UCSB Arts & Lectures

It’s no accident that dance is at the front of the new oversized magazine promoting the 2026-27 UCSB Arts & Lectures season. After all, among all of the luminous events spread across the arts, entertainment, and spoken word genres, dance has been the sparkling gem in the A&L crown that adorns one of the finest and most pervasive performing arts organizations affiliated with a public university; or anywhere, frankly. 

Dance was former Miller McCune Executive Director Celesta Billeci’s first love, as she studied and performed dance professionally before moving into the programming world. Billeci built the annual A&L dance series into the envy of organizations serving much larger cities, the caliber and variety of performing companies rivaling the programming of cities multiple times larger. 

Meghan Bush, Billeci’s onetime second-in-command and her successor as of a little more than a year ago, is equally proud of the new series. 

“Dance is really one of the cornerstones of our performing arts side,” she said. “I attribute the fact that the program is so strong, and our audience in Santa Barbara utterly craves interesting, well-rounded and exceptional dance programming, to Celesta, 100 percent. She built that from the ground up.”

Which is partly why, Bush said, she feels a big responsibility to maintain the high quality of the series. 

“It’s one of the things that really sets us apart,” she stated. “I meet with dance programmers across the country and they’re all doing their best to keep something alive that is very difficult to tour, and very expensive to tour. Across the board, A&L has always offered an international dance program, and it’s always been some of the most interesting, either established or emerging choreographers.” Bush pointed to Akram Khan, one of the defining choreographers of the 21st century, for the former category. 

Khan, who transformed contemporary dance through works of cross-cultural imagination, has already announced that the upcoming season represents the Akram Khan Company’s final international tour. 

“It’s incredible to have them opening our season as part of their swan song,” Bush said. 

At the other end of the spectrum is inter-disciplinary arts organization and dance company GALLIM, from founder Andrea Miller, who will be making their Santa Barbara debut toward the end of the series in March, and Camille A. Brown & Dancers, the Tony-decorated choreographer whose new work I AM has received raves in New York. 

“We can bring these newer, hot-at-the-moment choreographers alongside institutions like Akram Khan or Sankai Juku, a very established Butoh company from Japan, whose choreographer passed away in 2024. We’re bringing the final work that he created.” 

Then there’s the Joffrey Ballet, who will be in town at the end of February performing twice at the Granada. But that’s only the culmination of their UCSB residency. 

“We have to bring them here for the full week to make it make sense financially,” Bush explained. “So even though they’re only doing two performances, they’re going to be also doing master classes for UCSB students, outreach for K-12 students in town, teaching a community class doing their “Dancing for Parkinson’s” workshop. It’s part of the ecosystem of learning and arts and culture immersion that’s much less visible than the shows at the Granada. All of that is extraordinarily expensive. But we figure out how to pay for it because it’s important and it’s important that we bring dance really, really well.”

It’s only through the very supportive community that UCSB A&L is able to take risks with outsized expenses, she said. But it’s integral to the A&L ethos. 

“It’s fundamental, because there is nothing that creates arts accessibility for people in terms of opening their minds and being open to seeing artistic concepts through movement. Dance is a great equalizer in how people choose to respond to it. But it’s also the most underfunded thing and simultaneously the most expensive thing we do.” 

That’s where the community comes in. Whether it’s 1] donating $25,000 (or even more) to become a patron, and thus enjoying spectacular benefits including private receptions and even dinner with performers, 2] subscribing to one or more full series, or 3] simply buying single event tickets as a member of this terpsichore-loving community, you will be contributing to the continuing the success of A&L. 

If you’re thinking of maybe matching A&L’s willingness to take risks and going the subscriber route for dance – or any of the other knockout series that include Great Performances, Word of Mouth, Americana, Jazz, Here & Now, Global Sounds, Family Time and more  – the time to act is now. Because single tickets to events in the 2026-27 seasongo on sale August 7 at 10 am. Meaning the early subscriber will be rewarded with access to choice seating; not that every seat in the A&L house doesn’t put you in the luminous center of the action, from Campbell Hall on campus to the Granada, Arlington, Lobero and Hahn Hall in town. 

Visit https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu