About The Dance Hub

The Dance Hub Mission Statement

The Dance Hub is home to AD&M. Its mission is to encourage life-long learning and enjoyment of dance. With two professionally equipped studios, TDH offers diverse programming for students of all ages and provides affordable teaching and performance space at below market rates, as well as rent subsidies to individual artists and non-profit performing arts groups and tuition subsidies for children through adults.

In 2005, Carrie Diamond and Eric Valinsky founded Ballet Santa Barbara, and in 2006 incorporated as the non-profit, American Dance and Music, Inc. Over the next twelve years, AD&M offered ballet and modern dance technique classes for adults in rented studio space at the Santa Barbara Ballet Center, Santa Barbara Dance Arts, and the Montecito School of Ballet. AD&M’s programming grew to include master classes, workshops, guest performers, and ballet intensives. All this while, they were searching for an affordable venue for a community dance space that would serve as its home. Finally, in April of 2017, Carrie and Eric walked into what had been The Remnant Store on Victoria Street and said “This feels like home!” They were struck by the beautiful wood floor, the high ceilings, and its location in the heart of the performance district. They particularly loved the dramatic metal beams of the earthquake retrofit for this historical building. They realized that these beams logically delineated the space into three studios and they are now featured as part of the decor of the main studio.

The space opened in November, 2017. There are three studios: on the Victoria Street side, there is a state-of-the-art Pilates studio featuring the original wood floor, lovingly refinished, and subleased as The Space at the Hub. The main studio features a state-of-the-art floating floor built by David Sukonick that minimizes the risk of injury and is ideal for ballet shoes, bare feet, or socks. For the small studio, David sanded and sealed the vintage oak floor to allow percussive dance such as flamenco and tap. In addition to AD&M classes in ballet, modern dance, flamenco, and restorative techniques, our affiliates and renters offer classes in Pilates, Nia, theater arts, belly dance, Brazilian dance, folkloric dance, and tango, to name a few.

The opening of The Dance Hub in 2017 is the realization of a long-held goal and milestone for the AD&M founders and Board of Directors. It is operated as a non-profit program of American Dance and Music, Inc. AD&M is thrilled at the positive response by funding organizations and generous donors. The launch of the studio was kickstarted by major grants by the Santa Barbara Foundation and the City of Santa Barbara. Our class tuition and rental fees are below market rates, but we offer additional rent subsidies for local performing artists thanks to another grant from the City of Santa Barbara through the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture. A generous grant from the Towbes Fund for the Performing Arts will enabled AD&M to once again present its popular Dance: Up Close and Cultural in April, 2019, this time in its own space.

The Dance Hub had its official Grand Opening celebration in October, 2018. The event included two days of open house followed by a performance and reception. The performance included Ana Galindo’s Pacific Action Dance Theater, Angelita Eller’s Hula Anyone, and solo modern dancer Sarah Elizabeth Stanley.

I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to to dance better than myself.
— Mikhail Baryshnikov