SonneBlauma Danscz Theatre was founded in 1996 by Misa Kelly with full support from her partner in passion, soulmate, and confidante Stephen Kelly as well as community of awesome friends.  The early years were tough. REALLY tough!

Unfortunately, choosing the academic route for preparing for a career in the arts, Misa discovered that the stellar training provided wasn't of the sort that would enable her to realize her dreams of creating and sustaining a dance company.

In looking around her & her peers she's discovered that many gave up because they themselves couldn't figure it out, while others managed just fine, with a few actually excelling in their field.

Choosing to settle in her hometown it was much about the school over very, very, very hard knocks in trying to sort it all out.  There is a lot to say for perseverance, tenacity, ingenuity, imagination, improvisation, and listening and observing.

And now? 

 

Life is good - oh so good - and we are so grateful to each and every one of you who have helped us along the way!

 

In that SonneBlauma Danscz Theatre balances service to others through its non-profit the Future Traditions Foundation's we thought  offering our history in context of the Foundation would be most useful in giving you the fullest flavor of where we've been and what we've done.

1996

Upon graduation from California Institute of the Arts, with the goal of establishing a contemporary dance company, Misa Kelly in collaboration with her husband Stephen Kelly and friend Sarah Wingren set out to establish a non-profit for the company as well as Stephen Kelly's musical adventures.  Seeking to service more than their own work Stephen suggested naming the organization the Future Traditions Foundation & they went to work designing it in such a way that the non-profit would also be able to serve other artists in the community.

The Co-Founders met with many artists in the community one on one and asked them to convey what their perceptions were with regard to their personal unmet needs.  They then used this information as a springboard for drafting the bylaws of the Future Traditions Foundation (FTF.)   The end result was a set of bylaws that was diverse enough to encompass the expressed needs within the community that were not being met by other local non-profits along with meeting SonneBlauma's own needs with ample growing room for a very large vision.

In November of 1998 The Future Traditions Foundation received its 501 (C) 3 status.

1998-2005

Seeking to address the observation that in the non-profit sector much more seems to be spent on administration on overhead than passing funds on to artists to manifest their projects FTF committed to operating with a streamline budget on 100% volunteer efforts working out of a free home office.   They succeeded in funneling 98% of their funds directly into making projects happen and continue to do so to this day.  During this period FTF focused on the following:

• LAUNCHING SONNEBLAUMA on a project to project basis.

• UMBRELLA PROJECTS:  We provided free umbrella services to local dance companies and independent artists taking on special projects such as providing dance classes for children of homeless parents at Christmas time.

• GOLDEN GIFTS:   Reaching out to low and moderate income households providing free tickets to local dance, theater, and music event.  Also reached out to low and moderate income artists providing costume subsidies, free video documentation services, technical support for their productions, and rehearsal space subsidies made possible by funding from the Santa Barbara County Arts Organization.
  

• PERFORMANCES & WORKSHOPS:  Serving low and moderate income artists we produced workshops & studio showings at what was then Studio B and produced many dance and music events at Center Stage Theater and the Music Academy of the West.

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2005-2010

In 2005 our Board of Directors decided to narrow the focus in order to better achieve the Foundation's goal of growing the Foundation's dance company, SonneBlauma Danscz Theatre.   The singular focus enabled us to complete over 50 projects locally, regionally, and internationally taking SonneBlauma's work to the next level. 

Since June of 2005 SonneBlauma has: 

• ACHIEVED INTERNATIONAL STATUS: In 2008 SonneBlauma became an international company traveling to Istanbul to perform at the AFL Kültür Merkezi with the Ziggurat Dance Company and to give a lecture demonstration and conduct a week long workshop at Çatı. 
  

• VENTURED TO THE BIG APPLE:  in 2010 SonneBlauma performed in the COOL New York Dance Festival & engaged in their Perceptions of Performance in Guerilla Spaces project at the Met and MOMA.
  

• PERFORMED IN MANY FESTIVALS AND SHOWCASES LOCALLY & IN NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA:   Venues and Festivals including:

• 2006, 2007, & 2010: SpectorDance Monterey Dance Festival
  
• 2009, 2010: Electric Lodge in Venice Beach as a part of their MAX10 series 
• 2010:  MixMatch Festival in L.A.
  
• 2010: 5x5x5 Performance Art Series in Ventura, CA at the Sylvia White Gallery
• 2009 & 2009: NECTAR performance series at Yoga Soup in Santa Barbara
• 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010: Premiered new work on the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance's New Works concert

• TOURED CALIFORNIA in mostly sold out venues as a part of our 3 Cities: 3 Choreographers project performing at Diavolo Theater in Los Angeles, Shall we Dance in Pacific Grove, Project 418 in Santa Cruz, & Center Stage Theater in Santa Barbara
  

• EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH:  We've provided free professional training to low and moderate income artists in the community by opening up our company class and hosting master classes led by world class educators.
  

• DANCE AND MUSIC EVENTS:  We've produced many events locally including:
• Rhapsodies for Humanity and the Glorious Beings Award at the Music Academy of the West
  
• Paul Livingstone in Concert at Center Stage Theater
  
• SonneBlauma Studio showings in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, & 2010 at the Montecito School of Ballet
  
• Dance at the Top of the Hill in collaboration with Teresa Johnson at Center Stage Theater
  
• Circle of Chi at the Music Academy of the West & the Unitarian Church
  
• From Chopin to Senegal at the Music Academy of the West

• UMBRELLA SERVICES:  FTF continued to offer umbrella services to others including Ray Tischer and his "Alzheimer's Art Video" project and Budhi Harlow's "Dance of the Forest African Rhythm project" with at risk youth.

• COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES: in 2008 SonneBlauma was invited by Beth Megill to come teach a master class at Moorpark College and to present work on their Spring Concert. What a joy!  Since then SonneBlauma has taught a Master class at Santa Barbara City College, been a guest artist in their 2010 Spring Concert Behind the Words, produced and presented the first UCSB Alumni Studio Showing ever, been invited to give a partnering workshop at Westmont College, and also been invited to set a new work on Santa Barbara City College Dance Students.
  

• SB-ADaPT FESTIVAL: in June of 2010 SonneBlauma Danscz Theatre put out a Call for Submissions for its first bi-annual International Festival, the SB-ADaPT Festival.  To date we've received applications from as far as Istanbul, Israel & New York with the most well established local dance and theater companies working on their applications as well.

DANCE SOS CENTER:  In March of 2010 we launched the beginnings of our free online dance resource center, the Dance SOS Center, which is international in scope.  Our vision is for every city where dance and theater is alive to provide information about artist earnings, where to find studio space to rent, what classes are available, suitable theaters for producing shows, information about what agencies in that area fund dance, information on how to get the word out in your area.  Although the Center is designed for low and moderate income level artists struggling to get their work out into the world there is a section devoted to telling the stories of those who have made it to the top and now have fully funded companies.  Our first interview was with Robbie Barnett of Pilobolus.  This is an ongoing project that we whittle away at in the odd hours in between our other projects.  We'd LOVE to be able to receive funding to grow this project.