Backhausdance Education Programs and Summer Intensive
Backhausdance, 5500 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine, CA 92863
About
Backhausdance Education Programs and Summer Intensive offers assemblies, workshops, residencies, master classes, lecture-demonstrations, classes, performances, and site-specific work in the community. The program also includes an annual summer intensive dance program for teens, pre-professional, and advanced dancers.
• Ages: 13–18 years old
Backhausdance was founded in 2003 as a non-profit organization by Jennifer Backhaus, an award-winning choreographer and Chapman University dance faculty member. The company is led by Artistic Director Jennifer Backhaus and Associate Artistic Director Amanda Kay White. Backhausdance is a contemporary dance company rooted in Orange County, California, with a mission to create, perform, and share innovative, bold dance that inspires, challenges, and uplifts, and to integrate professional performance, multi-generational education, and community engagement. Backhausdance performs and teaches an eclectic and dynamic dance vocabulary with a sense of fluidity and strength, featuring powerful, athletic dances with deeply human and emotional creations infused with humor and theatricality. The company advocates for inclusivity, equity, and celebration of all perspectives, identities, and ideas.
Backhausdance provides a variety of education programs for K–12 schools, higher education, and community organizations, reaching thousands of students, teachers, emerging, advanced and professional dancers, families, and adults and seniors each year. The organization has a long-standing partnership with McCallum Theatre and the McCallum Theatre Education Department in Coachella Valley, bringing educational programming such as classes, assemblies, and performances to schools and students throughout the Coachella Valley. The annual summer intensive dance program for teens, pre-professional, and advanced dancers includes an apprenticeship and ambassador program to advance career pathways and provides scholarships to over half of the students, reaching over 150 students each year. Backhausdance also offers concert pieces with a focus on younger audiences that include a master class workshop.
Backhausdance is the recipient of 10 Lester Horton Awards from the Dance Resource Center of Los Angeles for achievements in choreography, design, and performance, and in 2012 received the Outstanding Arts Organization award from Arts Orange County. Reviews have described the company as “a fluid, unforced fusion of classical and contemporary dance” (The Brooklyn Rail) and noted that “the dancers seemed to grow before our eyes” (Laura Bleiberg, Los Angeles Times).
Last updated June 18, 2026.
• Ages: 13–18 years old
Backhausdance was founded in 2003 as a non-profit organization by Jennifer Backhaus, an award-winning choreographer and Chapman University dance faculty member. The company is led by Artistic Director Jennifer Backhaus and Associate Artistic Director Amanda Kay White. Backhausdance is a contemporary dance company rooted in Orange County, California, with a mission to create, perform, and share innovative, bold dance that inspires, challenges, and uplifts, and to integrate professional performance, multi-generational education, and community engagement. Backhausdance performs and teaches an eclectic and dynamic dance vocabulary with a sense of fluidity and strength, featuring powerful, athletic dances with deeply human and emotional creations infused with humor and theatricality. The company advocates for inclusivity, equity, and celebration of all perspectives, identities, and ideas.
Backhausdance provides a variety of education programs for K–12 schools, higher education, and community organizations, reaching thousands of students, teachers, emerging, advanced and professional dancers, families, and adults and seniors each year. The organization has a long-standing partnership with McCallum Theatre and the McCallum Theatre Education Department in Coachella Valley, bringing educational programming such as classes, assemblies, and performances to schools and students throughout the Coachella Valley. The annual summer intensive dance program for teens, pre-professional, and advanced dancers includes an apprenticeship and ambassador program to advance career pathways and provides scholarships to over half of the students, reaching over 150 students each year. Backhausdance also offers concert pieces with a focus on younger audiences that include a master class workshop.
Backhausdance is the recipient of 10 Lester Horton Awards from the Dance Resource Center of Los Angeles for achievements in choreography, design, and performance, and in 2012 received the Outstanding Arts Organization award from Arts Orange County. Reviews have described the company as “a fluid, unforced fusion of classical and contemporary dance” (The Brooklyn Rail) and noted that “the dancers seemed to grow before our eyes” (Laura Bleiberg, Los Angeles Times).
Last updated June 18, 2026.
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