Our mission is to support and promote a premiere dance arts program and an appreciation of the arts, in cooperation with the San Diego Park and Recreation Department Dance Arts Program.
San Diego Civic Dance Association is a non-profit, all volunteer, public benefit organization. Every year, our dedicated volunteers give over 20,000 hours of their time to support the many programs of the City of San Diego's Civic Dance Arts program. While the City fee covers the cost of the dance classes, each year our hardworking volunteers work to raise over $130,000 to cover the costs of our performances and additional programs.
San Diego Civic Dance Association funds and produces performance opportunities for dancers taking classes with the City program. From Recitals, Collage, December Nights, Free Night of Theater and many more, our pledge is to provide a complete education and performance experience for our dance community.
In addition to performance opportunities, SDCDA funds financial aid, merit scholarships, college scholarships, costume assistance as well as specialty dance training opportunities for both dancer and teachers alike. Our pledge is to build and maintain a strong dance program that supports all of our students and teachers, no matter their age or ability level.
Celebrating over 75 years of Dance Education in San Diego. Founded in 1942, San Diego Civic Dance Arts has introduced hundreds of thousands of citizens to the art form of dance and has been lauded as the standard by which other city-wide dance programs nationwide measure themselves. As part of the City's Park and Recreation Department, San Diego Civic Dance Arts provides affordable dance training at 22 Recreation Centers throughout San Diego County as well as in several dance facilities in Balboa Park. With close to 3,000 students enrolled, the program provides our students, ages 3 to Senior Citizen, the chance to participate in a wide variety of classes such as tap, jazz, ballet, modern, musical theater, creative movement, hip hop, and Hawaiian. San Diego Civic Dance Arts is a high quality accessible program which, thanks to the City of San Diego's low income fee waiver program, ensures that anyone who wishes to dance in San Diego is able to do so. Unique to the program, each spring brings workshops for advanced level, audition only Companies. San Diego Civic Dance Arts Companies provide advanced level training and performance opportunities. All four companies perform in various events year round, representing the City of San Diego. Many of our advanced level dancers have gone on to successful careers in dance and the arts. Affordable one week Summer Camps are available to dancers ages 8-17 years, with a showcase performance at the end of each week. Also available are our Adult workshop (full convention-style day of dance for Adults and Seniors), our Boys Day of Dance (full day of dance for boys 6-17 years) as well as our half-day camp for ages 5-7 years. With the support of San Diego Civic Dance Association, all of our students are given many different performance opportunities, such as December Nights, our critically acclaimed dance Collage in February, Production Finales as well as the highly anticipated Yearly Recitals held at the beautiful Casa Del Prado Theater in historic Balboa Park.
Civic Dance Arts is an all-volunteer not for profit public benefit corporation. Your donations provide critical funds for student merit scholarships, free dance classes, teacher development, production underwriting, costume assistance and so much more! Please support Civic Dance with your tax-deductible donation.