DanceUp Spring 2018 Newsletter

up dance NEWS FROM THE WOODEN FLOOR

35 years of forward movement, pg. 8

Be inspired by our Class of 2018, pg. 10

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SPRING

Brothers Daren and Izrael gain opportunities, pg. 6

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Trusted to Change Lives.

As we begin our 35th Anniversary year, we asked ourselves: what is the one word that describes the impact of our mission over the past three and a half decades? Trust.

The bonds of trust made between our students, families, supporters, and our community are what continue to make us effective and deep-rooted.

In 1983, the bond of trust was to provide hope and opportunity for young people to be safe from gangs and risky behaviors during the summer. Through an innovative vision, our Founder Beth Burns led students to change their lives through dance.

Dawn S. Reese Chief Executive Officer @DawnSReese

In 1999, our community of supporters rallied to help significantly expand our mission, enabling us to move from our 4th Street location to our beautiful, custom-built current campus our students call their “second home.”

We increased from 150 to 375 children, and set a larger vision for the organization by providing students and their families with wrap-around services, including academics and family support to help them navigate their socioeconomic hardships.

In 2005, we were entrusted to reach new milestones as 100 percent of our senior class went to college for the first time.

Again our supporters rallied by our sides to provide the resources to help the students following in their footsteps with college scholarships and college and career readiness programs.

This set the course for where we are today, as we invite you to gather with us at our 6th Step Beyond Annual Breakfast® to celebrate our 14th graduating class on track to achieve 100 percent college enrollment. (See page 10.)

This month, we will open our second location–The Wooden Floor at the Depot at Santiago–growing once again from 375 to 475 year-round students. Each time we approach growing our mission, our Board of Directors and staff will continue to ask ourselves: what is in the best interest of our students, families, and our community? In doing so, we hope to ensure our bonds of trust remain strong.

Join us in celebrating The Wooden Floor’s 35-year history of inspiring young people and building our community.

With gratitude,

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The Wooden Floor

This past fall, The Wooden Floor grew to serve 100 additional students, for a total of 475 young people served year-round! Board Members, supporters, and staff gathered at our 3650 New Student Reception to welcome our newest students for day one of their transformative 10-year (3650-day) journeys at The Wooden Floor. Students and their families were welcomed to our campus, enjoyed tours led by current students, had fun in a photo booth, and received their very own The Wooden Floor t-shirt.

Mission

Moment 3

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Newsfeed Snapshots of our youth in motion.

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@TheWoodenFloor

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1 ANNUAL AUDITIONS: At our Annual Auditions, our first students in the door had been in line since 10:00pm the night before. This year, your support allowed us to increase the number of young people we serve by 20 percent.

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HALL OF FAME PLAYERS VISIT: Hockey Hall of Fame players Paul Kariya and Teemu Selänne along with the Anaheim Ducks organization selected The Wooden Floor to receive a portion of the proceeds from merchandise sales at the Hall of Fame Inductee Game. They presented us with a $33,000 donation, joined us for a tour, and participated in a dance class with our students! Their visit reminded our students that they are important and supported by our community.

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The Wooden Floor

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KAPLAN® SAT AND ACT COURSE: Our high school juniors participated in free Kaplan SAT and ACT workshops, designed to improve test-taking strategies, which strategically aligns with our college and career readiness program to help our students access college.

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ANNUAL CONCERT REHEARSALS: Students began the co-creation of dance-works for our 35th Annual Concert, Unifying Catalysts, with esteemed choreographers Seán Curran (pictured), Mark Haim, and Amy O’Neal. The concert rehearsal process teaches students to value their voice, trust in their peers, and push the boundaries of their creativity.

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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR FALON BALTZELL: Our new Artistic Director, Falon Baltzell, has been getting to know our students by teaching dance classes regularly across various levels. Falon is passionate about sharing how dance benefits the whole person.

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In the First Person

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The Wooden Floor

Brothers Daren, Class of 2024 Izreal, Class of 2026 What is something you learned here at The Wooden Floor that you haven't received anywhere else?

“It’s not just the learning, it’s the opportunities. We get help to get into college. You don’t see that everywhere.” -Daren What do you think your family’s hope was when you started attending here?

“They wanted me to be happy and for us to raise our grades.” -Izrael “They wanted us to learn to respect others and to always be happy no matter what the conditions were. The Wooden Floor helps you when you’re down to motivate you to do better things. In math I had an ‘F’. I came to a tutor here and I raised my grade to an ‘A’.” -Daren Do you have one memory from The Wooden Floor that you think will stay with you for a long time?

