A permitting snag has forced Capital Dance Project to move its annual Behind the Barre festival out of The Red Museum and into CLARA in Midtown Sacramento, shifting the event to Thursday and Friday, September 3 and 4, instead of its originally planned weekend dates. The dancer-run company announced the change in late August, citing unexpected site-specific permitting limitations at the original venue.
The move sent at least some ticketholders scrambling, according to Downtown Grid, which reported that the shift forced people holding tickets for the original Saturday date to either transfer to one of the new Thursday or Friday shows or request a refund. As The Sacramento Bee reports, doors for both nights of Behind the Barre 2026 open at 6:30 p.m., with the main performance beginning at 8 p.m., at CLARA's location at 2420 N Street, Suite 110.
General admission runs $30 per person, with riser seating available for $60, and tickets are sold online in advance or at the door the day of the show, per the same account. Beyond the performances themselves, the festival includes a makers market with pop-up booths selling handmade goods, along with food vendors including Sacramento food trucks and beer from New Helvetia Brewing Co., which also sponsors Capital Dance Project.
A Historic Schoolhouse Becomes the Backup Venue
Landing at CLARA is not exactly a step down. The building at 2420 N Street is the former Fremont Primary School, constructed in 1921, which served as an adult education center until it closed in 2012 and then reopened in March 2016 as the E. Claire Raley Studios for the Performing Arts following a $5.2 million renovation, according to CapRadio. The historic brick facility was saved from demolition and repurposed to give local arts groups permanent studio space.
Today CLARA operates as a multi-tenant creative incubator that houses Sacramento Ballet and hosts Capital Dance Project events, while also sheltering organizations including Capital Stage, Alliance Française de Sacramento, McKeever School of Irish Dance, Southside Unlimited, and Teatro Nagual, per the Alliance Française de Sacramento. Those groups share studio space, classrooms, and the main auditorium inside the converted schoolhouse. Hoodline previously noted CLARA's role as a hub when the Alliance Française celebrated its 25th anniversary there in May.
Born From a Ballet Company's Financial Crisis
Capital Dance Project's own origin story is tied to institutional upheaval. The Bee notes the company formed after a mass layoff during Sacramento Ballet's 2014-2015 season, and CapRadio's reporting from that period fills in the details: financial shortfalls led the ballet's board to prematurely cut the season, furlough dancers, and cancel the popular Beer & Ballet production. Rather than disband for the summer, 13 Sacramento Ballet dancers — including Julia Feldman, Alexandra Cunningham, Dylan Keane, Kaori Higashiyama, and Alexander Biber — chose to self-produce their unfinished choreography at the Crest Theatre, according to CapRadio.
What began as an emergency performance opportunity for out-of-work artists has since grown into a community-oriented arts program, the Bee reports. Capital Dance Project has operated since 2015 as a fully dancer-run, nonprofit performance art organization, now counting more than 30 choreographers, dancers, and other artists among its ranks. It operates under the fiscal sponsorship of Friends of Sacramento Arts, a 501(c)(3) focused on equitable access to arts education in public schools, which allows the collective to remain artist-driven while receiving tax-deductible donations, according to Capital Dance Project.
Multimedia Performances Pair Dance With Film and Live Music
This year's lineup includes musicians James Wilson, Stephen Davis, and Con Brio Quintet, along with visual artists Taner Pasamehmetoglu, Jason Silva, Ginger Thompson, Raul Mejia, and Melissa Uroff, the Bee reports. The company developed a four-week artist residency to create full-length works that combine original choreography, visual art, and sound, resulting in collaborative performances by local dancers, choreographers, visual artists, and musical artists.
Every choreographic performance in Behind the Barre is also paired with a short introductory documentary film produced by longtime CDP collaborator and filmmaker Natalie Manning, offering audiences a glimpse into how dancers and visual artists work together in the studio before each piece begins, according to Capital Dance Project's own account. Since its 2015 debut, the festival has presented 90 world-premiere dance works and provided an artistic and financial platform for more than 90 local dancers, choreographers, visual artists, and musicians, per Givebutter. Proceeds from Behind the Barre support Capital Dance Project and its ongoing programming.
Free Tickets and Sensory-Friendly Programs Widen Access
Community outreach has been part of the company's mission from early on. Capital Dance Project partners with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Sacramento, whose students receive free tickets to events such as Behind the Barre, one-on-one time with company members, advance performance previews, and access to Capital Dance Project classes and rehearsals. Beyond that partnership, the organization has provided more than 1,600 fully sponsored performance tickets to regional Sacramento youth since 2015, per Capital Dance Project's community outreach materials.
In 2017, the company expanded further by launching a Sensory Friendly Dance Program offering modified performances and grant-funded classes for individuals with autism and developmental disabilities, a program that has served more than 800 audience members with $5 tickets and hundreds of free passes for shows featuring lowered sound and modified lighting. Hoodline recently reported that Sacramento Ballet's own new sensory-friendly Nutcracker show follows programming CDP helped pioneer regionally.
The company has also fed talent back into the region's flagship ballet company. Co-founder Julia Feldman, who developed her choreographic portfolio through Beer & Ballet and Capital Dance Project, has created ten original works for CDP and gone on to earn major commissions from Sacramento Ballet, including Hearts in 2022 and Pockets of Light in 2025, according to Sacramento Ballet. Sacramento Ballet's own performance season has not yet started, according to the Bee, leaving Behind the Barre as an early-fall showcase for the city's dance community while the larger company prepares for its next season.
