TU Dance is partnering with photographer Laura Kane Scher to raise funds for The School at TU Dance Center. For the last few years, Laura has been photographing our Children & Teen and Pre-Professional Program students in the studio and on stage as well as social events, capturing beautiful moments of our beloved TU Dance Center Community.
Laura’s unique eye grabs the essence of each fleeting moment for the world to enjoy, memorializing it for a lifetime. As you take a tour through the photo galleries, we hope that you are inspired to bring home photos of the students you care about, and if possible, consider giving an extra donation. 75% of the proceeds from this fundraiser will go to support The School at TU Dance Center. Your purchase helps to ensure that The School at TU Dance Center continues to be a home for dance education, supporting scholarships for students and a robust offering of programs. We at TU Dance nurture the human connection through the power of dance. Thank you for your support!
Visit the galleries by clicking the image below!
Laura is offering another fundraising option for TU Dance families and the entire TU Dance community. She will be donating 25% of all photo sessions booked between July 25 – August 25, to be shot before January 1, 2021. Please mention TU Dance when booking. For more information click here.
LEARN MORE ABOUT LAURA KANE SCHER
Laura Kane Scher is an accomplished documentary photographer who studied photography at the renowned Film in the Cities (FITC) program, worked in the photo department at the Star Tribune for 12 years and has had her own photography business for several years.
“I was drawn to photography at a very young age because I always felt like an observer rather than a participant. When I received my first camera it felt like a natural extension of my body, and captured the lens through which I had been seeing the world.
My favorite subject to photograph has always been children. What draws me in is the purity, unfiltered joy, and the lack of self consciousness that young people have in front of a camera. I have found over the years photographing my daughter dance has been the same, so it was natural to offer my services to TU Dance. Shooting for The School at TU Dance Center has become one of my favorite projects because I get to capture dancers focused on their own emotions and movements and then portray that beauty to a broader audience through my images. The children at The School are expressing their true selves through their own art, and to marry their art with mine is something I find extremely beautiful.”, says Laura.
Toni Pierce-Sands, TU Dance’s Artistic Director and Laura grew up together at Saint Paul Open School, a small diverse K-12 school that started in 1971 by Laura’s mother and other parents, teachers and administrators, who wanted an educational option to the traditional school systems. Through Open School, Laura’s mother built a community around her family, welcoming her children’s friends and others to gather at her home. Toni, the dancer friend who Laura went to see as a child dancing The Nutcracker, became one of those extended family members.
Laura’s daughter Lucy, who has been dancing since she was very little, now studies at The School at TU Dance Center. Laura and Lucy learned about TU Dance through Toni. At TU Dance Center, both Lucy and Laura were able to find the community they were searching for, a place where Lucy could continue to grow as a dancer and a human. For Laura, “TU Dance is about everyone, individually and as a whole. The reason for starting the school was to provide opportunities to any child to dance no matter what their circumstance or resources are. TU Dance embraces us all and has become a family on its own. A family that we consider ours, and a second home for most – just like my mom’s house was.”
Visit Laura’s blog about the photo fundraiser.
