Thursday, October 6, 2022

Dance/NYC Announces Dance Industry Census Roundtable Discussion Series for Dance Workers Across New York City Metropolitan Area

New York, NY (For Immediate Release) – The dance service organization​ Dance/NYC today announced dates for its upcoming Dance Industry Census Roundtable Discussion Series. 

Taking place across NYC’s five boroughs and three regional metropolitan areas, the series will include ten discussion events – eight in-person and two virtual-only – that will invite dance workers and those who lead and work with dance-related businesses and organizations an opportunity to share their personal stories and experiences working within the local dance industry and cultural sector. Registration for the Discussion Series is available at Dance.NYC/CensusRoundtables. There is no cost to attend the discussion events.

As the second phase of the Dance Industry Census, an effort to count every dance worker and entity in the industry, the roundtable discussions are an opportunity for members of the dance community to have their unique perspectives as dance workers and organizations recognized. With the collection of this qualitative data in conjunction with the quantitative data acquired via the Census, Dance/NYC hopes to gain a better understanding of the size, makeup, health and state of the dance ecosystem in order to address economic inequities in the field through its Dance. Workforce. Resilience. Initiative.

“The Dance Industry Census aims to understand the true story of who makes dance in New York City and how,” said Dance/NYC Executive Director Alejandra Duque Cifuentes. “These Roundtable Discussion events will allow us to do just that — gather experiences directly from workers and organizations in the field who bring their unique lived experiences to further illuminate the findings from the survey. This is imperative especially to ensure that the contributions of dance workers and entities who identity as or are led by disabled, immigrant, Black, Indigenous, and peoples of color are acknowledged despite intentional and historic underinvestment and in doing so enable Dance/NYC to build a more comprehensive picture of the inequities that exist at both the individual and systemic levels.”

“It is incredibly important that we know the data representing the people and organizations in our industry, and that we also know and understand the experiences behind the people who represent these numbers,” said Charmaine Warren, Founder of Black Dance Stories and member of the Dance. Workforce. Resilience. Initiative Task Force. “The Dance Industry Census Roundtable Discussion Series will be an opportunity for us to delve deeper into how to better address the inequities that so often persist because members of the dance workforce have remained misunderstood or overlooked for too long. Furthermore, these conversations will offer space in a communal setting for participants who would otherwise be unwilling to share information via the survey itself.”

The Dance Industry Census Roundtable Discussion Series is scheduled on Wednesdays from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. ET on dates from November 9, 2022 through February 22, 2023. Each event will open with a presentation from Dance/NYC about the status of the Census and its preliminary findings, followed by facilitated small group discussions where attendees will address key issues related to their experiences as dance workers and organizations–especially those that shed more light on their economic experiences. This qualitative data will be analyzed and presented in aggregate form in Dance/NYC’s Fall 2023 State of NYC Dance research report. 

“Dance/NYC is proud to partner with local arts venues with strong community ties to host the Roundtable Series,” added Candace Thompson-Zachery, Dance/NYC Senior Manager of Programming and Justice Initiatives and lead producer for the series. “Our venue partnerships are critical to ensuring that a vast array of cultural communities in NYC are a part of this conversation.” 

Each event will be hosted in an ADA accessible venue and will include the presence of an access doula, live captioning and/or CART, and ASL interpretation. Additionally, given the ongoing presence of COVID-19, Dance/NYC will continue to adhere to its safety policies for live events, requiring masks and proof of vaccination or proof of negative test results. Learn more about Dance/NYC’s COVID-19 policies and event accessibility offerings by visiting Dance.NYC/CensusRoundtables.

Confirmed dates and venue partners include:

2022

November 9 – Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center – The Bronx
November 16 – Chelsea Factory – Manhattan
November 30 – Virtual

 

2023

January 11 – Jamaica Performing Arts Center (JPAC), operated by Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL) – Queens
January 18 – RestorationART/ The Billie Holiday Theater – Brooklyn
January 25 – Eglevsky Ballet – Long Island
February 1 – Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden – Staten Island
February 8 – Nimbus Arts Center – Jersey City, NJ
February 22 – Virtual

Additional dates and venues are forthcoming.

About the Dance Industry Census
Launched in July 2022, the Dance Industry Census is a first-of-its-kind effort to count every individual dance worker, dance-related business, and organization based in the metropolitan New York City area which includes the five boroughs, Westchester, Rockland, Nassau, and Suffolk counties in New York state; and Hudson and Bergen counties in New Jersey. The Dance Industry Census will close on October 31, 2022. More information is available at Dance.NYC/DanceIndustryCensus.

The Dance Industry Census is made possible, in part, by leadership support from the Mellon Foundation, The New York Community Trust, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and a coalition of general operating support funders, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Dance Industry Census is conducted in partnership with research consultant Carrie Blake of Webb Mgmt.

About Dance/NYC
Dance/NYC’s mission is to promote and encourage the knowledge, appreciation, practice, and performance of dance in the metropolitan New York City area. It embeds core values of justice, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of its programs and operations. Dance/NYC remains committed to delivering programs that address disparities in the dance field by continuing to fill gaps in the availability of resources where they are most needed. It 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.

Visit Dance.NYC/DanceIndustryCensus for more information. 

 

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Media Contacts:

Ayofemi Kirby
ayofemi@itseleventhirtysix.com

Michelle Tabnick

michelle@michelletabnickpr.com

Hastings Hill
hhill@dance.nyc