San Jose Dance Theatre

“All board members are provided a copy of the form 990 at the first board meeting following its filing”

“All governing documents, minutes and tax filings are available for public inspection by contacting the san jose dance theatre office”

“San jose dance theatre was founded in l964 as a ballet academy and performing company by paul e. Curtis, jr. And shawn stuart. It was created to provide excellence in ballet and dance training and high-quality performance opportunities for its students, their families and the community. We care about bringing the art of ballet to the community where we live. In 2020, following our 5 year strategic plan, we started a professional ballet company with the hiring of 6 professional dancers comprised of 3 men and 3 women. We also started pre-professional and trainee training programs, in addition to our scheduled sjdt academy program for beginning through advanced students. Sjdt has mounted and performed the full-length the nutcracker ballet in san jose for 54 consecutive years. The 55th annual production scheduled for live performances with live orchestra in december, 2020, was canceled due to the covid pandemic. The nutcracker, aside from academy tuition, is sjdt's biggest revenue source. All live performances in the 7/1/2020 to 6/30/2021 fiscal year were canceled. Instead we created a streaming season for patrons that included an abbreviated version of the nutcracker which was filmed outdoors at iconic and well-known venues in the san jose and santa clara county area. This was a huge undertaking that allowed us to still bring this much needed holiday tradition to the public while supporting our dancers and families. Our streaming audiences are significantly smaller than in-theater audiences for nutcracker. Nonetheless, we persevered because we felt it was important to maintain the tradition for the community, the sjdt school, families, dancers and staff. In large productions such as the nutcracker and the sleeping beauty, our student dancers perform with our professional, pre-professional and trainee program dancers. These are great opportunities for all involved. Auditions are open to all dancers in the san jose and bay areas for the nutcracker, making it a true community event. We filmed a contemporary program and the full-length the sleeping beauty in an area theater in the first half of 2021 with our dancers wearing masks, and provided these videos to our streaming audiences. We could film in the theater but could not have any audiences in the house. A step forward. Our professional and trainee dancers were offered the opportunity to create contemporary dances for our streaming season and these performances were filmed outdoors with unique and innovative lighting and locations,and they were beautifully danced. The dancers loved creating them and they were well received by our audiences online. Our studios were open for classes with distancing and masks; then closed for several months with online classes only. County protocols continually changed due to changes in the pandemic. At one point our student population was drastically reduced as students began to give up on the dream of ballet and dance. Doing training from their living rooms and apart from their friends was not quite the ticket for them. The open, then closed, then open, then closed, then open status changes continually occurred. Our student population has more than doubled after retuning to the studios for in-person classes. The nutcracker is performed at the 2,600 seat san jose center for the performing arts with a full orchestra. Our audiences for the 2019 nutcracker performances exceeded 11,000. We do 8 performances for the public over 2 weekends. We have huge volunteer support from the families at our school whose children perform, or who just love the tradition of volunteering at the nutcracker every year. For nutcracker, we also hold an annual "school show" on the friday morning of opening night. This show is for under-served school children in the area and is part of our sjdt nutcracker tradition for the community. We have offered it for decades. We coordinate with area schools who arrange busses to bring the children to the theater. School show tickets are”

“All of the parents volunteer twice a year to help with productions. We have two productions a year and there are so many hours to fulfil. We also have a costume director and a volunteer coordinator that donate more hours. Two of the volunteers were full time and 12 were part time.”

