Mission / Goals
The Mission
The Beat, Berkeley Performing Arts (BPA) is a non-profit educational and public benefit organization focused on using dance, music and other vehicles of creative expression as a means for community and leadership development. The Beat-BPA offers the East Bay community at large, young people, adults, seniors, children and families the opportunity to learn diverse dance art forms — salsa, tango, jazz, Latin dance, samba, zydeco, ballet, line dance, swing, AfroCuban and rhythm tap — creating pathways of creativity that lead to a sustained sense of accomplishment, direction, physical fitness and cultural community building.
Program Description
Our programs are focused on a series of dance and movement classes accessible to all ages with an emphasis on adult education. Our unique orientation towards dance and arts education is focused on developing a strong sense of community and cultural exchange within our classes. The broad array of dance forms provides exceptional opportunity for students to learn about the various cultures that have seeded such diverse forms as salsa, samba, ballet, tango, yoga, musical theatre and jazz/blues.
The East Bay community, a part of the larger San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties is home to myriad arts and culture organizations in which the BPA will be an active member.
The Beat-BPA will offer a comprehensive contribution to the various organizations focused on different types of dance and cultural experiences. Our mission is to provide the highest quality, diverse educational dance and cultural experience for our students seeking cultural understanding and skill development within different dance and artistic forms.
Our stakeholders include adults, school-aged children, senior citizens, former dancers, body movement aficinados and all those interested in exploring the connection between movement, dance and expression. Our non-profit organization provides an all-encompassing program of dance as a vehicle for cultural creativity and artistic expression. We hold classes seven days a week during various times of the day.
We currently have a cadre of more than a dozen instructors teaching a myriad of dance forms. Our instructors and class leaders are some of the most talented and expert dance and movement faculty in the area. The Beat-BPA prides itself on the diversity of our instructors – terms of expertise, ethnicity, age, life experience and overall range of dance forms. We are creating a diverse representation of dance, movement and rhythmic forms are part of our curricula.
The Beat-BPA will also be a resource for the wide array of dancers, artists, teacher, arts instructors in the East Bay since it will offer its studio and teaching spaces to be available for rental. We anticipate that these rentals will strengthen the growing community of individuals and groups interested in crafting a cadre of creative artists interested in exploring cultural and community dialogue across and between forms of artistic movement and expression. Our goal is to sustain a vibrant series of events beyond the classes we provide and sponsor.
Structure
The Beat is managed by full-time, Executive Director, Roger Dillahunty, a leader within the Bay Area dance community. Studio and Instructor coordination will be handled by Chauncey Roberts. Currently, The Beat, Berkeley Arts has a four person Board of Directors who represent the professional and creative expertise necessary to the growth, development and success of an arts organization.
The Beat will have dance faculty who are independent contractors with The Beat, offering a rich array of workshops, classes and seminars. Student fees generated from classes will be the main source of income for the organization, with additional special events, that is national dance impresarios providing special intensives and workshops, fundraisers and rentals from dance-related events to supplement the Beat’s revenue