Jess Curtis/Gravity Competitors

Ballet Hispánico is the nation’s renowned Latinx/e/Hispanic dance organization and one of America’s Cultural Treasures. Ballet Hispánico brings communities together to celebrate and explore Latine/x cultures through innovative dance performances, transformative dance training, and enduring community engagement experiences. Founded in 1970 by National Medal of Arts recipient, Tina Ramírez, the organization emerged during the post-civil rights movement on New York’s Upper West Side, providing a safe haven for primarily Black and Brown Latinx youth seeking artistic sanctuary during New York City’s plight in the 1970s. The need for place, both culturally and artistically, led families to find Ballet Hispánico. The focus on dance as a means to develop working artists, combined with the training, authenticity of voice, and power of representation, fueled the organization’s roots and trajectory. With its strong emphasis on dance, achievement, and public presence, the organization has flourished in its three main programs: its Company, School of Dance, and Community Arts Partnerships. The organization serves as a platform for historically omitted and overlooked artists providing them with increased capacity, voice, and affirmation. Over the past five decades, by leading with Latinx culture at the forefront of performance, education, and advocacy, Ballet Hispánico’s mission is a catalyst of change and possibility for communities throughout our nation.

ODC is a groundbreaking contemporary arts institution, delivering its mission through a world class dance company, an innovative presenting theater and digital platform, a dance school for movers of all ages and abilities, and ODC/Heath with initiatives including a fee-free diagnostic and educational Healthy Dancers’ Clinic, and a fitness program for all levels and abilities. Guided by Founding Artistic Director Brenda Way, ODC is nationally recognized for its entrepreneurial spirit and artistic innovation. Unique for its fully integrated vision, ODC strives to inspire audiences, cultivate artists, engage community, and foster diversity and inclusion through dance performance, training and mentorship. ODC operates a two-building campus consisting of a Dance Commons and the ODC Theater in San Francisco’s Mission District (when in-person activities are allowed), and a robust digital program for classes, performances and engaging dialogue. ODC’s programs and activities have contributed to community development, arts education, and access to creative art-making for 50 years.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet is comprised of an internationally renowned contemporary ballet company, three education programs that serve pre-professional dancers, and a dance center that provides adult drop-in classes for all levels. The LINES Ballet mission is to nurture dynamic artistry and the development of authentic creative expression in dance, through collaboration, performance, and education. We accomplish our mission by: 1. Supporting visionary choreographer Alonzo King in creating works of illuminating beauty and sharing them with audiences around the world. 2. Cultivating the gifts of developing dancers through our educational programs. 3. Providing 80-100 classes per week for the community at the Dance Center. 4. Offering outreach activities to a variety of communities, both locally and nationally.