New York, NY — Dance/NYC is pleased to announce the 25 recipients of the second iteration of its Dance Advancement Fund, made possible by the generous support of the Ford Foundation. The purpose of the Fund is to address the inequitable distribution of resources in the dance field and advance resilience by supporting dance makers with annual budgets between $25,000 and $1 million. 

The Fund leverages Dance/NYC’s capacity as a regrantor and responds directly to the organization’s field research Dance/NYC’s State of NYC Dance and Workforce Demographics (Dance.NYC/StateofDance2016), which shows that dance makers with annual budgets of less than $1 million comprise the lion’s share (84%) of total groups but have access to only 10% of the total revenue. The research also found that the smallest organizations demonstrate the greatest capacity to adapt and have workforces that better reflect the racial diversity and presence of disabled and immigrant people in New York City’s population than the workforces of larger organizations.

The recipients of the Dance Advancement Fund, which will each receive two-year general support awards of $5,000-$15,000 annually, from January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2020, are:

In January 2020, Dance/NYC announced the following recipients of funding:

• Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company
• Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre/BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance
• Ayazamana Ecuadorian Dance Group
• Big Dance Theater
• The Black Iris Project (fiscally sponsored by New York Live Arts and The Foundation for Independent Artists, Inc.)
• Bombazo Dance Co, Inc.
• Born Dancing
• Dances For A Variable Population
• Dancing in the Streets
• Davalois Fearon Dance (fiscally sponsored by The Foundation for Independent Artists, Inc.)
• Divine Rhythm Productions (fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas)
• Eglevsky Ballet Company of LI, Inc.
• Elisa Monte Dance
• Fist and Heel Performance Group
• Full Circle Souljahs
• Jaamil Olawale Kosoko (fiscally sponsored by New York Live Arts)
• Jiva Performing Arts
• Kyle Marshall Choreography (fiscally sponsored by The Foundation for Independent Artists, Inc.)
• LEIMAY
• MBDance (fiscally sponsored by Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance [BAAD!])
• Miguel Gutierrez (fiscally sponsored by UNIQUE PROJECTS, INC.)
• Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
• Nimbus Dance
• Sidra Bell Dance New York (SBDNY, Inc.)
• Something Positive, Inc.
   

“Dance/NYC thanks the Ford Foundation for its commitment to supporting the art form of dance and recognizing the central role that creativity and free expression play in shaping a just society,” offers Elissa D. Hecker, Chair of Dance/NYC’s Board of Directors.

“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,” says Alejandra Duque Cifuentes, Executive Director of Dance/NYC. “By intentionally providing general operating support to dance makers across the city, the Dance Advancement Fund aims to advance economic justice, while recognizing that dance makers with operating budgets below $25,000 also need support. There is certainly more work to be done as we endeavor to move the field from surviving to thriving and we are grateful for partners like The Ford Foundation who help to make this possible.”

 

The 25 grantees include representatives from eight (8) counties in the metropolitan New York City area: Bergen (1), The Bronx (6), Hudson (2), Kings (8), Nassau (1), New York (5), Queens (1), and Westchester (1). Grantees are majority African, Latina/o/x, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA)-led (21 of 25), and include twelve (12) companies with women-identifying leadership, one (1) with disabled leadership, eight (8) with immigrant leadership, and one (1) self-identified integrated and disability dance artistry company performing work by and with disabled artists. There are seven (7) fiscally sponsored dance projects among the grantees.

These grantees were selected by a review panel and were among a competitive pool of over 100 metropolitan New York City area dance groups who submitted applications in response to an open call. Key evaluation criteria included: clear artistic vision and excellence; a dedication to sustaining practice beyond the two-year grant period, with a well-articulated narrative for how the funds will help advance the organization, and a willingness to share learning with the field; commitments and measurable actions in alignment with stated values of diversity, justice, equity, and inclusion; a commitment to paying artist and arts workers a living wage; and a diversity of dance perspectives. Consultancy support for the Fund was provided by Ebony Noelle Golden of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative. Golden’s advisement helped to ensure that every aspect of program development, communications, application intake and review, and panel review aligned with Dance/NYC’s values and that the organization remained accountable to its intended beneficiaries.

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About Dance/NYC 
Dance/NYC’s mission is to promote the knowledge, appreciation, practice, and performance of dance in the metropolitan New York City area. It embeds values of justice, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the organization. It works in alliance with Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance.

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Visit Dance.NYC/DanceAdvancement for details on Dance/NYC’s Dance Advancement Fund.

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