OUR MISSION

Selah Dance Collective, Inc is a contemporary dance company dedicated to producing original work, creating educational experiences through performance, and maintaining a platform for community dance works and emerging artists through outreach, education, and mentorship.

ABOUT US

Selah Dance Collective, Inc (or SELAH), a Santa Barbara-based contemporary dance company, creates and performs worldwide original work by artistic director and founder Meredith Cabaniss. Founded in 2014, SELAH has captured the attention of fellow artists, presenters, and audiences with its innovative work and challenging physicality grounded by a focus to make dance more accessible and relatable to all people. Known for our personality, dynamic style, and technical versatility, SELAH explores the nature of human existence through the art of movement. As a company, we are fueled by interdisciplinary research and collaboration, especially in working with other small dance companies to produce evening-length performances with a variety of different influences and inspirations. We are inspired by the innovative communities of Southern California and New York, constantly igniting long-range artistic work that stretches the boundaries of technology and art. SELAH also advocates for expanding arts exposure and dance education, working within different organizations to bring art, specifically dance, to underserved communities. 

In the past five years, we have performed our work both in festivals and in our own evening-length productions throughout New York and California and have been invited to perform internationally in Asia and Europe. We have created a total of 11 works including five evening-length pieces and two pieces by invited guest choreographers, and have been presented in four countries. We have taken anywhere from a year and a half for a 45-minute work to just a few hours to create and perform a three-minute score. Click below to learn about the dancers of SELAH.

leadership

Meredith Cabaniss Ventura

Founder and Artistic Director

Meredith Ventura is a multi-creative artist based out of southern California. She holds a BFA in dance from UC Santa Barbara and an MFA in Dance from Hollins University in coordination with the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, The Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, and The Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company (formerly the Forsythe Company). She is currently pursuing a MA and PhD in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Santa Barbara.

As the founder and artistic director of selah dance collective, Ms. Ventura has produced full evening-length performances and presented works throughout the United States in prestigious festivals throughout the United States including the DUMBO Dance Festival (NY), FREEdom DANCEfest (SF), and as a finalist in the McCallum Theater Choreography Competition. Her work has been performed most recently in Estonia, Norway, Finland, and Italy and is frequently commissioned by the University of California, Santa Barbara for their performing companies. Meredith also currently serves as co-artistic director of Sespe Dance Co. in Ventura and as a featured artist with Nebula Dance Lab in Santa Barbara, most recently producing a collaborative, multi-media evening-length work at the historic Lobero Theater. She currently also serves as a board member for Artspace Inc/Center Stage Theater, a black-box style community theater in downtown Santa Barbara and works in the Santa Barbara County Office of Education with Children’s Creative Project to advocate for equity in arts education across southern California. 

Arianna Hartanov

Assistant Director

Arianna trained in Denver, CO, before coming to Santa Barbara to dance with State Street Ballet. There she has danced lead roles in productions like The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. As a contemporary dancer and choreographer, most of her influence is from Max Stone, Gabrielle Lamb, Omar Roman de Jesus, and Anouk Van Dijk. Arianna joined SELAH in 2020, was promoted to Assistant Director in 2021, and is so grateful to be part of a company that is so open to collaboration and inclusivity.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Meredith Cabaniss Ventura

President

Bianca Salazar

Secretary

Andrew Ventura

Treasurer & chief financial officer

Elijah Ettenger

chief development officer

Juli Farley

chief operations officer

If you feel aligned with the work that Selah Dance Collective, Inc. is doing, let us know! We have many opportunities to get involved and are looking for strategically expanding our base of support throughout Southern California.