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SpectorDance is once again proud to be participating in Monterey County Gives!, our local, annual, end-of-year, community-wide, fundraising campaign. For over 20 years, MC Gives! has raised essential funds for many Monterey County non-profit organizations. Continuing with tradition, this year a percentage of all money received through MCGives! from November 11 to December 31, 2021 will be matched!
 
SpectorDance’s mission is “To Create and Present Dance that Makes a Difference!” Our values include celebrating creative vitality, informing and inspiring audiences about local issues with global significance, collaboration, excellence, integrity, and a dedication to mentor youth artists to inspire social change.
 
Past community support from donors like you enabled us to:
  • Train many generations of dancers in a way that is not about competition, but about excellence and self-discovery.
  • Create original performance works for youth exploring classic stories and educational themes.
  • Offer free classes in under-resourced parts of our community.
  • Create original works that weave together music, spoken word, visual images, and dance to tackle some of the most pressing issues of our time in ways that reach people’s hearts!
  • Build a state-of-the-art dance studio and performance venue where we presented other artists as well as our own works.

This year, your donation will enable us to:
  • Present SpectorDance’s Choreographers Showcase Re-imagined at Hidden Valley Music Seminars, an institute for the arts (February 4-6, 2022)
  • Present the second Monterey Ocean Arts Festival, featuring ocean-themed art in all genres created by artists aged 12-25 at the Monterey Museum of Art (April 9, 2022)
  • Create Moana, commissioned by Monterey Peninsula Voices (May 6 & 7, 2022)
  • Create Wildfires, a new work exploring California wildfires (premier in Fall 2022)
  • Present Ocean Trilogy at local schools
 
Amidst the uncertainties of the arts in a post-Covid environment, SpectorDance is  embarking on a new epoch, more committed than ever to create and present dance that makes a difference. We are blazing new creative directions that are both important to the community and artistically exciting.
 
We are so grateful to the numerous foundations, businesses, and individuals that have  supported and believed in us. We are looking forward to taking the next steps in SpectorDance’s evolution. We will continue to explore  ways that dance can have an impact on social issues and provide a forum for the people of Monterey County to experience its power. But, we cannot do it without you. Please donate today!
 
Wishing you a healthy, joyful, and creative holiday and new year.

SpectorDance Board of Directors
Fran Spector Atkins, Founder & Executive Director, Dr. Roger D. Stewart, Board Chair, Amy Byington, Shany Dagan, Connie Denault, Alexis Han-Holdren, Dr. Jonathan Lipow, and Dianne Lyle

Testimonials
Fran Spector Atkins is a tour de force in our community and throughout the country. She is an amazing teacher, dancer and choreographer who masterfully weaves her art making with dialogue about the toughest and most complex issues we face. We have all benefited tremendously from the incredible growth of her school, her choreographic works and her leadership during the past fifteen years that I have been the Executive Director of the Arts Council for Monterey County. She is a great asset to our region and an inspiration for everyone who meets her. Whenever I say that "the arts are the answer", I think often of Fran's gorgeous, daring, innovative and powerful work.
- Paulette Lynch - former Executive Director of the Arts Council for Monterey County
“The California Arts Council believes in the potential of the arts to enrich the lives of all our state’s residents, especially our young people,” said Nashormeh Lindo, California Arts Council Chair. “That belief does not change with our system-engaged youth; it grows stronger. The world we create for our young people today determines our world tomorrow. We are proud to support the work of SpectorDance.”
I deeply admire SD's forward-looking vision. I applaud the many dance-education programs in the area, but none of them makes so clear the connection between dance and the social issues with which we all confront on a daily basis. SD's embrace of gang violence and oceanic degradation, both of which profoundly afflict life in Monterey County, has revealed essential current truths that other area arts have as of yet to take notice. I cheer SpectorDance more for making those issues a much bigger part of daily life in our community, for representing the urgency these issues demand, not only to artists but to the rest of us who have no end of ways to look the other way. SD makes its educational vision a matter of immediacy--hence action--that all other local arts institutions should embrace. I can think of no other arts program that is more deserving of widespread community support.
- Scott MacClelland - editor, Performing Arts Monterey Bay

Thank you to our Major Donors!
  • California Arts Council
  • Nancy Buck Ransom Foundation
  • Chapman Foundation
  • Harden Foundation​
  • Monterey County Weekly Community Fund
  • Arts Council for Monterey County
  • Barnet J. Segal Charitable Trust
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium
  • Yellow Brick Road
  • Hal & Jacque Eastman/Peregrine Image
  • Union Bank
  • Charles Schwab 
  • Events California
  • New Dawn Studios
We are also grateful for our additional supporters:
Amy Anderson and George Somero, Wendy Askew, Fran Spector Atkins and James Atkins, Liz Atkins and Mel Perkins, Theresa Arteaga, Kathleen and Wolfgang Baer, Barbara and Peter Baird, Sheri Benham, Lisa Berkley and Mike Dinkel, Shirley Blaine, David Bortnick, Susie Brusa, Amy Byington, Margaret Carlson, Lisa and Anthony Ciani, Cecilia Contreras Luna and Malcolm Mejia, Karen and Jay Cook, Mary and Pierre Cousineau, Cezar Degollado, Laura Dellapenna and Luigi Catanzaro, Dixie Dixon and Stephen Mortensen Renee and Dave Dove, Jane and Randy Dunay, Catherine and Nick Fanoe, Alisa Fineman and Kimball Hurd, Chris Fitz, Jane and Adam Franch, Katherine Hansen, Rachel, Karen, Doug and Dylan Holmes, Diana Huang and Ron Chen, Jane Jones, Bruce Kajiwara, Connie and Sam Katz, Pamela and Douglas Keindl, Heather and David Kirk, William Jakl, Jonathan Lipow, Michael MacClelland, Jill Miller, Joan and Matthew Little, Ester Lucas, Paulette Lynch and Ken Peterson, Richard MacDonald, Ellen Martin, Harriet Mitteldorf, Elaine Moquette-Magee, Dona Mork, Susan and Steven Murphy, Mimi and George Niesen, Mandy and Patrick Orosco, Jennifer and Jeffrey Paduan, Emerenciana Paghasian, Claire and Stephen Peffer, Mary Pommerich, Thomas Rebold, Susan and Richard Rosen, Kyra and Brian Schlining, Gary Schwartz, Lizanne and David Shoff, Roger Stewart, Harley Thompson, Roger and Linda Thompson, Jan Wagstaff, Insuk and James Waidler, Helen and Lenard Kosik-Westly, Janet and Randall Whitchurch, Emily and Matt Zefferman, Bradley Zeve, Nancy and Lee Zimmerman