“San jose dance theatre (sjdt) was founded in 1964 as a ballet academy and performing company by paul e. Curtis, jr. And shawn stuart, with the mission to provide excellence in ballet and dance training, along with high-quality performance opportunities for students, their families, and the community. Our core mission is to maintain excellence in ballet and contemporary dance training and performances, offering innovative opportunities for dancers of all levels, while enriching our community through collaborations with artists and arts organizations. In the 2023-2024 fiscal year, sjdt continued our academy program and open division program, catering to students ranging from beginners to advanced levels. As part of our 3-year strategic plan, we transitioned to a professional staffing model in 2022-2023 by hiring a full-time executive director and accountant, moving away from a volunteer-based model. Sjdt has proudly presented the full-length the nutcracker ballet in san jose for 58 consecutive years. Although we returned to live performances in december 2021 with limited seating due to covid-19 restrictions, we resumed regular performances for two weekends in december 2022. Unfortunately, in december 2023, we were only able to secure one weekend of performances due to theater availability. The nutcracker remains our largest revenue source, performed at the 2,600-seat san jose center for the performing arts with a full orchestra. In 2023, despite the limited run, we sold 15,550 tickets and continued to enjoy robust volunteer support from our school families. Our commitment to the community extends to our annual "school show," once upon a nutcracker, offered at a greatly reduced price to underserved school children. This long- standing tradition is part of our outreach efforts, bringing the joy of ballet to those who may not otherwise experience it. In 2023, we premiered a new ballet, dracula, to great acclaim and launched a new production of the little mermaid in spring 2024, featuring our academy dancers alongside professional guest artists. This production was financially successful and represents our ongoing strategy to produce classical and contemporary full-length ballets that appeal to the general public. Despite setbacks from the pandemic, we made strides in rebuilding our outreach programs, particularly around the holidays. We also established a diversity scholarship program, currently supporting one dancer from an underserved community, three male dancer scholarship recipients, and several dancers on tuition reduction scholarships due to hardship. Our partnership with the girl scouts of america continued successfully with workshops held at our productions of the little mermaid and the nutcracker. We also provided several free or discounted tickets to our performances. Due to the discontinuation of covid-19 relief funds and reduced grants, sjdt faced financial challenges in 2023. As a result, we made necessary adjustments, including releasing professional dancers and reducing staff hours and pay. We also hired a school director to help rebuild the academy, shifting our focus back to strengthening the academy and reducing the number of annual performances to two. We remain committed to fostering a strong artistic base in the san jose area through the art of ballet. As a former dancer with sjdt, i am dedicated to preserving and growing this organization that has been a vital part of silicon valley's arts community since its inception.”

“We opened a ballet school in 2014 with the hiring of a new artistic director. We had not offered a ballet academy in a long time. We went from -0- students in 2014 over 100 students in the 2018-2019 time frame. We are very proud of building the school from nothing 6 years ago and working to make it a wonderful school. These students perform in the nutcracker and almost the entire academy is involved with it. There are open auditions for the nutcracker - dancers of all ages are welcomed from area schools to audition and we double-cast the show to provide performance opportunities for many dancers. We provide many free performances to the public each year. These include: "world wide women girl's festival - 2018 at santa clara university & 2019 at the palace of fine arts in san franciscoo "pruneyard "peace on earth" holiday lighting event with the mayor of campbell, ca 2018 "eastridge center tree lighting event, 2018 and other years "santana row christmas tree lighting event each november 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 "san francisco movement & arts festival 2017, 2018 and 2019 sjdanceco festival - santana row - each spring for the last 4 years we mount a spring performance each year since 2015 at local theaters for the community and our dancers. In spring of 2019 we mounted a new production of the firebird ballet with music by igor stravinsky and choreographed by the artistic director and costumed by our volunteer costume directors. The firebird hadn't been performed in san jose in decades. Our students, their families, our artistic director, teachers and management create the structure for sjdt to grow. I'm a former dancer with sjdt and studied and performed under the founders. Our artistic director also performed as a child with sjdt. We care about creating a strong artistic base in the san jose area and doing it through the art of ballet. Sincerely ann timoney president of the board of directors”

“Other exempt purpose accomplishments”

“Production costs 215,595 0 0 academy costs 17,402 0 0 payroll processing 3,630 907 0 professional fees 0 2,485 0 other 9,837 4,216 0 total 246,464 7,608 0”