Mission Statement

The San Antonio Dance Umbrella is a service organization designed to increase community awareness of dance and to aid dancers, choreographers, and dance companies in the San Antonio area. The organization is committed to ensuring the presence of dance as a vital and growing art form reflecting the rich cultural diversity of the community.

San Antonio Dance Umbrella is a service organization, whose purpose it is to promote dance, educate the general public about dance, to advocate for dance, and to serve dancers, choreographers, dance companies and studios in the greater San Antonio community.

The Dance Umbrella is committed to ensuring the presence and quality of dance as a vital and growing art form which reflects the rich cultural diversity of San Antonio.

History

The San Antonio Dance Umbrella was organized and incorporated in 1992-93 by a group of dancers charged by the Department of Cultural Affairs to bring a measure of cohesion and organization to the growing San Antonio dance community.

The initial focus of Dance Umbrella was dance education, this continues through the After School All Stars program, providing dance education and opportunities to area schools.  Many of the dance program initiatives during the past eighteen years were spearheaded by the late Dora Ruffner, an energetic dancer and dance educator. Several dance programs in the San Antonio area owe their history if not their inception to Dora, who remains in the heart of the dance community.

Dance Umbrella is proud of its fourteen year collaboration with the Jump Start Performance Company entitled: Works In Progress (W.I.P.) WIP is a choreographer’s workshop in which performance artists are invited to perform works in progress. They are then subjected to audience feedback, based on the Critical Feedback format developed by the choreographer Liz Lerman.

Follow this link for an overview of the history of the San Antonio Dance Umbrella.