OUR MISSION

DANCECleveland aspires to be a national model for how a presenting organization serves its community, leveraging the world’s best modern and contemporary dance to inspire and educate audiences, local dancers, and community members.

OUR VISION

Everyone benefits from access to arts and culture that nurtures creativity, lifts the human spirit, and improves community well-being.

OUR VALUES AND BELIEFS

Dance allows us to connect with, inspire and build healthy, vibrant and curious communities.

• Modern and contemporary dance are foundational to our work. We honor the legacy of modern dance masters while embracing the future of the art form.

• We celebrate the innovative, experimental, and rebellious spirit at the core of modern and contemporary dance forms.

• We contribute to Northeast Ohio as a destination for arts and culture by presenting and engaging world-renowned dance artists.

• We are committed to quality in all aspects of engaging and presenting high-level dance.

• Our focus is on the relevance of our artistic programming – presenting work that reflects the people of our community and their lived experiences.

• We embrace the power of dance to transcend racial, cultural, socioeconomic, and political divides.

• We hold ourselves accountable to our commitment to equity in all of aspects of our work, to further advance the Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ 10/20/30 pledge.

• We support the regional dance ecosystem in ways that leverage our connections, partnerships, and strengths.

• We are committed to developing board and staff capacity to meet our future aspirations.

• We strengthen our equity work through partnerships, programs, and strategies.

DANCECleveland's Commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

DANCECleveland is committed to doing its part to impact change towards diversity, equity, and inclusion in the landscape of modern dance and beyond.  We will present our communities with programming that is accessible, promotes unity and acceptance.  As we reflect inward at our organization, we will look for ways to fight the roots of injustice from the inside out. We will cultivate organizational standards emphasizing the importance of diverse partnerships that respect race, identity, ethnicity, age, and education.  As a proud member of the Northeast Ohio arts community and in a place of humility, we are here to listen, learn, challenge, and change together.

Land Acknowledgement

DANCECleveland humbly acknowledges that the land on which we reside and the place we call Cuyahoga County is territory that was claimed by the United States government through force, displacement and treaties negotiated in bad faith.  We acknowledge that this land is the traditional homeland of the Erie, Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Wyandot Miami, Ottawa, Potawatomi, and other Great Lakes tribes (Chippewa, Kickapoo, Wea, Piankishaw, and Kaskaskia) and remains the home to the thousands of Native Americans representing over 100 tribes.