About Us – Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center

Our Mission

Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center (TWDCC) facilitates a working home for professional world & contemporary dance artists, while providing dance education that is committed to access, equity, and excellence.

Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center’s (TWDCC) Mission centers around the work and development of the artist. Since our founding in 2011, TWDCC has made it a priority to foster a working home for artists to financially support themselves, develop a broad base of work professionally, and forge new ideas through community support and conversation. TWDCC believes in the process of one’s craft. We believe that in order to take risks and grow as an artist, one must feel connected, safe, and have a broad platform to tell their story. For more than 10 years, TWDCC has provided ongoing support to dozens of world and contemporary artists from around the globe. TWDCC provides ongoing community conversation; audiences have opportunities to watch, engage, and learn from performances, curated festivals, artist talks, and community dance classes. TWDCC links artists, audiences, and community throughout Santa Cruz and the Bay Area.

TWDCC Equity Statement

For more than ten years, equity has been central to Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center through our cultural hub. We are an anchor for healthy classes, resources, and community engagement to create access to a healthy quality of life for all. We provide access to affordable space for artists and the technology needed to present classes during the COVID crisis and beyond. Serving artists, many of whom are BIPOC and/or immigrants who speak English as a second language, families, and students is core to our mission. Our leadership team, the artists we employ, the youth we serve, our community partners, and our programming are living reflections of our commitment to equity.
Equity is woven into the very fabric of everything we do.

We fulfill our mission by:

Establishing a professional, vibrant, and stable non-profit dance organization and studio with high quality dance spaces, as well as organizational support through website, marketing, outreach programs, performance, and dance events for the community.

Providing a working home for World dance, contemporary, and cross collaborative dance and cultural artists in the Santa Cruz and wider Bay Area community.

Creating educational and outreach programs that allow unique opportunities for youth in the Santa Cruz community to engage with professional dance and cultural artists from all over the world, as well as reaching our goal of providing 20 full scholarships for dance study at the Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center every year.

Linking community, artists, and audiences throughout Santa Cruz and the Bay Area.

Collaborating with other Santa Cruz and Bay Area cultural and outreach organizations to facilitate cross cultural events, social awareness, and dialogue and understanding through dance and performance.

Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center admits all community members and students of any race, color, national origin, and ethnic origin to all of the rights, privileged, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. TWDCC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (including religious dress and religious grooming), sex (including pregnancy, perceived pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal laws.

Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center

Our Mission

TWDCC Equity Statement

We fulfill our mission by:

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Our Mission​

TWDCC Equity Statement

We fulfill our mission by:

Get in touch

Useful Links

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Our Mission