Founded in 1996, CityDance’s mission is to advance the appreciation for and participation in contemporary dance through performance and education. CityDance is comprised of the following programs.

Studio Education, under the direction of Lorraine Spiegler, providing dance training at multiple sites around the DC metropolitan area:

• Center at Strathmore (North Bethesda, MD), a Dance School and Conservatory committed to training young dancers for professional careers;
• Center at DC Dance Collective (Washington, DC), specializing in early childhood dance education;
• CityDance at Madeira (McLean, VA), directing the dance program at this private high-school;
• DC Pubic Schools (Washington, DC), directing music and dance arts integration programs at selected public schools.

CityDance Early Arts, led by Kelli Quinn, is a youth development and arts education program providing free performances, after-school programs and summer camps to underserved neighborhoods.

CityDance Black Box Theater at Strathmore, producing and presenting professional dance performances and providing a performance home for CityDance Conservatory and School students.

Artist-in-Residence Program, as part of CityDance’s commitment to producing and presenting professional dance in the DC metropolitan area former CityDance Rehearsal Director and Resident Choreographer Christopher K. Morgan is CityDance’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence in the newly built Black Box Theater at Strathmore where he will produce two of his own shows.

Until 2011, CityDance included a professional company of eight full-time dancers that performed locally, nationally and abroad. Under the direction of CityDance co-founder and former Artistic Director Paul Gordon Emerson, the company earned a reputation as "Washington's preeminent modern dance company” (The Washington Times); was named “Top 25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine (2003); and won the DC Mayor’s Arts Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist (2003), Innovation in the Arts (2005), and Excellence in an Artistic Discipline (2009). For more information, download our 6/28/2011 press release.

CityDance is currently led by Executive Director, Alexandra Nowakowski.