“Here they teach you how to respect others through dance. In our Modern dance class, we do negative spaces. We touch each other's hands with one person closing their eyes and the other one directing them around the room with their eyes closed to learn trust. It’s scary. So you don’t bump into anyone, you really have to trust your partner.” -Izrael

At The Wooden Floor, the whole family is supported. Izrael joined The Wooden Floor in 2016, and was followed by his brother Daren who enrolled the following year. According to their mother Sandra, The Wooden Floor has been an educational experience not only for her boys, but for her and her husband, as well. Sandra and her husband have access to parenting and communications workshops, one-on-one counseling, and other free services to help their boys succeed in school and in life.

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35 Years of Forward Movement Celebrating our 35th Anniversary, we’re proud to have served more than 90,000 young people. Looking ahead to our next 35 years, our Board of Directors and staff have created a vision and impact statement. These will serve as guideposts to how we strategically deepen our current programming, as we look to grow to serve more children and families.

We are driven by our Growth Scaling Vision: to serve more young people in low-income communities through the power of dance and access to higher education.

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In support of this vision, we remain committed to simultaneously focus on our students' and families’ current and future needs. Our Impact Statement is: to serve MORE students with HIGH QUALITY while strengthening the organization through LEARNING. Using the trust our community has bestowed upon us, it is our privilege and responsibility to help inspire more young people as we are called by our community to build and extend our reach.

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The Wooden Floor

2017-2018 Board of Directors 6th

Annual Breakfast®

Thank You to our Underwriters* Upcoming event details on page 10.

LEAD CLASS PARTNERS Bank of America Charitable Foundation The Capital Group Charitable Foundation Suzi Chauvel Don Yoder Foundation Gilbert & Jacki Cisneros Foundation Ginnie & Rich Hunsaker O.L. Halsell Foundation Emily & Jeremy Krout/EPD Solutions, Inc. PIMCO Foundation Sharon D. Lund Foundation Donald & Constance Sperling Willette Charitable Foundation CLASS PARTNERS Blanche & George Jones Fund/Christin Foreman Ellis Charles & Mildred Schnurmacher Foundation, Inc. Crevier Family Fund Croul Family Foundation Dennis J. Heid Memorial Scholarship Foundation Jane & Jim Driscoll Golden Eagle Foundation Sharon & Terry Hartshorn Yvonne & Damien Jordan Cindy & Robert Mairena/Office Solutions Judith Posnikoff Troy Group, Inc./The Dirk Family INNOVATION UNDERWRITERS Edwards Lifesciences Foundation Michelle & Robert Kargenian Nicholas Pardon U.S. Bank Foundation Wells Fargo CREATIVITY UNDERWRITERS Laurie & Steve Duncan Dorothy Kennedy Ginger & Arthur Ong ENCOURAGEMENT UNDERWRITERS Theresa & Jonathon Allen Marion & William Barstow Judy & David Threshie Mary & Gary Tolar Jana Turner Underwriting opportunities are still available for 2018.

For more information contact Tianna Haradon at 714.541.8314 ext. 124 or Tianna@TheWoodenFloor.org. *As of February 5, 2018

Arthur Ong,* Chairman Executive Vice President, Deputy General Counsel PIMCO James A. Driscoll,* Immediate Past Chairman Community Leader Saar Swartzon,* Vice Chairman Principal Attorney, Cohn & Swartzon, a Professional Law Corporation Judith F. Posnikoff, PhD,* Treasurer Managing Director, Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company, LLC Epiphany Owen,* Secretary Partner, Best Best & Krieger, LLP Theresa Allen, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager, First Republic Private Wealth Management Sasha Ayloush, Customer Service Manager and Secretary of the Board of Directors, Hydraflow Falon Baltzell, MFA Artistic Director, The Wooden Floor Joseph Chatelle Principal, Mercer Gilbert R. Cisneros, President and Co-Founder, The Gilbert & Jacki Cisneros Foundation Michelle Dean, Community Leader

Felisha Luna, Parent Representative Community Leader Catherine M. MacIver, Community Leader Yvonne R. O’Neill,* Certified Public Accountant, O’Neill Financial Management Alix Portillo, Alumni Representative Compliance Specialist, Opus Bank Dawn S. Reese, CFRE Chief Executive Officer, The Wooden Floor Mary E. Tolar, Vice President and Senior Strategic Program Manager, American Funds/Capital Group Companies, Inc. Ernesto M. Vasquez, FAIA, NCARB, Partner & CEO, SVA Architects, Inc. Joan Beall, Board Emerita Community Leader Beth A. Burns, Board Emerita Founder of The Wooden Floor and Artistic Director (’83-’05) Sharon Hartshorn, Board Emerita Community Leader Richard C. Hunsaker, Board Emeritus President, Hunsaker Management Virginia Hunsaker, Board Emerita Community Leader

Evangelina Gonzalez, Parent Representative Community Leader

Damien M. Jordan,* Board Emeritus General Manager, Retired, American Funds/Capital Group Companies, Inc.

