Dance Saturdays

Showcasing local, culturally diverse dance groups along with music, visual arts, and food for an immersive dance celebration

After years of presenting new ballets known for their distinctive, streamlined classicism, in 2019, José Mateo Ballet Theatre introduced a groundbreaking new dance series: DANCE SATURDAYS AT THE SANCTUARY. For ten Saturday nights at the company’s home in Harvard Square, the series highlights several of the unique cultures that characterize Greater Boston’s diverse dance communities. DANCE SATURDAYS will make accessible new discoveries in the realms of Classical Indian Dance, Traditional Japanese Dance, Hip hop, Salsa, Traditional Greek Dance, Tap, Flamenco, Contemporary Dance Theatre, Ballet, and West African Dance.

Dance Saturdays continues JMBT’s signature style of presenting “dance up-close” with an expanded vision and format. Upon entering the Sanctuary, audiences will be immersed in an in-depth cultural and artistic experience as a way to further explore the provocative and sometimes hidden worlds of ten different dance forms. Presented as a celebration of dance, the performances by leading dance artists from the Greater Boston area will be accompanied by a culturally rich dance party ambiance with music, visual art displays, dancing for all, food and drinks.

“After three decades of lavishing in the beauty of classical ballet, I look to Dance Saturdays to demonstrate to diverse audiences how beauty, in dance as in nature, will always reveal itself in many different forms. I’m confident that audiences will thoroughly enjoy themselves but my deepest hope is that the connections they experience at these events will broaden their understanding of beauty in dance and its inherent role in building trust and community.”

JMBT Founder José Mateo

Dance Saturdays Advisory Council

Catherine Amidon, Exhibition Curator

Shelly Bradbury, Sculptor / Designer

Mary Catherine Deibel, Director of Development, Cambridge Center for Adult Education

Lynne Federman, Lawyer / JMBT Board Member

Susan Fleischmann, Executive Director, CCTV

Jane Goldberg, Author, Performer, Tap Historian

Denise Jillson, Executive Director, Harvard Square Business Association

Paul Kirshen, Professor, UMass Boston’s School for the Environment / Academic Advisor, Sustainable Solutions Lab

Mara Littman, Communications Advisor / JMBT Board Member

Catherine Peterson, Executive Director, Arts/Boston

Denise Simmon, Cambridge City Councilor / Former Mayor of Cambridge

Valentine Talland, Consultant, Art Conservation Specialist / JMBT Board Member

Jason Weeks, Executive Director, Cambridge Arts Council

John Wilpers, Media Expert, Innovation Media Consulting