Dance St. Louis

For 56 years, Dance STL has fueled the arts, presenting the world of dance and its artists from across the globe. As one of four dance-only presenters in the entire United States, Dance St. Louis is the GATEWAY for Missourians, visitors, students, and employers to be engaged and enriched in an accessible and diverse season of WORLD DANCE.

Dance STL curates a dance series each season that brings nationally and internationally world-renowned dance companies to the St. Louis metropolitan area for performances, master classes, and educational residencies. Presentations have included such greats as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, Pilobolus, Martha Graham, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Rudolf Nureyev, among a host of other dance luminaries.

For the last fourteen seasons, Dance STL has produced the SPRING TO DANCE FESTIVAL, the Midwest region's must-see dance festival offering a vast line-up from aerial dance, hip hop, flamenco and tap to ballet, modern contemporary, and more. The festival has drawn sold out audiences with its affordable ticket price, making it one of the hottest dance festivals in the country.

Through our long-standing partnership with local school districts, each semester Dance STL engages highly sought-after teaching artists from the professional dance world, connecting them with thousands of residency students. Committed to bringing dance to underserved students, Dance St. Louis' residency program focuses primarily on dance, while integrating communication arts, music, visual art, health, and social studies into the curriculum. Students have opportunities to improve their academic work, awaken their imagination, curiosity, and expressiveness, as well as nurture performance skills such as dance technique, creativity, focus and collaboration.

Building on the cross-curricular Dance Education Residency Program, Dance STL launched the transformative Dance Career Award Mentoring in 2011. Exceptionally talented residency students are identified each year for futher training and mentoring in dance. Students in this ongoing, multi-year award program are mentored by Dance St. Louis through high school, college, conservatory , or professional dance training, and ultimately into the challenging world of professional dance.

Through the generosity of our donors, Dance Career Awardees receive financial assistance such as air travel, housing assistance and other fees for college auditions and summer dance intensives ; tuition support for local dance technique classes, and the purchase of tights, leotards, and ballet shoes required for classes.