Shawl-Anderson Modern Dance Center

Youth Program The Youth Program at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center provides people ages 1.5 to age 18 with 45 classes each week in modern, jazz, hip-hop, ballet, creative movement and more. The program includes performance groups that engage in choreography or have work set on them by local professional choreographers. In the summer, SADC offers between 8-10 week-long camps and intensives for ages 5-18 so that youth can have an opportunity to immerse themselves in a dance experience that is centered sometimes on western contemporary and traditional forms as well as dances from across the globe. We engage over 30 teaching artists whose credentials range from professional dancers to college graduates and those with postgraduate degrees in dance, the arts and education. We provided dance programming for 500 youth throughout the fiscal year.

Professional Dance Program Shawl-Anderson Dance Center's professional dance programming supports local and regional artists through performance opportunities, residencies, fiscal sponsorship and space rentals. These programs are year-round and cumulatively support the work of over 75 local choreographers and performers each year. From July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023 Shawl-Anderson Dance Center presented in-person performances as programmed by the Queering Dance Festival. The Festival events are produced by a steering committee, which offered a series of indoor, outdoor and online events including films, live performance and specialty classes. SADC uses its own dance studio theater space for presentations as well as other local spaces in the East Bay including Live Oak Theater in Berkeley and the Lisser Theater at Mills College. Together these programs have served approximately 75 artists and 2,500 audience members during the year. Shawl-Anderson Dance Center has also continued its fiscal sponsorship program, supporting a dozen small dance companies in securing grants and donations to support, expand and present their work. These professional programs are part of an important ecosystem in the Bay Area that allows the work of emerging dance artists and small dance companies to be created and shared for the benefit of the public.

Adult Program Shawl-Anderson Dance Center offers approximately 45 classes per week for beginners through professional adults in ballet, modern, jazz, hip-hop, yoga, alignment, Pilates and other somatic and movement practices. Classes are offered in-person as well as online and outdoors to accommodate various levels of covid concern. Workshops 1-10 hours in length over 1-6 sessions are offered year-round in over 20 different styles of dance and movement practice. Adult students range from age 18 to over 90 years of age and we serve over 2,000 people each year through the program. All classes and instructors focus on the development of the whole person as well the teaching and learning of dance in a supportive, non-competitive environment. Moving together to build community and increase belonging are key to the program. Evidence from surveys, informal dialogue and assessments show that dancing together in a safe, supportive community increases physical, emotional and mental well-being for both the individual and the collective.