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, which is evident through the growing community of dance schools, dance academies, residing professional artists, workshops, summer intensives, College and University programs, festivals and outreach programming currently in San Antonio.

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.

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