(FAQs after letter)

Dear Dance Community,

The world feels bleak, heightened by fear and uncertainty in light of the change in administration, geo-political strife and genocide, the various encroaching manifestations of climate change, and continued economic hardships faced by many in the arts. The arts and culture sector is a crucible in many of these matters, both showing us the disparities that exist AND providing balm, instigation, and provocation for what could be.

At Dance/NYC, we feel the grief, disappointment, and fear that our community has expressed and are consistently making meaning of this to support the industry through all that will come next. Our commitment to you and to advocating for fair conditions, creative rights, and accessible spaces only feels more urgent. Our future depends on having artists—especially from our most vulnerable communities—to be present, active, and thriving. So many of you continue to show up as active participants in this work, and as we approach the close of 2024, we offer the following reflection on the progress we’ve made as well as what’s to come.

2024 reflections…

2024 has been a significant year, grounded by Phase 2 of the Dance. Workforce. Resilience. (DWR) Initiative. With the invaluable guidance and collaboration of our 19-member DWR Advisory Group and 9-member DWR Network, we focused on implementing the recommendations and actions set forth in the State of NYC Dance 2023 research report. Advocacy has been at the core of this work, and together, we’ve amplified and represented the dance workforce, successfully supporting the restoration of the City’s cultural budget in FY2025 and the repeal of the City’s Prohibition-era dancing ban as part of recent zoning reforms. We also voiced our solidarity with dance workers’ right to unionize, reinforcing our support for equitable compensation and just working conditions.

This dedication to economic resilience was underscored when Co-Executive Director Candace Thompson-Zachery shared learnings from the DWR Initiative and its associated research at Dance/USA’s 2024 Dance Forum and Nonprofit New York’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Members, spotlighting our priorities and inviting sector-wide action. To further activate participation and foster peer learning, we’ve hosted Field-Wide Calls and distributed newsletters, self-advocacy tools, and civic education resources on our revamped Advocacy webpage and new DWR Hub.

Today, the DWR Hub is home to a growing wealth of information, including a Resource Library and a filterable database of action items from the State of NYC Dance 2023 research report. This April, we added the “Our New York City Dance” Campaign—a digital campaign that distills these action items and galvanizes each of us to take part in creating the equitable and inclusive dance community that we desire. Recently, the Dance Workforce Directory went live, introducing a free and accessible platform for you to promote your work, connect with other dancer workers, and source new opportunities (Join the Directory!).

In an effort to refine our understanding of dancers’ working conditions, we partnered with Althea Erickson of Working Matters to conduct a field-scan and analysis of existing wage and working standards across the sector. This lays the groundwork for ways we can create newly informed wage standards that are better aligned with the dance field we aspire to become. In the meantime, we continued our direct support of the field through the Dance Advancement Fund (2024-2026) and the New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program (2022-2024), providing $916,688 in resources to dance workers and organizations.

Behind the scenes, we’ve centered our energies around building a sustainable foundation to serve the 6,000+ dance workers and 1,700+ dance entities, educators, funders, and government leaders within the metropolitan NYC area. This includes piloting our Co-Executive Director leadership model, enhancing technology to promote efficiency, navigating more transparent decision-making and conflict resolution, and being intentional about our programs and priorities. We’re particularly excited to share that we’ve embarked on a strategic planning process in partnership with Molly Penn and Marissa Lewis of PENN Creative Strategy to envision the next five years of Dance/NYC.

2025 intentions…

With gratitude for current Board Chair Elissa D. Hecker’s 12 years of dedicated service, we welcome the guidance of our new Board Chair, Reshma Patel. Under her leadership, our action-oriented research and data-driven advocacy work is poised to thrive in new ways. A public finance expert, seasoned community leader, and artist in her own right, Reshma is committed to building on the momentum Elissa helped support while partnering with us to continue advocating for NYC’s dance sector. A key part of this work in the year ahead will be the expansion of the “Our New York City Dance” Campaign to reflect legislative and policy developments and amplify voices across the field—including the research and actions developed by Creatives Rebuild New York.

Let’s connect…

As always, our goal is to move forward in community with you. We will continue to share updates about our plans and process and invite you to get in touch with us along the way.

