TU Dance
Background and Purpose
Begun in 2003 as the Space TU Embrace project, TU Dance was founded by artistic directors Uri Sands and Toni Pierce-Sands, both veterans of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. The mission of TU Dance is to create, produce and deliver dance performances that are accessible to diverse audiences.
The primary goals of TU Dance are to reach through diverse dance traditions to tap the art form's connective power and to expand audiences. Each year TU Dance presents two dance concerts: one at the Southern Theatre in Minneapolis and one at The O'Shaughnessy on the campus of the College of St. Catherine in St Paul.
Audiences for these performances more than doubled last season, from 1,389 people to 3,504 people. The typical audience includes 30% people of color and is 60% female/40% male. The company has also begun to tour. Each tour includes an education component such as master classes and student audiences.
The company works with local and national dance artists; Uri Sands choreographs for TU and other dance companies including Alvin Ailey. Locally, TU Dance collaborates with other performing arts organizations such as Penumbra Theatre, VocalEssence and the Minnesota Orchestra.
They have created education programming to engage young people in dance; the artistic directors have led residencies at Crosswinds Middle School in Saint Paul and the Main Street School for Performing Arts in Hopkins. TU Dance is governed by a 9-member Board of Directors which includes 45% people of color, six women and three men.
Current Request
Since 2006, TU Dance has presented an annual concert at The O'Shaughnessy. While performances presented at Minneapolis venues (the Southern and the Ritz theaters) have sold to capacity (each seats approximately 200 patrons), The O'Shaughnessy, with its larger capacity (1,700), is a greater challenge to fill.
While audiences have grown over the past two years (in 2006, 962 patrons attended three performances; in 2007, 1,047 patrons attended), they have done so without the benefit of a strategic targeted marketing approach. TU Dance requests support to implement a capacity building/audience development plan that targets east metro community members.
The overall goals of the project are to maximize attendance of TU Dance's annual performances at The O'Shaughnessy and engage a larger, diverse East Metro population in all of TU Dance's Saint Paul activities. Project objectives that will help to meet these goals include: developing effective community and marketing strategies to support audience expansion; conducting surveys to see who is currently attending performances; targeting diverse communities; and working with educational partners to offer access to performances.
The project activities include hiring contract marketing and public relations consultants, redesigning TU Dance's website and print materials, conducting surveys, expanding performances to include one daytime matinee for schools audiences and developing relationships with Saint Paul area schools to engage a diverse group of young audiences.