Arts organizations are being targeted and funding is being cut nationwide. Our expenses are increasing at an alarming rate. Your support will ensure Dance Mission’s stability and enable us to continue our vanguard work!

Dance Mission Theater Celebrates 25 Years & Dance Brigade Celebrates 50 Years! Dance Mission Theater is a thriving, women-led, artist-driven, multi-cultural, and multi-generational community and artistic sanctuary for women and queer-identified artists, artists of color, and culturally-specific dance ensembles dedicated to inclusiveness, fairness, and justice. Krissy Keefer’s Dance Brigade, San Francisco’s groundbreaking, social-change dance company operates Dance Mission Theater under its 501(c)3.

THORNS THAT BLOOM

Thorns That Bloom is Dance Mission Theater’s $1 million stabilization campaign to ensure that we can weather the government’s attack on Arts funding and programming, and stay solvent over the next 5 years to be positioned in 2030 to renew our lease. All of our operating expenses are increasing at an alarming rate, including payroll, water, electrical, insurance, etc. Thorns That Bloom will help us stay on the map, and enable us to continue our vanguard work!

25 YEARS STRONG

We Stand Strong! For the last 25 years, Dance Mission has been and continues to be one of the most sought-after spaces for new dance works, African Arts-based programming, and youth classes, especially our Grrrl Brigade program which empowers girls ages 9-18 through dance, drumming, and community activism. Thorns That Bloom will ensure that we are well positioned for longevity!

OUR MISSION

Dance Mission Theater, operated by Dance Brigade, connects and empowers diverse Bay Area communities and artists through all aspects of dance and dance theater, including the production of new works, instruction, and performance. We are an artist-driven, feminist organization dedicated to building community, addressing social justice issues, exploring cultural identities, promoting inclusivity, and creating a more peaceful world through collective action.

OUR IMPACT

Demographics

65% People of color
35% White
30%+ LGBTQIA
70% Women/Girls
30% Immigrants
40% Teaching/Resident artists are Latinx

Community Hub

500+ Adults Weekly
400+ Youth Per Semester
110+ Artists Supported/Yr
40 Wks/Yr Performances
450+ Perf. Attendees/Wk
$40k Scholarships & Reparations/Yr

OUR PROGAMS

Grrrl Brigade (90+ girls participate yearly): is an intensive arts education mentorship program that offers dance and leadership training for girls aged 9-18 through dance instruction, performance, internships, and community activism. The girls are instructed by some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s leading dance and taiko artists, taking weekly classes in Modern-Jazz, Afro-Cuban Modern, Hip Hop and Taiko from September to May and are encouraged to create their own choreography. The GRRRL Brigade performs around the Bay Area each year. Founded by Dance Brigade in 2004.
Liberation Academy: restores the intellectual scholarship, spiritual wisdom, and creative richness which resides historically in the collective oral and underground traditions in Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color. The Academy offers free and low cost workshops by master teachers of Afro-descent to all dancers, and an intensive mentorship program for dancers and dance makers of Afro-descent, as well as subsidized class tuition, studio rentals, and theater rentals centering Black students, families, and artist colleagues as part of our ongoing Reparations Campaign.
Multi-cultural Dance Center: a thriving dance school that provides year-round, comprehensive, and affordable dance instruction and workshops for ages 3-85, including Hip Hop, Salsa, Modern, Taiko, Samba, Ballet, Vogue, Cuban Folkloric, Rueda, Rumba, Afro Modern, Afro Haitian, Reggaeton, Brazilian, Nia, Bhangra, Modern Jazz, Congolese, Bhangra, Belly Dance, and Dancehall with in-studio and in-school bilingual programming.
- Adult Dance Instruction & Workshops (500+ adults weekly)
- Youth Dance Instruction Program (400+ youth)

DMT Theater: is home to Dance Brigade, our resident dance company which continues its 50-year legacy of provocative, feminist dance with annual cutting-edge productions that explore the intersection between art and social justice. DMT Home also houses the Black Choreographers Festival, Deaf Dance Festival, Mission in the Mix, Embodiment Project, Arenas Dance Company, and Sean Dorsey Dance.
- DMT Presents: (450+ people weekly): presents various culturally-specific dance ensembles, as well as our own festivals and performances, featuring original, socially relevant dance works, and showcasing both emerging and established choreographers from contemporary dance to circus to taiko drumming and festivals such as D.I.R.T. and the Mission Youth Arts Festivals This also includes Dance Brigade’s annual season.

- Rentals & Resources: provides high-quality Studio and Theater facilities and resources supporting over 110 choreographers every year, the majority of whom are women and people of color.

WHO WE ARE

We are building a more equitable and peaceful world. As passionate arts advocates, we believe that art has the power to open hearts and minds, unify, and activate people. We are committed to programming that celebrates the rich diversity of our SF Bay Area community, positioning artists who are historically marginalized by race, poverty, or gender at the center of all that we do, and uplifting voices to contribute our artistic response to the current political and social dialogue on topics such as climate change, war, immigration, homelessness, identity, and more.

We nurture the intersection of art and activism. We give artists mentorship and a platform to develop and perform new work that weaves art with social justice narratives, and contributes to the rich genre of “artivism.” We do this through our annual D.I.R.T. (Dance in Revolting Times) Festivals, Grrl Brigade performances, Liberation Academy performances and productions we co-present and co-produce. We offer technical support, artistic mentorship, and assistance with fundraising and marketing to uplift the next generations of artists, teachers, leaders and social justice thinkers.

We believe actions speak louder than words. We extend our space to communities and artists whose work would otherwise struggle to take root due to a lack of access, cultural segregation, or other institutions’ unwillingness to engage with social justice issues. We dedicate our resources to create access with affordable rentals, tickets, tuition, scholarships, and work study, attracting a wide array of cross-cultural audience members, artists, and students, many who are low-income.

Join us! Our venue is easily accessible by BART and MUNI, and we present/participate in performances all around the City, including parks and outdoor festivals.

Thorns That Bloom

By The Dance Brigade A New Group From Wallflower Order

Thorns That Bloom

Together We Stand Strong! Ensure Dance Mission Theater's Longevity!