LUNA Dance Company: Building a Future for Professional Dance in Lancaster
Giving pre-show speech during the Ware Center’s First Friday program in August 2026
When I moved to Lancaster in 2017 after graduating from George Mason University, I found myself regularly traveling to Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, D.C. to continue training and stay connected to professional dance.
At George Mason, I had been immersed in a very high level of dance training. My foundation included classical ballet and modern techniques such as Graham, Horton, and Cunningham, and I was surrounded by an environment where rigorous training, choreography, performance, and high professional expectations were part of everyday life. Coming out of that environment, I wanted to continue growing as both a dancer and choreographer.
LUNA actually began taking shape the same year I moved to Lancaster. In 2017, I participated in the Trust Performing Arts Center's first dance festival, where I presented my senior work from George Mason. The response to the work was incredibly encouraging, and I decided to give my choreographic ventures a name: LUNA. I continued creating and presenting work under that name for the next several years, and in 2020 I began formally organizing LUNA Dance Company with regular rehearsals and a consistent group of dancers.
As the company developed, I started to better understand something I had already been experiencing personally: there was a significant gap in the dance landscape of our region.
Why LUNA Exists
Lancaster has a rich arts culture. There is an incredible amount happening here in theater, music, visual art, galleries, and live performance, but dance, particularly professional concert dance, is severely underrepresented.
There are opportunities for young people to dance in our region, but there is a lack of consistent, high-level training for dancers who want to pursue dance seriously, and even fewer opportunities once they reach an advanced or professional level. A dancer can spend years developing their craft, leave the region to study dance in college, and return with extensive training only to find very few opportunities to continue developing or performing professionally.
The pattern I've seen is that many dancers eventually return to teaching, stop performing, or have to leave the region if they want to pursue a professional dance career. Teaching is incredibly valuable and is an important part of my own career, but it shouldn't be the only way for a trained dancer to remain involved in dance professionally in Lancaster.
That need has shaped LUNA's mission. We are working to cultivate a professional contemporary dance community in Lancaster and Central Pennsylvania where dancers can continue training, perform challenging work, collaborate with other professional artists, and be compensated for their artistry.
From what I've researched and observed, I haven't found anything quite like what we're trying to build here. We aren't simply producing performances. We're trying to develop the training, professional opportunities, artistic relationships, and audience necessary for professional contemporary dance to have a sustainable presence in our region.
Creating a Path from Student to Professional
One of the things that excites me most is seeing a clearer pathway beginning to develop between the work we're doing at Susquehanna Dance Center and what we're building through LUNA.
At SDC, we've worked to create the kind of training environment that can prepare dancers who want to pursue dance beyond high school. LUNA allows us to extend that pathway by giving dancers access to advanced and professional training, professional artists, choreographic experiences, and eventually opportunities to work within a professional company.
We're already beginning to see what that can look like.
Livi O'Byrne grew up training at SDC. Today, she teaches at the studio while continuing her own development as an Apprentice with LUNA Dance Company. She's able to give back to the next generation of dancers while still actively training, rehearsing, performing, and pursuing her own growth as an artist.
Our Youth Company creates another part of that pathway. This season, SDC senior Emily Spanjer is a member of LUNA Youth Company, giving her the opportunity to experience the expectations and creative process of a professional contemporary company while she's still a student.
Those examples are important to me because they allow younger dancers to actually see what could come next. There doesn't have to be a hard ending to their dance experience when they graduate from high school. For dancers who want to pursue this seriously, we're working to create a continuum from strong foundational training into advanced study, collegiate dance, professional training, and eventually professional opportunities.
Connecting Lancaster to the Professional Dance World
In rehearsal during our residency with Noelle Kayser July 2026
Another major part of LUNA's mission is connecting Lancaster's dancers with the larger professional dance community.
This season, we brought Chicago-based freelance choreographer Noelle Kayser to Lancaster to create Levels of Verticality on the company. Noelle's professional experience includes setting work on BalletX and working at Jacob's Pillow, among many other experiences throughout the dance field.
Through our Professional Masterclass Series, we've also brought artists to Lancaster with experience in companies including Ballets Jazz Montréal, RUBBERBAND, Mark Morris Dance Group, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.
These are experiences dancers in our region would normally travel to Philadelphia, New York, D.C., or beyond to find. I know because that's exactly what I found myself doing when I first moved here.
The relationships that have grown from this work have been one of the most encouraging parts of LUNA. The artists and professionals I've connected with in the broader dance world have been incredibly supportive of what we're doing. They've offered advice, traveled to Lancaster to teach and create with us, connected us with other artists, and helped spread the word about the company.
Our network continues to grow, and I can genuinely say that LUNA is helping put Lancaster on the map within the dance world. We're showing artists from outside the region that there are talented dancers here, an audience interested in experiencing this work, and a growing organization serious about establishing professional dance in Lancaster.
