THE AMERICAN SPANISH DANCE THEATRE INC
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Mission Statement
Founded in 1979 by internationally recognized Flamenco dancer, choreographer and dance educator Andrea Del Conte, Danza España (aka The American Spanish Dance Theatre, Inc.) has established itself as a world-class performance ensemble, educational resource, and curator of Flamenco dance. Central to Danza’s mission are its annual performance seasons to serve the NY community with high quality artistic performances and free arts education in underrepresented communities, especially people of color and immigrants, providing all an opportunity to be engaged in the arts. Since 1989, Danza has performed annually at the bilingual Thalia Spanish Theatre in Queens. Danza España's other performance venues include Alegrias La Nacional, Joyce SoHo, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center, Pregones Theater, BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Faison Firehouse Theater, El Barrio’s Artspace PS109, Instituto Cervantes, and Seville, Spain. The company received the 2016 and 1999 ACE Award (Association of Latin Entertainment Critics of NY) for excellence in a performance at the Thalia Spanish Theatre and the 2002 Certificate of Appreciation from Young Citizens, Inc. Danza is also a recipient of a 2016 and 2018 SU-CASA award. ' The “Flamenco Children's Training Program” is the key component of Danza’s arts education activities. Launched by our late founder Andrea Del Conte in 2000, it features tuition-free, personalized Spanish dance instruction for preteens and teens. In partnership with Goddard Riverside, Hudson Guild, Bronx Little School, Teachers College Community Schools, and Thalia Spanish Theatre, this program continues to thrive due to Danza's commitment and mission to reach out to under-served communities. In 2009, Andrea Del Conte passed away unexpectedly. Her successor, Artistic Director Yloy Ybarra - who danced with Ms. Del Conte for many years – maintains and extends her legacy, continuing to expose NY audiences and company members to high quality guest artists, all the while looking out for up-and-coming NY based talent to support.
About This Cause
Consistent with the role of Spanish dance as a culturally specific yet universal and accessible art form, Danza Espana has developed organically as an organization with great diversity, in alignment with the broad spectrum of the NYC communities we serve. Danza España serves audiences from across the market spectrum with its NYC seasons, with a special focus on Hispanic/Latino audiences. Danza's audiences are estimated to be 60% Hispanic and 70% female, and 30-40% of our audience members return regularly to our performance seasons. In collaboration with our partnering organizations, we impact diverse populations, including Mexican, Puerto Rican, Colombian, African American, Middle Eastern, and Asian communities. The communities we serve are also reflected in our organization’s artists, staff, and board, who represent a broad spectrum of different nationalities and backgrounds: all of us are either immigrants to the U.S. or U.S.-born children of immigrants from countries including Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and India. The outreach and partnership aspects of Danza Espana's work are inherent to its continued success, supporting our performances, audience engagement and our dance programs for young people. Our goal is to engage New York audiences through our high-quality performances and free arts education, increasing interest and awareness of the city's rich cultural landscape as well as provide a positive art learning environment to NYC's children. Our programs focus on bringing multi-cultural arts and educational services to community-based organizations, extending our outreach by partnering with venues such as Thalia Spanish Theatre, El Barrio’s Artspace PS109, Symphony Space, Lotus Music & Dance, NYC public schools and senior centers, offering low-cost access to our performances, and tuition-free training through our Flamenco Children’s Training Program. During our self-produced NYC performances at El Barrio's Artspace, tickets are priced at $15-25. In collaboration with our educational partners Goddard Riverside, Hudson Guild, Teachers College Community Schools, and Thalia Spanish Theatre, Danza’s “Flamenco Children's Training Program" offers free classes in Spanish, Mexican, and Latin Dance to pre-teens and teens. Our students build personal confidence in an environment that promotes physical well-being, cultural identity, critical thinking, and strong community engagement. Our program is geared towards people with limited financial resources but with an appetite for knowledge and expression. Moreover, it affords a significant opportunity to increase the community's awareness of valuable contributions dance and arts education can bring to the city and young minds. Our performances attempt to achieve similar objectives for New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds. We work collaboratively with presenters like Thalia Spanish Theatre in Queens and El Barrio's Artspace PS109 in East Harlem, offering them outstanding programming and participating in their outreach programs, while benefiting from their strong connections to their communities. Thalia is an ideal venue for our mission to reach diverse communities and has been a reliable partner organization with Danza España since 1989. Thalia is also the oldest Hispanic repertory theater serving NY’s diverse cultural community. We collaborate with Thalia not only during our annual performance seasons, but throughout the school year with teaching residencies at public schools such as PS13 and PS110 in Queens. In Manhattan at El Barrio's Artspace PS109 in East Harlem, we hold 2 self-produced performances following our Spring Performance Season at Thalia Spanish Theatre, to serve our Manhattan audiences. All our performance venues are wheelchair accessible. We offer reduced ticket prices for our 2 self-produced performances ($15-25), and through our Flamenco Children’s Training Program, which was launched in 2000, we offer free dance classes to underserved communities.