Keshet Dance & Center for the Arts

MISSION
Rooted in dance, mentorship, and a welcoming space for the arts, Keshet activates community and fosters unlimited possibilities through education, engagement, innovation, and the pursuit of justice.

VISION
To celebrate the art of dance and be a welcoming home for the intersection of the arts, artists, and audience; actuating a flourishing environment for empowered individuals, nurtured communities, and sustained equity.

Housed at the Keshet Center for the Arts in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the heart of our organization is Keshet Dance Company, a core group of professional contemporary dance artists, who creatively feed and are fed by three intersecting program areas: Education and Engagement, encompassing classes and performances for all ages and abilities, the Ideas and Innovation Community, a business resource center and residency-based makerspace for arts entrepreneurs, and Arts and Justice Initiatives, including juvenile justice direct service, research/data, policy/advocacy, and community connectivity.

Keshet Center for the Arts
30,000 sq. ft. of pure fun and wearing the largest mural in the State of New Mexico! Keshet Center for the Arts is home to 6 studios, a 240-seat theater, community gathering spaces, and is a bustling, welcoming space for all! Keshet Center for the Arts is proud to be an anchor organization in the Midtown Arts and Entertainment District.

Keshet Dance Company
Professional movement artists from all over the world who find their truest selves in the art of dance, and who work and live in Albuquerque, NM, creating and sharing contemporary dance and facilitating meaningful community programming. Our Company Dancers facilitate community programming while also honing their craft and artistry. The professional dance artists who bring life to Keshet Dance Company brilliantly remove the boundaries between “dance” and “community,” and can usually be found sharing movement, mentorship, and laughter with each other, visiting artists, students of all ages, abilities and spaces, and communities near and far.

Education and Engagement
Everyone can dance! Keshet classes are available to all levels, ages, and abilities; from age 2 to 102. To remove economic barriers, Keshet offers all classes and performances on a sliding scale with $0 options for all, ensuring unlimited, noncompetitive scholarships for all.
While many of Keshet’s dance education opportunities are multi-generational, we also offer specific programs for young dancers, pre-professional students, professional dancers, novice adults, older adults, dancers with disabilities, and more. Keshet’s full production season engages audiences in a wide range of dance performance experiences and opportunities. Local performances range from community-wide collaborative productions to national and international visiting guest artists.

Ideas and Innovation Community
The Keshet Ideas and Innovation Community (KIIC) champions the value of the artist and the arts economy. Through KIIC, Keshet offers invaluable arts business classes for arts entrepreneurs focusing on topics such as Grant Writing, Marketing & Branding, Financial Management, Intellectual Property Law, and more. A core component of KIIC are the makerspace residencies, providing access to rehearsal and performance space for movement artists, along with peer support and business mentorship.

Arts and Justice Initiatives
Keshet’s Arts and Justice Initiatives work with a broad range of community partners at the intersection of arts and juvenile justice, who envision a future where youth are empowered and where the systems that serve them are transformed, centering the arts as a way to build the well-being of young people and their communities.

Keshet’s work in this area includes dance programming for incarcerated and paroling youth; post-release transition and detention alternatives support, through internships and peer-led support; field research supporting policy and advocacy efforts towards meaningful systems change; and community conversations and learning opportunities centering youth voices with an eye towards resource connectivity across social sector and government agencies.

Uniting the arts, the artist and the audience, Keshet invites you to experience and be inspired by bold explorations of movement and celebrations of community!