This lecture/demonstration, with a participatory component, focuses on how refugee and immigrant women and girls living in the United States promote social networking to negotiate and empower their respective communities. Specifically, the session considers the place of movement and dance as strategies for survival, adaptation, and redefinition of female roles in changing cultural contexts. The women featured, originally from Afghanistan, Burundi, and China, have taken strong leadership positions and became advocates for human rights. Their stories form the core of the session, which will include performances and/or video of their respective work with movement and dance. The session will conclude with a participatory session led by the team of presenters. In this section individual histories and stories of the workshop participants will be explored through a series of movement/text exercises as designed by the team. The emphasis will be on embodying certain of the strategies outlined in the presentation.