Bryan Green, Financial Advisor, Edward Jones

Yvonne M. Jordan, Board Emerita Community Leader

Jeremy Krout, President/CEO, Environmental Planning Development Solutions, Inc.

Socorro Vasquez, Board Emerita Community Leader *Executive Committee Members

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danceup Upcoming Event

6th

FROM LEFT: SUPPORTERS PA T AH MARLOWE STONE JOYOUSLY WRA FOR OUR STUDENTS AT EAT AND

Annual Breakfast® Thursday, April 26, 2018 7:30am-9:30am The Westin South Coast Plaza* *New location due to overwhelming attendance!

Join us to support and celebrate our Class of 2018, our 14th consecutive graduating class to have 100 percent finish high school on time and immediately enroll in higher education. This is more than double the rate of their socioeconomic peers.

Keynote Address: Gisele M. Bonitz, Senior Program Manager, Cognitive Analytics, Intel Corp and previous Executive Officer, Space and Naval Warfare Center Pacific Class of 2018 Student Address: Melanie Acosta, Tustin High School

Step Beyond Annual Breakfast® has been named one of Orange County Business Journal’s Top 3 Fundraising Breakfasts for four consecutive years!

The morning also includes recognition of Class Partners who help underwrite the college and career readiness journeys for each of our graduating classes.

For reservations and sponsorship information, contact Tianna Haradon at Tianna@TheWoodenFloor.org or 714.541.8314 ext. 124.

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EAT AND WRAP DECEMBER 4, 2017 Supporters gathered at The Wooden Floor to help bring Christmas cheer to our 475 students. Their help was needed more than ever, as they wrapped a gift for each and every child, and decorated trees to be sent home with students who otherwise would have gone without.

S PA T AHREN, LEFT, AND USLY WRAP GIFTS EAT AND WRAP.

The Wooden Floor

Supporter Sightings 11TH ANNUAL KEEP THE PROMISE ™ WINE TASTING BENEFIT SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

FROM BACK LEFT: SUPPORTERS PETER WELSH, AND BARBARA AND GARY FREEDMAN, WITH STUDENTS VANESSA GALLEGOS, CLASS OF 2024, YAMILET ALCAUTER, CLASS OF 2026, AND AMY MORALES, CLASS OF 2023, AT THE KEEP THE PROMISE WINE TASTING BENEFIT.

Over 300 guests gathered at Big Canyon Country Club for Orange County’s premier wine tasting benefit, returning for its 11th year. The evening netted a record-breaking $360,000. Over the past 11 years, the benefit has netted almost $2.5 million to keep the promise to our young people, that “from here, you can step anywhere.”

FROM LEFT: SUPPORTER CINDY AYLOUSH; KEEGAN M. BELL, CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER; SUPPORTERS PAM MARKMAN, LINDA WHITE, AND JIM MARKMAN; ALUMNA JOCELYN MAGANA, CLASS OF 2017; DAWN S. REESE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER; SUPPORTER TOD WHITE; BOARD EMERITUS MEMBER DAMIAN M. JORDAN; AND BOARD MEMBER SASHA AYLOUSH AT THE FORWARD MOVEMENT HARD HAT TOUR.

FORWARD MOVEMENT TOUR DECEMBER 14, 2017 Board Members, supporters, staff, and alumni gathered for an intimate sneak peek tour of The Wooden Floor’s soon-to-open second location. They experienced the construction of the new extension of our “connected campus” as we serve 100 additional students for their 10-year journeys to higher education.

“My wife, Yvonne, and I met with a high school senior of The Wooden Floor and her parents who said that they knew as smart as their daughter was, she would never have had the opportunity to go to college and study pre‑med without The Wooden Floor. Now, imagine hundreds of more students on the path to graduating high school and going to college. We find that very powerful.”

-Damien M. Jordan, Lift Campaign Chairman and Board Emeritus

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1810 North Main Street Santa Ana, CA 92706-2727 714.541.8314 www.TheWoodenFloor.org

SANTA ANA, CA PERMIT NO. 949

March 15, 2018

Inside the Studio

Join our students and guest choreographers as they demonstrate works-in-progress from our Annual Concert and take your questions on our dance-making process.

More information at www.TheWoodenFloor.org/ InsideTheStudio

April 26, 2018

6th Step Beyond Annual Breakfast®

Gather to celebrate our 14th consecutive graduating class on track to have a 100 percent college enrollment rate and to support our college and career readiness programs.

More information at www.TheWoodenFloor.org/ StepBeyond

May 31-June 2, 2018 35th Annual Concert: Unifying Catalysts

Be inspired by our young dancers as they perform new works co-created with leading contemporary dance choreographers.

More information at www.TheWoodenFloor.org/ UnifyingCatalysts

Photography by Christine Cotter, Steven Georges, Edie Layland, and Mindy Schauer. ©2018 The Wooden Floor. DanceUp is a trademark of The Wooden Floor.

Come join us!