At the Albuquerque nonprofit, students become performers, family members become colleagues, and a community built on access and belonging continues to grow.
The 30,000-square-foot Midtown Albuquerque space that Keshet Dance Company occupies is exceptionally welcoming, as are the dancers—of all backgrounds and abilities—that traffic the halls and studios of the dance organization every day.
Evening Star Barron, Keshet’s communications manager, describes a common phenomenon there: kids attend classes from an early age, then go on to join the professional dance company or otherwise work at the nonprofit. Slowly, they bring their family and friends into the fold, too. Elysia Pope, a company dancer and director of the arts and justice initiative at Keshet, followed that exact trajectory. Today, her mom works there as a concierge, and her niece takes classes. “This story is replicated multiple times over at Keshet,” Barron says. If you’ve ever taken a class or gone to a performance at Keshet, it all makes perfect sense.
Keshet’s efforts include sliding-scale classes and performances for all ages and levels, a pre-professional dance program, residencies for visiting artists, a dance company, and a program that works with youth impacted by the juvenile prison system. It’s an ambitious portfolio, but one that has a demonstrated track record of success; this year, Keshet marks thirty years.
“We are so honored to be part of [the] shift and national conversation about access, artistic integrity, spaces of belonging through the arts, community health, and the power of dance to change community narrative and community connection,” says founder and artistic director Shira Greenberg as she reflects on Keshet’s trajectory from a small, volunteer-run outfit to the thriving organization it is today, with more than thirty people on staff.
Celebrations are set throughout 2026, and so far Keshet has already hosted a costume retrospective and a performance by the Keshet Dance Company. It also premiered Tarrion, a full-length collaboration between composer Zachariah Julian and choreographer Ana Lopes Aréchiga in April. Its flagship fundraiser, the ABQ Wine Classic, will take place May 28-31, 2026.
Barron says that Keshet’s aspirations are as expansive as ever. In the next thirty years, “We hope to continue to change the landscape of dance as we challenge historically rigid concepts of what a professional dance company looks like and is allowed to be, and how we value the unique art form of dance,” she says.
