The SpectorDance mission is to create and present dance that makes a difference! Through our signature style that weaves together factual and aesthetic elements, our work informs and inspires. Through collaborations and community engagement, we nurture creativity and connection. The SpectorDance vision is a vibrant world where the beauty and the power of dance fuels the human spirit.

Since our inception in 1997, we have been committed to creating socially-engaged art. Now, with the extraordinary challenges of the pandemic, SpectorDance has responded by offering online classes, creative projects, and virtual performances. These digital programs expand our reach, deepen our impact, and open our imaginations in exciting and limitless ways.

 We are blazing a creative path that is artistically exciting—and serves the entire community by providing new opportunities for people who have previously had little or no access to contemporary dance. We remain strongly committed to exploring ways that dance can have an impact on the most pressing issues of our time and provide a forum for the people of Monterey County to experience the power of dance.

Make a Donation to SpectorDance Today!

Your donation will enable us to:
●      Complete a new film of Ocean Trilogy with four associated educational videos featuring science content, creative movement exercises, and segments from Ocean Trilogy
●      Present our next Choreographers Showcase live and virtual (Fall 2021)
●      Present our second Monterey Ocean Arts Festival (Spring 2022)
●      Create and present, Wildfires, about fire in California (premiere 2022)

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