Dance. Disability. Artistry. Residency Program
Frequently Asked Questions
February 28, 2020
Q: What if I am not headquartered in the New York City area, but perform and rehearse in the New York City area?
A: To be eligible to apply, dance makers must be headquartered in one of the five boroughs of New York City as defined by their organizational mailing address.
Q: Does my fiscal sponsor need to be locally based?
A: Organizations with fiscal sponsors based outside of New York City area are eligible to apply, but the applicant organization must be headquartered in the New York City area (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island).
Q: I have multiple fiscal sponsors because my fiscal sponsorship is project based. Am I still eligible to apply?
A: Yes, applicants with project-based fiscal sponsorship are still eligible to apply and must be under fiscal sponsorship at the time of application and during the residency period. Please submit the 990 for each project-based fiscal sponsorship as well as the dated fiscal sponsor agreement letters for each, which show that the projects were under fiscal sponsorship. Please note that all fiscal sponsorship documentation should include information of fiscal sponsorship coverage dates. Those dates should overlap with the residency dates of May 21, 2020 to June 20, 2020.
Q: What kind of documentation do you require as proof of fiscal sponsorship?
A: You may submit a fiscal sponsorship determination or agreement letter; it must include the effective date(s) of your fiscal sponsorship and the name of the fiscal sponsor.
Q: What if my organization is not strictly a dance-making organization?
A: To be eligible to apply, applicants must be dance makers focused on the creation and performance of dance. Organizations who do not identify as dance makers, with dance making as their primary focus, are not eligible. Dance/NYC recognizes that many organizations function in a multitude of ways within the framework of making dance and sustaining dance practice and beyond. For the purpose of this fund, please focus on your dance-making activity, as the review panel will not be considering the service work of your organization. Ineligible applicants include:
- An individual artist without a fiscal sponsor;
- An organization that is not focused on the creation and/or performance of dance;
- An organization for which dance therapy is a primary function;
- An organization for which arts education is a primary function;
- An educational institution;
- A producer;
- A presenter;
- A festival;
- A service organization.
Q: What if my project is a performance of disabled children who’ve been taking my class, which is not therapy but rather recreational in nature?
A: The program’s goals are artistic. Applicants with primarily therapeutic, education (arts education) focused, or related work will not be considered.
Q: Does anyone involved in creating the call for proposals and on the review board have a disability?
A: Disabled artists have been involved in producing the call and the majority of the review panel identifies as disabled.
Q: Can Dance/NYC review a draft of my application?
A: Due to capacity, Dance/NYC cannot review application drafts. Please send specific questions to artistresidency@dance.nyc.
Q: Does Dance/NYC have any advice on submitting an application?
A: Dance/NYC encourages interested applicants to save their responses to narrative questions in an external document (e.g. Google Doc, Word document) so that you can easily populate the Submittable form and so that you do not lose your work should Submittable experience an error. Within Submittable, save draft content often by scrolling to the bottom of the application form and clicking “Save Draft.” Do not wait until the last minute to submit your application, as the platform could become overloaded if a large number of applicants submit simultaneously. Dance/NYC encourages applicants to make a strong case in their applications for how the residency will impact and further their artistic vision and excellence. With each element of your application, tell a full story to show how the residency will help you reach the next level of your dance making, connections to audiences, visibility, security, and sustainability.
Q: What are the times for the residency dates?
Residency times are from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. OR 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. OR 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Residency studios will be predetermined and are subject to change based on availability.
Residency 1: Tuesday, May 26, 2020, through Saturday, May 30, 2020 (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.)
Residency 2: Monday, June 1, 2020, through Wednesday, June 3, 2020, AND Friday, June 5, 2020, through Saturday, June 6, 2020 (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.)
Residency 3: Monday, June 8, 2020, through Friday, June 12, 2020 (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.)
Residency 4: Saturday, June 13, 2020 through Friday, June 19, 2020*
- Saturday, June 13, 2020 (4:00 pm to 10:00 pm)
- Sunday, June 14, 2020 (6:00 pm to 10:00 pm)
- Monday, June 15, 2020 (6:00 pm to 10:00 pm)
- Tuesday, June 16, 2020 (6:00 pm to 10:00 pm)
- Wednesday, June 17, 2020 (6:00 pm to 10:00 pm)
- Thursday, June 18, 2020 (6:00 pm to 10:00 pm)
- Friday, June 19, 2020 (6:00 pm to 10:00 pm)
Q: What are Dance/NYC’s values of justice, equity, and inclusion?
A: Dance/NYC believes the dance ecology must itself be just, equitable, and inclusive to meaningfully contribute to social progress and envisions a dance ecology wherein power, funding, opportunities, conduct, and impacts are fair for all artists, cultural workers, and audiences. It seeks to advance policies, investments, programs, mindsets, and actions that remove and prevent inequities that exist along the continuum of lives in dance, from the public school classroom to the stage. Dance/NYC is currently focused on three main issue areas: Racial Justice, Disability. Dance. Artistry., and Immigrants. Dance. Arts. To learn more about our values and corresponding agendas, please visit Dance.NYC/equity/values.
Q: What do we mean by “immigration demographics” in the Equity Matrix form?
A: Dance/NYC follows leadership in immigrant rights by embracing a wider understanding of the term “immigrant,” one that allows individuals to self-identify as immigrants, regardless of their classification by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and includes people who are foreign-born and their descendants. Dance/NYC also recognizes the term as a marker for identification and membership within specific minority groups connected by social, political, and cultural experiences. Dance/NYC prioritizes self-identification and encourages applicants to collect demographic data from its stakeholders in an anonymous matter. Please note: Dance/NYC is not asking applicants to request anyone’s legal immigration status, which is illegal to ask. Sample demographic data survey/questionnaires can be found by visiting Dance.NYC/uploads/Sample_Demographic_Survey.pdf. Dance/NYC discourages applicants from assuming the demographic information of its organizational staff, board, volunteers, artists, or audiences.
Q: My organization works with dancers and other kinds of artists (e.g. musicians). Should they be included in Equity Matrix?
A: The Equity Matrix can include artists working in other genres. The applicant organization's primary focus must be dance making, however.
Q: Should video samples be edited, or should it be unedited footage?
A: Video samples should reflect your artistic style and vision. While high-quality videos are encouraged, trailers and reels are discouraged. Video samples should be five minutes in length. The panel will be encouraged to view at least 5 minutes from the start timestamp that you provide.
Q: What is the review process for applications?
A: Dance/NYC is committed to administering a grantmaking approach that centers on our values of justice, equity, and inclusion. To advise and assist in reviewing applicants and achieving the Fund’s goals, Dance/NYC staff will recruit a review panel artists and arts professionals across functions and genres in dance who represent the demography of New York City, with a focus on majority disabled panelists (please note that some panelists may also be applicants for the DDA Residency Program). (According to Census data, the New York City population is approximately 77% ALAANA, 10% disabled, 52% female, and 37% foreign-born. Source: US Census Bureau American FactFinder 2011–2015 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.) Panelists will be selected in accordance with Dance/NYC’s value of “Nothing without us,” a commitment to representation in decision-making bodies by the communities we seek to serve. To learn more about our values and corresponding agendas, please visit Dance.NYC/equity/values.
If your question is not answered in the call for proposals or listed below, send your questions to artistresidency@dance.nyc. You can expect a response within two (2) business days. As appropriate, Dance/NYC’s responses to questions received will be added to this FAQ page.
This FAQ will be updated once a week up to the deadline.
For full request for proposals please visit: https://www.dance.nyc/equity/disability/artist-residency
