Welcome AUGUST 🌞🤩👋🏽
The first of the month begins the official countdown for the first day of the 23/24 Fall Season! 3 WEEKS to go until our studio is full again and we get to dance with all of our fabulous dancers 🤧
Classes are filling up - Register your dancer today to secure a spot in their favorite classes.
See you soon, dancers!
Dancing Downtown was a ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥 success!
Our Company dancers performed pieces from our 23 season to a packed audience in the heart of our downtown. Here are Companies 4 & 5. 🙌🏾
THANK YOU to @scdanceweek for making this event happen each year. We know it’s a ton of work and such a labor of love.
Major shout outs to Company Directors, Teachers, and Choreographers. 👏🏾♥️
And congrats dancers on another set of STELLAR performances.
Movement with purpose. 🌍✨
Senegalese choreographer @ada_saliou_diop led a powerful class exploring rhythm, storytelling, and the connection between tradition and contemporary expression.
Experience his artistry live at Deep Roots Dance Fest 🎟️ Link in bio for tickets!
#dance #twdcc #africandance
Today is the day 🥹😭❤️🫶🏾👏🏾🤩
We are so excited to celebrate our graduating seniors at their Senior Showcase today at 5:30PM at the studio! Each senior will be presenting their own solo work to commemorate their dance journeys so far and step into this next chapter surrounded by the love and support of our community.
Tickets are free! Space is limited, but if you have a moment, please come by and join us for this incredibly special celebration. ❤️
Congratulations Arielle, Leila, Layla, Ava, Eliza, Adeline, and Izzy! And our seniors that aren’t able to join us this weekend. We 💗 you all!!!!
Enjoy these STUNNING shots captured from this season’s Company Showcase 🤩👏🏾🥹❤️
This year, our dancers chose the theme Finding Unity Between Communities.
We were deeply inspired by the conversations that emerged around this theme, and proud of the care, thoughtfulness, and intention our dancers brought to exploring what it means to come together and celebrate community in this moment in time.
Throughout the show, dancers shared written reflections. One of our seniors captured the spirit of the theme so beautifully:
“Community is more than just the people around you. It’s diversity, different voices, backgrounds, and perspectives coming together, becoming stronger as one.
It’s doors that don’t close, tables that keep expanding, and people who stay, even as everything changes. It’s learning how to love people as they grow. How to make space without losing connection.
It’s discovering how to say you belong here and mean it.”
Congratulations to our companies on another year of hard work, dedication, passion, and care. We are so proud of you, beloveds ❤️
Photos by the amazing @shotbyrose831
☀️S U M M E R 2 0 2 6 ☀️
… is fast approaching and we’re getting excited for our upcoming summer dance programs. From Dance Camps to Intensives and Bootcamps, TWDCC has something for everyone - from our youngest movers to advanced teens.
Summer break is the perfect time for dancers to focus, train hard, have FUN, and reach their goals.
Check out our offerings and head to our website to learn more + register your dancer TODAY 👏🏾
Link in B I O 🫶🏾
Support TWDCC’s Youth Company’s efforts to raise funds for their trip to NY this summer and get some comfy merch when you do it!
We’ve extended the deadline for merch orders to the end of spring break, SUNDAY APRIL 12th.
Head to the link in bio to order yours today!
Every dollar goes towards the NY trip costs for our dancers, and increases access for them to experience high caliber dance training, cultural immersion, and sweet connection with each other 🥹🫶🏾❤️👏🏾
And we LOVE seeing our community repping TWDCC!
Thank you for your support. Link in Bio.
Beautiful words from the one and only @gregorypauldawson , TWDCC’s returning Winter Dance Fest featured choreographer for over a decade—and this clip from this season’s production shows exactly why.
Gregory is not only a brilliant artist whose work captivates audiences, but also an educator and visionary who inspires us deeply through his story, experience, guidance, and profound well of knowledge.
If you missed Winter Dance Fest this year, be sure to join us next season to witness Gregory and his tour de force company.
Thank you @dawsondancesf for your incredible performance!
Video Credit: @bonecoloredbag
TWDCC is honored to announce that our beloved Executive and Artistic Director, Micha Scott, has been voted the 2026 Artist of the Year by the Santa Cruz County Arts Commission.
Over the last 42 years, the Santa Cruz County Arts Commission has selected outstanding local artists nominated by the public and has honored them through the Artist of the Year Award. The Artist of the Year award is presented for outstanding achievement in the discipline of performing, visual, and literary arts. Nominees must be a resident of Santa Cruz County and must have: a national or international reputation, contributed to the cultural enrichment of the local community, and created or presented work in Santa Cruz County. This award recognizes artists who have built a lasting legacy in this community and woven their artistry into the very fabric of who they are and all they do. For all who know Micha, as an educator, performer, curator, choreographer and leader, we know that she is the embodiment of this nomination.
We hope you will join us for the AOY Profile Performance event on June 5th 2026 from 7-9pm at the Museum of Art & History for live performances and celebration of this honorable achievement! Admission is FREE to the public.
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Santa Cruz born and raised, now dancing in New York, Naia Neal is a powerful reminder of what it means to do it.
In this spotlight, Winter Dance Fest performer Naia shares a simple truth: dance when it brings you joy, when it feels impossible, when you’re exhausted, when it feels like the only thing that can make you feel something, because showing up to your craft is part of the dedication and the privilege of being an artist.
Many of our young dancers have grown up watching Naia and dreaming bigger because of it. Her dedication, strength, and artistry continue to inspire the next generation. Her performance at Winter Dance Fest was nothing short of exceptional.
Thank you for gracing the stage for our community Naia! Keep doing it. 🖤
Video credit: @mogul.archive
THIS SATURDAY ✨
Taliha joins us for TWDCC’s Winter Dance Festival, bringing her breathtaking artistry back to Santa Cruz and we CANNOT WAIT.
Her work is always magnetic and embodied, and you want to miss the chance to witness it live.
🗓️FEB 28 7:30PM CABRILLO CROCKER THEATER
Grab your tickets today! 🎟️ Link in bio
UPDATE! NEW Choreographer added to the Winter Dance Fest Lineup and we are SO excited about it 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
William Brewton Fowler Jr. will be joining us not only as a dawsondancesf performer, but as a soloist. If you’ve ever been to our studio, you will have seen a STUNNING photo of him displayed as inspiration for our dancers. We can’t wait to have him back to grace the Santa Cruz stage.
✨William is a Christian freelance dancer and emerging choreographer from Augusta, Georgia. Throughout his career he has worked with companies such as Zaccho Dance Theatre, Gallim Dance, Company SBB, dawsondancesf, Eight/Moves, SFBATCO, Joe Goode Performance group, Deborah Slater Dance Theatre, Alex Ketley’s The Foundry, and Concept 04. William has also participated in works under the direction of artists such as Maurya Kerr, Melecio Estrella, and Destiny Muhammad. As an emerging choreographer, he dedicates his creations to his faith and recently created a solo, Gentleness in His Hands, during his 2024/2025 fellowship with Zaccho Dance Theatre’s Black Futures residency. William has received an Isadora Duncan award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance in the Individual category (2023-2024) for Zaccho Dance Theatre’s “THE PEOPLE’S PALACE”
