Santa Barbara Dance Theater is the professional laboratory for experimental contemporary dance wing of the Program in Dance at UC Santa Barbara. A teaching and research laboratory for faculty and guest choreographers, performing artists, new media artists, musicians, sound, lighting and costume designers and visual artists, the company functions as a collaborative community of professional artist-teachers dedicated to enhancing the field of dance through creation and performance. In keeping with the mission statement of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Dance Theater is committed to the idea that performance is scholarship and has the capacity to enhance and stimulate intellectual and creative discourse. With a Board of Advisors and a yearly production curator, SBDT performs an annual season at UC Santa Barbara’s Hatlen Theatre with professional dancers from around the country and exceptionally gifted dance students. Each SBDT season features the work of a one or more guest or resident choreographers. The company’s resident status within the Department of Theater and Dance enables the Dance program to share its creative energies and research with the wider UC community of scholars, artists, students and staff.

Founded in 1976, the company was directed by Alice Condodina until 1991, when Jerry Pearson became director and the name was changed from Repertory-West Dance Company to Santa Barbara Dance Theatre. In 2011 Christopher Pilafian was appointed Artistic Director. The company continues its dedication to the global field of contemporary dance performance with dancers, choreographers, artists and designers drawn from a wide range of techniques and artistic philosophies. Tenets of the company’s mission include a fundamental questioning about dance and its place in society, expressed through the creation and presentation of original works of dance-theater. In performance, questions may be raised about the body, culture, identity, gender, race and society while recognizing the medium’s capacity for expressing embodied narrative as well as poetic, illusory forms.