TU Dance Center has long been a place for our community to express the unwavering belief that Black, Indigenous and people of color matter, and where our hope for the future we imagine is possible. In this moment of nationwide racial reckoning, TU Dance has been making space for:
- Deepened engagement with our community through critical conversations and reflections
- Transformative and engaging experiences
- Creative collaboration with local visual artists and our community (mural website)
As the community cried out for justice after the murder of George Floyd, TU Dance created restorative spaces, provided platforms for community expression and healing, as it has been since its foundation.
Through the economic upheaval, we remained committed to preserving the welfare of our company dancers, teaching artists, accompanists and staff. Since COVID-19, our focus has been on The School. We have adjusted and adapted our programs to support our entire community in the following ways:
Allocated additional funds to the TU Dance Access Fund to aid families affected by financial hardship, providing almost $40,000 in financial assistance this calendar year — for a total of $656,566 in assistance since the school’s founding in 2011
- Reduced tuition for workshops and facilitated free weekly classes
- Adapted our programming to a hybrid model where students participate remotely or masked and socially-distanced in the studio
We are heartened by the courage and creativity of our staff, teaching artists and accompanists as they continue to carry out our mission, and we are so inspired by the work our students are doing every day.
As 2020 comes to a close, we invite you to take time and reflect with us on what has been an extraordinary year. Extraordinary in both the challenges our community continues to face and how we reimagine ways to not only survive but thrive. Annual support from individual donors like you make it possible for TU Dance to continue to provide the needed platform where artists, students and audiences experience the connective power of dance in new and meaningful ways. As we approach the end of the year, we ask you to consider a tax-deductible gift to TU Dance.
We are looking forward with hope and new inspiration to 2021. We reaffirm more than ever our vision of a world that is culturally aware, celebrates diversity and advances equity; and even in this time, we find ways to play, to create, to embrace, to celebrate and to plan for the year ahead. Your gift will help us continue with this important part of our mission.
To give online today click here here! Donations can also be made by check (made payable to TU Dance and mailed to P.O. Box 40405, St. Paul, MN 55104).
With our gratitude and best wishes for the new year,
Toni Pierce-Sands, Artistic Director and Abdo Sayegh-Rodriguez, Executive Director