Funds

Dance Advancement Fund. For metropolitan NYC area dance makers with operating budgets between $10,000 and $500,000.

Dance Advancement Fund

About

Dance/NYC’s Dance Advancement Fund was established to address the inequitable distribution of resources in the dance field and advance its resilience and thriving. Each program builds on Dance/NYC’s ongoing and iterative learnings across its core services including: action-oriented research; advocacy; technological resources through Dance.NYC; leadership training, networking, and convening; and other grantmaking programs; as well as the organizational values of justice, equity, and inclusion embedded into all aspects of its programs and services.

Dance Advancement Fund (2024-2026)

Made possible by the generous support of the Howard Gilman Foundation and the Ford Foundation, Dance/NYC invites dance making organizations and groups based in the metropolitan NYC area with operating budgets of $25,000-$250,000 to submit applications for support through the fourth iteration of the Dance Advancement Fund. Selected dance-making organizations and groups will receive general operating support grants ranging from $6,000 to $40,000, awarded over a two-year period from September 1, 2024, to August 31, 2026. Recipients will receive half of the total grant amount each year, along with ongoing professional development. Dance/NYC anticipates awarding up to 25 grants.

Learn more about the current iteration of the program. 

Dance Advancement Fund (2018-2019, 2020-2021, 2022-2023)

Made possible by the support of the Ford Foundation, Dance/NYC established the Dance Advancement Fund in 2017 to address the inequitable distribution of resources in the dance field by supporting small budget dance makers with budgets less than $1 million. As of 2021, the Dance Advancement Fund has provided $800,000 in general operating support to 45 unique dance making organizations and groups with budgets under $1 million across two grant cycles. Learn more about the previous iterations of the program.

In 2022-2023, Dance/NYC once again offered the program, and awarded 37 recipients two-year general operating support and 8 runner ups one time, flat awards, distributing a total of nearly $1.1million investment over the course of the grant period. Learn more about the 2022-2023 Grantees and Runner ups. 

A photo of a group of dancers raising a dancer over their heads with their arms. On the left a dancer faces away from the camera and raises their arms up over their head mid clap. Text reads, MELT Winter 2024, In-person and Virtual workshops, Movement Research, Week 1: Jan 13-17.

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