The average lifespan of a nonprofit contemporary dance company is less than a decade. Reliance on small donations, variable government funding, volunteer boards and dancers passionate enough to be willing to settle for minimal wages, usually proves unsustainable in the long run.

All the more reason to acknowledge and applaud the accomplishment of Sarasota Contemporary Dance, which completed its 20^th anniversary season this weekend with a collaborative performance with the West Coast Black Theater Troupe, now wildly successful in its 26^th season after its own early struggles. “SCD + WBTT” not only served as a celebration of the determination and dedication of each organization’s founder – Leymis Bolanos Wilmott and Nate Jacobs respectively – but as a reunion and a revisiting of “greatest hits” from their past collaboration in 2023.

The first half of the program, held at the Manatee Performing Arts Center, was dedicated to gospel music, the second half to Motown. It opened with an acapella medley by the WBTT vocalists – Ariel Blue, Amber Myers, Charlie “CJ” Melton and Jonathan Isaac – dressed in sharp white suits and dresses, as SCD’s company members and two guests artists, similarly in all white, took brief solo turns under alternating overhead spotlights.

It doesn’t take a music critic — which I am not — to opine that the WBTT vocalists are terrific. And who better to sing gospel and Motown? It took very little of their prompting to get the audience members to “clap your hands and shake your tail feathers,” as they were encouraged to do.

 In keeping with its usual approach to live music performances, the SCD dancers moved around and past the singers and in front of a four-piece band located at the back of the stage (Xavier O’Conner on keyboards; Austin Gill on guitar; Alan Robinson on drums and  Dominic Santini on bass). Likewise, they changed costumes for each number and often relied on props – magazines, stools, hats, swivel chairs – to suit the varying choreography, which ranged from the peppy to the poignant.

One of the welcome surprises came with the second number -- Blue singing “Pullman Porter Blues” – with the reappearance of guest artist Jahrel Thompson, a prominent member of SCD in its early years, who left the dance profession in 2018. He has been missed ever since. It was always startling to see a man six and a half feet tall move with such fluidity and grace and Thompson has lost none of the lanky, loose-limbed lyricalness of his younger years. It was a pleasure to see him on the stage again.

As for SCD’s female dancers, as someone who has reviewed the company since my arrival in Sarasota 16 years ago, I can attest they now exhibit stronger technique, artistry and magnetism than ever before. Makayla Lane and Amber Slay were appropriately slinky and slithery, sliding on and off red swivel chairs in “I Got it Bad” and “Mood Indigo,” while Samantha Miller and Monessa Sally provided a percussive staccato backdrop to Melton’s rendition of “Jim Jam Jumpin,’” as they tap danced on portable wooden squares.

Thompson, his back to the audience and his startlingly long arms draped across the full length of a wide bench, returned to reprise his duet with Sally to “The Thrill is Gone,” repeatedly rejecting her clinging advances. “Heatwave,” another repeat from the 2023 show, had dancers Lane, Jordan Leonard, Jessica Obiedzinski and Melissa Rummel in old-timey swim suits and sunglasses batting around a beach ball and pretending to read trashy gossip magazines.

The turning point of the program was an unusual and original arrangement of Luther Van Dross’ “House is not a Home,” in which Jacobs altered the lyrics to sing about how performers need an audience to survive, as Bolanos Wilmott, in a floor-length scarlet dress, danced through the patron seats.  The final lines of what may have been the world’s most subtle “ask” for financial support -– “We love our community, we love you” –- provided a convenient segue into the second half of the show, which started with The Supremes’ “Stop in the Name of Love.”

“Baby I Need your Loving,” by the Four Tops, sung by Melton, was an excellent vehicle to show off guest artist John Hartter, a project-based dancer whose training ranges from ballroom to country dancing. His skill as a partner was obvious in this duet with Leonard, whom he flipped over his shoulder as easily as if she were the errant beach ball that was batted into the audience.

But it was again Thompson who garnered all eyes in another repeat from the SCD/WBTT show of three years ago, “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.” Six female dancers, dressed in black pleather pants and jackets occupied red-seated stools that provided way stations for “Papa’s” peripatetic wanderings (“Wherever he laid his hat was his home”). Thompson’s white hat passed from one stop to another, but ended up on his own head, which subtly bobbed with an ineffable suavity.

The entire cast of singers, dancers and musicians took bows to The Temptations’ “Cloud Nine,” to cap off a feel-good program that showcased how far both companies have come — and how much they deserve the support to continue. Though much of this material was a trip down memory lane, who could complain when those memories were such fun to revisit?

“SCD + WBTT,” reviewed at the Manatee Performing Arts Center May 16. No additional performances.