Connection through the Arts
Lineage is always cutting edge, when it comes to "critical issues" shows. Musicals are always creatively staged, choreographed and acted. Your Dance for Joy program is ultra important.”
Lineage Patron
About Us
Lineage’s mission is to serve as a hub for artistic connection and creative expression, offering diverse opportunities in dance, music, theatre, and the performing arts. For over 25 years, we have advanced community accessibility, arts education, and local artist employment while producing impactful performances and hosting visiting artists in our black box theatre and dance studio. Through strategic partnerships with nonprofits, we leverage the arts to raise awareness and support for causes that strengthen and uplift our community.
Lineage’s 25 year history is that of a dance company that grew into a community cultural hub and performing arts center for Pasadena and the surrounding areas. Founded by Artistic Director Hilary Thomas in 1999, Lineage began as a dedicated group of artists committed to raising funds and awareness for local nonprofits with dance performances, and incorporated into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2007. In 2009, thanks to a connection to the Mark Morris Dance Group’s Dance for Parkinson’s program, Lineage’s dancers learned about the power of dance in managing symptoms of neurological challenges like Parkinson’s, and launched a series of free weekly dance classes for neurodiverse adults. The company acquired its first home in Old Town Pasadena in 2010 and began expanding its offerings of performances, community events, and dance education. As the lease in Old Pasadena expired in 2018, Lineage negotiated a long-term lease in a new, much larger, 6,200sf building in Northwest Pasadena–an area identified by residents as under-resourced in arts opportunities. After a year of intensive community outreach that confirmed that our presence was desired, Lineage completed a $650,000 capital campaign which transformed a long-abandoned property into a new community arts hub.
Programs & Impact
Our programs combine artistry with purpose. Lineage is primarily focused on 3 main pillars:
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Performing Arts Education - We provide Teaching Artists in Dance to several Title 1 schools in the Pasadena Unified School District, serving over 350 students each year. These are classes that offer high quality dance education and each of the programs are growing annually. We also sponsor the John Muir Mystics Dance Team, providing space free of charge and hosting their dance concert annually. We teach classes in our facility to all ages in Musical Theatre, Modern Dance, and Acting, serving over 100 students each year.
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Dance for Joy - This is a program unique to Lineage, focused on providing dance, music, and acting classes for people with Parkinson’s, MS, TBI, and stroke. They also appear in many of our Lineage productions. This program is free to all participants and provides creative ways to manage and mitigate the symptoms of neurological conditions. There are 6.5 hours of classes each week, attended by a dedicated community of regular participants.
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Original Productions - We produce 7-8 productions each year, performing for an audience of over 2,000 people. These productions are multidisciplinary works, combining dance, music, and storytelling to illuminate a topic. We also do one book musical each year, but with the Lineage innovation of amplifying the story with dance woven throughout the production to bring out the emotional qualities of each scene or character.
Underpinning all of these programs is our mission to serve our community which we do through making our space available to community groups and other non-profits and through collaborating with or amplifying other performing arts organizations. Together, these programs build bridges across demographics, engage underserved residents, and make Pasadena’s cultural life more vibrant and inclusive.
Our Original Repertoire
Healing Blue
First Produced: 2005
For over 20 years, Lineage has been presenting Healing Blue to raise support and awareness for breast cancer centers across the country. The show tells the true stories of women in their struggles and triumphs over cancer. These stories form the emotional backbone of the night, and dive into touching, profound, and sometimes hilarious aspects of living with an often life-threatening illness. Each year Lineage brings new women’s stories to light as well as the choreography that has been inspired by their words.
Photo: Robert Kunstmann
Brain in Motion
First Produced: 2007
While science and dancing might sound like a strange combination, the two create a compelling concoction in the form of a truly unique performance. “Brain In Motion” features a multimedia experience showing various brain functions through dance and movement.
Ceiling in the Floor
First Produced: 2016
Ceiling in the Floor offers a moving tribute to Brandon Toh. Featuring Toh’s original music and the true story of his friendship with Lineage’s Artistic Director, Hilary Thomas, this thoughtful piece blends dance and conversation around the often-taboo topic of suicide. Even in death, relationships continue to evolve. Ceiling in the Floor explores the darkness of mental illness, unveiling an inspired, true story about two lives bound together through music and dance.
Photo: Robert Kunstmann
A New Day
First Produced: 2022
A New Day is a theatrical love letter to those we’ve lost; it includes music, dance, and story-telling and addresses the reality that it has been over 40 years since the first cases of AIDS were identified. Though we’ve lost too many to this virus, the stories, the humanity, and the memories live on in us. The stories that are shared are drawn from real-life accounts– an actor in the Broadway production of Cats recounts his diagnosis and journey through the illness, front-line doctors describe the early days of fear and misinformation, AIDS activists share their battles, and personal stories of the disease’s reach are told while drawing parallels to the history of the disease’s progression in society and the governmental response.
Photo: Robert Kunstmann
After Roe
First Produced: 2022
After Roe is a performance inspired by true stories, using dance and theater to tell true stories of abortion, looking ahead at a post-Roe world. Featuring live music and a diverse cast of dancers and actors, this event is a Lineage original, directed and choreographed by Lineage's Artistic Director Hilary Thomas.
Photo:
Matter of Time
First Produced: 2023
Matter of Time is a nostalgic trip through time with an interactive dance, theater, and storytelling event. Every room takes on a new decade while the audience is whisked through important cultural, political and historical events from the 1950s to the year 1999. As the audience arrives, they will choose whether they want to go forwards or backwards in time, with the groups meeting in the 1970s for a fabulous disco party.
Photo:
Broadway Gamble Ramble
First Produced: 2025
An original, site-specific piece that that celebrates the power of American musical theatre and the ways it shapes our own lives. From The Sound of Music to Hamilton and beyond, Broadway has always reflected history in profound and moving ways. For many fans, these shows become personal milestones, marking pivotal moments in their own stories.
Drawing from community workshops and interviews, Artistic Director Hilary Thomas has woven together true personal stories that lead into excerpts from beloved musicals. As audiences journey through the rooms of this architectural landmark, music, dance, and storytelling come alive in a series of intimate vignettes.
Photo: Robert Kunstmann
Jeanne and Cliff Benson Family Art Gallery
When Lineage built its current space at 920 E. Mountain Street in Pasadena, an art gallery was included. This space is curated by Theresa Kennedy, who installs shows that provide context for our productions and also hosts local artists for shows and receptions.
Dedication: It is my great honor to introduce you to the Jeanne and Cliff Benson Family Gallery at the Lineage Performing Arts Center! This wall is a gift from my family and is a tribute to the generosity of spirit always exhibited by our parents. This wall is a living testament to the power of the arts and will amplify the stories, dances and theatrical productions brought to life in the Lineage Performing Arts Center. I believe that the arts can best be enjoyed when they amplify each other, just as I believe that in community we uplift and amplify each other. Throughout Hilary's vision, we see the music dance, we hear the voice and the stories that need to be told, and now, through artwork and photography, we will elevate the full spectrum of the arts.
- Peggy Burt, September 2021
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