Dance Dance Santa Cruz

National Dance Week Santa Cruz April 18 to April 26

This year my work as a dance educator and presenter has brought me into contact with multiple dancers, teachers and administrators from other communities in the state and the country.

As I have moved through phone calls and emails, texts and chats with these new acquaintances and friends, looking for more inspiration and ideas to support dance in Santa Cruz, I am reminded once again, just how incredible this dance community is.

Our dance community continues to impress me with the endless commitment and joy that each and every one of our dancers bring to the stage, the studio and the streets. This is a mid-size city with a large-city commitment to dance.

I have always said that there is as much opportunity to dance here as in most metropolitan areas. I believe this to be true and I believe that it goes beyond availability of classes during the week and a diversity of genres. I believe that dancers in our town carry with them a belief that dance is not just for “dancers,” it is for everyone to experience. And I believe that it is this ideology that so beautifully permeates this community and allows for such a thriving dance world.

When I make these calls to other communities across the country, I hear time and time again, how “lucky” we are to live here in this little city by the sea—I feel “lucky” and grateful, blessed and celebratory because I live and work in one of the most beautiful places in the world, where each and every day I am surrounded by people that inspire me. Inspire me to dance, to advocate for dance and to create time and space for dance. It is with gratitude in my heart to each and every one of you that I say, Enjoy and “Let’s Dance!”

Each year at the end of April, more than 75 communities celebrate National Dance Week, to “celebrate the benefits and beauty of dance and its ability to enrich our lives, our bodies, our spirits and our culture.” At the cornerstone of Santa Cruz Dance, National Dance Week Santa Cruz is a pillar for outreach in encouraging the growth and development of dance by raising public consciousness to the values, importance and contributions of dance to our daily lives and culture.