Diamond Awarded 2019 Indy Award for TDH
Executive Artistic Director Carrie Diamond was the recipient of a 2019 Independent Dance and Theater Award for founding The Dance Hub. The award was presented by Ninette Paloma for The Santa Barbara Independent on May 20, 2019 at The New Vic Theater. Here is the text of her acceptance speech:
Thank you, Ninette, and thank you Santa Barbara Independent. It amazing to be recognized at this point in time.
After 23 years living, training, performing, teaching and choreographing in New York City, I made the break, and along with my husband and two young children, we moved back to my home state of CA and found ourselves a house in Mission canyon. It all happened very quickly and during that time I was honestly in shock about what I had done to my life.
I didn’t know what exactly I would do here but I was committed to continuing my work in dance. By 2006 we had our 501c3 tax exempt status, incorporated as American Dance & Music, and our journey began. Our motto has was always to strive to be an asset to our community.
It took me and the AD&M board of directors 11 years of dreaming and holding onto our vision for a space in Santa Barbara, and in 2017, we opened the doors of The Dance Hub located at 22 E. Victoria St., on the other side of State Street. While we accomplished a lot in previous years, The Dance hub is our most important production yet!
The Dance Hub is just getting going, we have plans for so many things, but this year we gave rent subsidies to exceptional, local choreographers, and supported the creation in our studios, of four new works. And we presented those beautiful works in our space to the community for free. This is what the Dance Hub does.
The Dance Hub is also the space for adult students who want to dance again, or dance for the very first time, and reconnect with their bodies and their potential as human beings. The Dance Hub is also a place to do that.
Thanks again to the Santa Barbara Independent for this award. Thank you!
