For three decades, Keshet Dance Company has dissolved the lines between stage and community, artist and audience—making contemporary dance a vehicle for access, collaboration, and social change.
Keshet Dance Company & Center for the Arts was founded in 1996 with an ongoing commitment to breaking barriers in the dance field while honoring the beauty and rigor of contemporary dance. Their role as leaders is grounded in ensuring access to the arts is available to every community member regardless of their background or circumstance. Located in the middle of Albuquerque, Keshet is redefining the model for what a dance company can look like—and is allowed to be.
Known for work that is as emotionally impactful as it is technically brilliant, Keshet uses dance as the vehicle to continue conversations about social justice, the importance of the arts, and the transformative power of dance. Keshet’s dancers are fully integrated into the running and steering of the organization and are educators and teachers in addition to their professional dance responsibilities. As directors, managers, and educators, the company of dancers provides and creates programming that influences the next generation of professional dancers, builds students’ artistic abilities, nurtures confidence, enhances social skills and connections, and lifts up student’s emotional well-being.
While Keshet has many key programs, one pillar is the Ideas and Innovation Community, which includes artist residencies, arts business workshops, visiting artist classes, and much more. One recent example of Keshet’s Ideas and Innovations Community is the 2024 return of Keshet’s Hear Here Festival held in Albuquerque. This unique festival pairs artists—who have never worked together—across disciplines and gives them two weeks to create a new piece, culminating in a one-night- only performance. Artists must quickly build consensus to effectively collaborate, foster partnerships beyond the confines of the Festival, and bolster the enduring nature of original work. It is one of the many ways Keshet provides a built-in creative community, develops connectivity, establishes opportunity between artists, and builds a thriving creative dynamic for our city.
In 2025, Hear Here Festival participant composer Zachariah Julian collaborated with choreographer Ana Lopes Aréchiga on a piece that evolved into a full-length work and premiered at Keshet in April 2026. Julian notes, “Over the past year, we’ve been exploring the dark, moody, yet beautiful world of Tarrion, and what we’ve created is one of the most uniquely beautiful pieces of art I’ve ever had the honor of being a part of.”
By dissolving the boundaries between stage and community, artists and audiences, and ideas and innovations, Keshet ensures that dance—from classes to performances, participants to audiences—remains accessible to all.
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