspiration. "Stuff comes out fear, anger, joy," says Gibney. "One woman did an abstract gestural study that we accompanied with a recording of Gregorian chants, and the depth of sadness was staggering. Everybody got it."

Gibney's work in the shelters helped inspire her latest dance, Thrown, to be presented by her all-female professional company, Gina Gibney Dance, at Washington, D.C.'s Dance Place, April 3-4. An athletic group willing to explore the challenges of femme partnering, her troupe revels in choreography that explores hard-hitting physicality and impact. Set to a score by composer Andy Russ, Thrown addresses desires common to everyone. "We yearn for constancy, predictability, and peace," sacs Gibney. "But it's often elusive. And when we don't gel aren't, we often look for it in things that aren't going to give it to us."

Although the six women of Gina Gibney Dance are heterosexual, at a recent benefit performance in East Hampton, N.Y., "we kept hearing, 'We're so glad there's a lesbian dance company,'" says Gibney, laughing. She sees how fans could get that impression: "Having the courage to De gay and having the courage to be an artist take a willingness to accept who you are and lire that fully."

Such courage brings immense rewards. These days, when Gibney and her dancers finish their workshops, the response is usually, "When ya comin' back? We had the best time!"

Carman writes on dance for The New York Times.