2024-2026 Grantees

Dance/NYC awarded 25 grantees and 3 runners-up funding through the fourth iteration of the Dance Advancement Fund, made possible by the generous support of the Howard Gilman Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The purpose of the funding initiative is to address the inequitable distribution of resources in the dance field and advance its resilience and ability to thrive by supporting dance makers in the metropolitan New York City area with operating budgets between $25,000 and $250,000.

Grantees

7NMS| Marjani Forté-Saunders + Everett Saunders	Kinding Sindaw
Buffy Productions	Kyle Marshall Choreography
Company SBB // Stefanie Batten Bland	LayeRhythm Productions, Inc.
Dancers Unlimited	MBDance
Diversity in Arts and Nations for Cultural	Moriah Evans
Education, Inc.	Ogemdi Ude
Donna Uchizono Company	Pony Box Dance Theatre
Exit12 Dance Company	Project Connect
Flex Dance Program Inc.	Redhawk Native American Arts Council
General Mischief Dance Theatre	Surati for Performing Arts
iLAND	Tabula Rasa Dance Theater
Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project	The Japanese Folk Dance Institute of NY
Jiva Performing Arts, Inc.	Unpezverde

 

Runners-up

Kathy Westwater Dance 
Pacemakers Dance Team
The Church of the Unruly

The recipients of the Dance Advancement Fund will receive two-year general operating support grants between $6,000-$40,000, awarded over a two-year period from September 1, 2024, to August 31, 2026, in addition to professional development opportunities. Runner-up grantees will receive one time, flat grant awards of $1,500–$3,200.

Professional development offerings for grantees are provided by program partners Arts FMS, Mariclare Hulbert Consulting, and Pentacle. Each grantee will have access to personal one-on-one consultations with a focus on a variety of topics including: visioning and strategic planning; fundraising and resource gathering; marketing, storytelling, and communications; general administration & operations; and individualized fiscal management coaching.

The 25 grantees include representatives from five (5) counties in the New York city metropolitan area: Bronx (2), Hudson (3), Kings (9), New York (9), and Queens (2). Grantees are majority ALANNA-led (88%), and include majority women-identifying and gender nonconforming/nonbinary/genderqueer non-cis-man led (79%), includes disabled leadership (36%), majority LGBTQIA2S+ led (60%), and majority immigrant led (52%).

Grantees were selected by a review panel of dance workers, including members of Dance/NYC’s task forces and committees, and were among a competitive pool of over 150 metropolitan New York City area dance groups who submitted applications in response to an open call. Key evaluation criteria included: a dedication to sustaining practice beyond the two-year grant period, commitments and measurable actions in alignment with stated values of diversity, justice, equity, and inclusion, organizational and financial health (regardless of budget size), a commitment to paying artists and arts workers a living wage, with a well-articulated narrative for how the funds will help advance the organization and a willingness to engage in ongoing learning/professional development and to share learnings within a cohort of grantees.

Review the 2024-2026 Dance Advancement Fund Application Details, Eligibility, and more.