Our story
A world of dance. A home in Santa Cruz.
Artistic excellence, cultural connection, and a belief in what we can build together.
Our Founder
Cat Moses is a distinguished American arts executive, choreographer, and community leader whose career spans over three decades of cultural activism and institutional building. She is widely recognized for fusing high-level artistic vision with sustainable, strategic nonprofit management.
Raised in a vibrant Black church community in Rochester, New York, Moses developed an early understanding of dance as an essential tool for human storytelling and connection. As a student, she pursued rigorous foundational training at the legendary Garth Fagan Dance school. Driven by a commitment to her cultural roots and connection, her research took her internationally to study dance and culture at the University of Accra in Ghana, and the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica. Moses earned her degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport.
During her travels in the 1990s, Moses conceptualized a global vision for the arts. Witnessing diverse cultural traditions firsthand, she saw the profound impact the arts plays in fostering healthy communities and serving as a thread of commonality across all people. She brought that vision to Santa Cruz, California, founding Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center (TWDCC) in 2011.
In 2016, Moses established TWDCC’s Diaspora Performance Project to support immigrant artists building foundational careers in the United States, improving accessibility to resources, performance opportunities, and community engagement. When Moses stepped down in 2021 TWDCC had grown to be one of the largest arts organizations in Santa Cruz County, serving over 350 families weekly, leaving an unshakeable legacy of cultural equity.
Deeply invested in holistic community care, Moses founded the Black Health Initiative alongside Angela Chambers, the Youth Ambassadors Director. The initiative and programs bridge equitable gaps in mental health services based on the social determinants of health.
Additionally, between 2023 and 2024 Moses served as the Executive Director at the Invertigo Dance Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
“My life is my work and I believe that arts and culture can help us to rebuild the world and planet through every collaborative, compassionate, and creative endeavor.”
Our Mission
Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center is a dynamic community and cultural hub, uplifting the depth, range, and beauty of dance, highlighting Black and African diasporic excellence in the arts. We inspire young dancers to develop a passion for dance through discipline and dedication, exposing them to a wide spectrum of artistic traditions and voices.
Our Vision
Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center is a destination for artistic excellence in modern, contemporary, and Black/African diasporic dance forms, and where youth dancers receive immersive and comprehensive world class training and mentorship. Through this work, the Santa Cruz community recognizes the excellence of African diasporic dance traditions, which enriches cultural understanding within our community.
Equity is woven into the very fabric of everything we do.
Since 2011, Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center has been a beacon of equity, offering affordable teaching and rehearsal space to ensure all, especially BIPOC and immigrant artists, have access to resources. Our dedication to inclusivity shines through our leadership, artists, youth programs, community ties, and diverse programming, making equity the heart of everything we do.
We Fulfill Our Mission By
Resource
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.
Support
Providing a working home for world dance, contemporary, and cross collaborative dance and cultural artists in the Santa Cruz and wider Bay Area community.
Create
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 providing a robust scholarship program for dance training at TWDCC.
Link
Linking community, artists, and audiences throughout Santa Cruz and the Bay Area.
Connect
Collaborating with other Santa Cruz and Bay Area cultural and outreach organizations to facilitate cross cultural events, social awareness, dialogue and understanding through dance and performance.
Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center admits all community members and students of any race, color, national origin, and ethnic origin to all rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available at the school. TWDCC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (including religious dress and grooming), sex (including 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 law.
Find Us
Make room for the next generation
Great dance starts
with a community.
Help young dancers access training, support working artists, and keep our creative community moving.
Support dance