Showing What Lancaster's Dancers Can Do
While bringing outside artists into Lancaster is important, LUNA is equally committed to showcasing the talent that already exists here.
We have some of the strongest dancers this region has to offer performing exciting, demanding choreography. I love seeing what happens when talented local dancers are given professional expectations, meaningful rehearsal time, and choreography that asks them to continually grow both physically and artistically.
Some of the most meaningful feedback we've received has actually come from people who aren't dancers.
We've had audience members come to a LUNA performance having never attended a dance concert before and tell me afterward that they were blown away by what the dancers could do. Others have talked about how surprised they were by how much they felt while watching the performance.
That's exactly the kind of connection I want LUNA to create. You shouldn't need to understand dance terminology or have years of training to be moved by it. Movement can communicate beauty, athleticism, humor, vulnerability, tension, relationships, joy, and so much more.
Our pay-what-you-will model is an extension of that philosophy. If someone is curious about contemporary dance but has never experienced it, I don't want a ticket price to be the reason they don't walk through the doors. Those who are able to contribute more help us compensate our artists while making it possible for someone else to experience the same performance at a price that works for them. Accessibility shouldn't require lowering our artistic standards. We can pursue excellent professional work while making sure our community is invited into it.
Growing the Organization Around the Art
Shot from VDT 3
LUNA has grown tremendously since I first presented work under the name in 2017. At this point, one of our greatest needs is building the organization around the artistic work so that what we've created can continue to grow sustainably.
Up to this point, I've personally handled most aspects of running LUNA. I manage the company, Youth Company, performances, finances, strategic planning, sponsorship outreach, business and community partnerships, and performance production and execution. I also handle our marketing, photography, flyers and graphic design, advertising, website, newsletter, and social media. That's all in addition to serving as Artistic Director and actually dancing, choreographing, rehearsing, and teaching.
We've reached a point where LUNA has become too large for me to sustainably maintain every part of it myself, and I think that's ultimately a good problem to have. It means the organization is becoming bigger than the work of one person.
As we look toward the future, I want to connect with people who believe in what we're building and have skills that could help us strengthen the organization. You don't have to be a dancer to have something meaningful to contribute. Experience in nonprofit leadership, administration, fundraising, grant writing, marketing, communications, finance, development, event production, community partnerships, business strategy, or other areas could have an enormous impact on our ability to grow.
If you're reading this and see a way your experience could benefit LUNA and our mission, I would genuinely love to hear from you.
The Businesses Helping Make This Possible
I'm also incredibly grateful for the businesses that have chosen to invest in what we're building.
Our partnerships with JA Myers Homes, SecureStrux, and Prana have made an enormous difference in what we've been able to accomplish this season. Without their support, we simply would not be able to do half of what we're doing.
Business partnerships help us compensate professional dancers, bring guest artists and choreographers to Lancaster, provide rehearsal opportunities, produce professional performances, and keep those performances financially accessible to our audiences. Their investment doesn't just support a single event. It helps us build the infrastructure professional dance needs in order to exist here.
As LUNA grows, we're looking for more businesses, organizations, and individuals who believe professional dance deserves a meaningful place within Lancaster's arts culture. Whether that's through sponsorship, a community partnership, professional expertise, or another form of support, we'd love to build relationships with people who see the potential in what we're creating.
Where We're Going
My vision for LUNA is much bigger than producing a performance once a year. I want to help build an ecosystem for dance in Central Pennsylvania where artists can train consistently, be paid to perform, work with exceptional choreographers, develop new work, teach, collaborate, and continue growing without feeling that leaving the region is their only path forward.
I want Lancaster to become a place that attracts artists as much as it develops them. I want a dancer graduating from SDC to see possibilities ahead of them. I want a dancer returning after four years of college to know there is something here to come back to. I want professional artists around the country to recognize Lancaster as a place where interesting dance is being created, and I want people who have never stepped into a dance theater to discover that this art form can speak to them too.
We're still building that vision, and every season teaches us more about what our dancers need and what is possible here. I know what it feels like to love this art form and wonder where you fit once the traditional path of classes, studios, and college ends. I don't want talented dancers in our region to feel like their only choices are to leave or stop.
LUNA is our attempt to create another choice: to build something here. Ultimately, my hope is that we're not simply building a dance company. We're helping build a lasting home for professional dance in Lancaster.
Be Part of What We're Building
LUNA is entering a stage where we need more people around the table. If you have professional skills, experience, connections, or simply a desire to contribute to the growth of professional dance in Lancaster, I'd love to hear from you.
We're also looking to develop new relationships with businesses and organizations interested in becoming sponsors or community partners. The support we've received so far has directly expanded what we're able to provide our dancers and our community, and additional partnerships will allow us to continue building.
If you'd like to volunteer your expertise, explore a partnership, become a sponsor, or simply start a conversation about how you could be involved, please reach out to us at info@lunadance.co.