Please note that Dance/NYC’s offices will be closed from Tuesday, December 24–Tuesday, December 31, 2024, to allow our team time to rest and recharge. This will be followed by an internal, focused work period from Wednesday, January 1–Monday, January 6, 2025, during which we will operate with limited external communications. To support you in the meantime, we’ve compiled timely resources and answers to your most frequently asked questions below.

Thank you all for your continued trust and partnership. We look forward to reconvening in the new year and working together to advance a more inclusive and thriving NYC dance community.

In solidarity,
The Dance/NYC Team

Dance/NYC FAQs

Key Dates: 

• December 19: Submit website ads by 3:00 p.m. for ads to run during the organizational break
• December 24–December 31: Dance/NYC offices closed, no external programs, limited communications and ad placements​​.
• January 1-6: Dance/NYC office reopens for internal activity: no external programs, limited external communications
• January 7: Resume all external programs and communications​

Contact:

We welcome your questions, ideas, and feedback! Our emails are publicly available on Dance.NYC. Please expect a delay in response to any communication (email, phone calls, voicemails, and/or direct messages via social media) received from December 24–January 6, 2025 due to Dance/NYC’s winter break.

Advocacy:

Visit Dance/NYC’s Advocacy page for the most up-to-date catalog of events, news, and updates on legislative efforts at the federal, state, and local levels. Other resources are noted below.

• Review our 2024  'Our New York City Dance' campaign, a rallying call for the New York City dance community to come together and take action towards building an industry that is valued, protected, sustainable, and just. Explore our primers addressing three critical issues highlighted by our research:

○ Issue 1: Dance Workers’ Lack of Value and Protections in Society
○ Issue 2: Financial Unsustainability for Our Workers and Organizations  
○ Issue 3: Justice, Equity and Inclusion are Still Lagging

• Check out our November Dance Worker Digest for important news and resources of particular interest to our community.
• Review our Advocacy Alerts for our latest calls to action.
• Visit our Advocacy Resource Page to learn the fundamentals of navigating public policy as a dance worker and tools you can use.
• Visit Dance/NYC’s other resource pages including:

○ DWR Resource Library
○ Racial Justice Resources
○ Sexual Harassment Resources 
○ Land Acknowledgement Practice Resources
○ Disability. Dance. Artistry Resources
○ Immigrants. Dance. Arts. Resources
○ Rehearsal Space Resources
○ Fiscal Sponsorship Resources

• If you would like to continue to engage in discussions dealing with advocacy and other issues of concern to NYC's cultural community, you might consider joining the Culture@3 calls which happen at 3:00 p.m. every Tuesday and Wednesday or the NY4CA Advocacy calls on Thursdays at 3:00 p.m. These calls are for leaders of nonprofit cultural institutions in NYC to connect with each other. For more information on joining these calls, email Lucy Sexton of New Yorkers for Culture & Arts at lucy@ny4ca.org.
• Sign up for Governor Hochul’s mailing list for the latest news and guidelines.
• Join NYC Arts in Education Roundtable in advocating for the arts as essential to education for all students.
• Review Nonprofit New York’s legislative priorities for nonprofit organizations.
• Check out Dance/USA’s Key Advocacy Issues.

Research:

• Review Dance/NYC’s latest research report: State of NYC Dance 2023: Findings from the Dance Industry Census. 
• Review the Coronavirus Dance Impact Informational Brief: A Dance Sector in Peril as well as additional findings for independent dance workers and dance organizations, groups, and projects.
• Review Dance/NYC’s research report Defining “Small-Budget” Dance Makers in a Changing Dance Ecology.
• Dance/NYC’s research page also hosts a library of all of the past research reports for your use.
• Explore the research section of our DWR Resource Library for other research in the field.

Website, Ads, Communications, and Press:

We encourage you to lean on Dance.NYC as an ongoing resource.

Dance Workforce Directory
The Dance Workforce Directory is a new, FREE online platform designed to amplify the incredible work happening in our dance community, connect dance workers, organizations, and businesses, and help NYC’s dance ecosystem thrive. If you’re a performer, choreographer, teacher, service provider, or dance organization, you can create your free profile today to increase your visibility and access new opportunities. Join the Directory!

*Please note that new accounts created during the winter break will be processed starting January 6, 2025.