Keshet Dance and Center for the Arts

Keshet Dance Company & Center for the Arts is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1996 by Shira Greenberg. Housed at the Keshet Center for the Arts—a 30,000 sq. ft. facility featuring 6 studios, a 240-seat theater, and community gathering spaces—Keshet has grown from a volunteer-run organization to one employing over 30 staff members, including full-time year-round employment for Company dancers, a rarity in the dance industry.

Keshet teaches dance at all levels and ages, from age 2 to 102, with classes available for youth, pre-professional students, adults, and older adults. Specific offerings include Youth Dance Classes, Youth Dance Camps, the Pre-Professional Program (KP3), Little Dancer and Big Dancer classes, Fine Wine Dance for ages 55+, Mixed Ability/Adaptive Dance, and Adult Dance Classes. All classes and performances operate on a sliding scale with $0 options for all, ensuring economic barriers do not prevent participation. The ACCESS programme provides sliding scale pricing and scholarship opportunities.

The professional Keshet Dance Company consists of movement artists who create and share contemporary dance while facilitating community programming. The company repertory includes Keshet Dance Company New Works, the 20-year holiday production Nutcracker on the Rocks (featuring professional, pre-professional, and community dancers together), and Movement for Mercy—an iterative contemporary dance performance examining and re-imagining US juvenile justice systems, co-created by collaborating artists inside and outside prison walls.

Beyond dance classes and performances, Keshet operates three intersecting programme areas: Education and Engagement (classes and performances for all ages and abilities); the Ideas and Innovation Community (a business resource center and residency-based makerspace for arts entrepreneurs offering free arts business classes on topics including Grant Writing, Marketing & Branding, Financial Management, and Intellectual Property Law); and Arts and Justice Initiatives (dance programming within juvenile prisons, field research supporting policy and advocacy, and community conversations centring youth voices). Keshet's nationally recognized M3 Program provides meaningful programming within New Mexico's juvenile prisons. The center also hosts the Keshet Makers Space Experience, Presenting Voices Series, Choreographers' Showcases, Hear Here Festival, and offers space rental for events and productions. Keshet is an anchor organization in the Midtown Arts & Entertainment District and received the 2025 Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.

You'll enter a welcoming 30,000 sq. ft. facility in the Midtown Arts & Entertainment District featuring 6 studios, a 240-seat theater, and community spaces, all marked by the largest mural in New Mexico. Classes are offered on a sliding scale with $0 entry options, and you can participate regardless of age, ability, or background—Keshet's core belief is that anyone can dance.

Shira Greenberg (Founder & Artistic Director, Teaching Faculty) founded Keshet in 1996 with a focus on contemporary dance, community, and systems-change advocacy. She has created over 60 original dance works and been recognized by the Obama Administration's President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities for her work at the intersection of dance and juvenile justice. Ana Lopes Aréchiga (Company Dancer, Director of Programming and Engagement, Teaching Faculty) holds a BA in Contemporary Dance and Psychology from the University of New Mexico and has danced with multiple companies including Kamea Dance Company in Israel. She has been an adjunct faculty at UNM's Theater & Dance Department since 2021 and is currently collaborating with composer Zachariah Julian on a work premiering in early 2026.

Keshet welcomes dancers of all ages and abilities with classes from age 2 to 102, and all classes operate on a sliding scale with $0 options to remove economic barriers.