The pandemic was punishing to our city’s dance community, depriving it of audiences, performances, and paychecks. To ensure New York remains the dance capital of our nation, we need to help choreographers and their companies thrive. This includes connecting them with space to create and perform and opportunities to nurture tomorrow’s dancers.
LaGuardia Community College created a model that caught our program team’s attention. It shared its auditoriums and dance spaces with professional dancers, who, in exchange, taught and performed on campus.
To replicate this model across the city’s public university system, the Queens College Kupferberg Center for the Arts, with five years of support from The Trust, started the CUNY Dance Initiative. The Initiative gives professional choreographers and dance companies residencies that include rehearsal and performance space, artist fees, and production costs. In return, dancers conduct master classes and lectures and bring high-caliber performances to college audiences.
Today, there is no dance residency program of its scope in the country. Since its launch in 2014, the Initiative has:
- facilitated 220 residencies at 13 CUNY colleges in all five boroughs;
- granted dancers more than 11,000 hours of studio and stage time;
- sponsored instruction for more than 5,000 students; and
- attracted more than 20,000 New Yorkers to performances at CUNY arts centers.
For artists, the impact of this program is far-reaching. Alumni have won Bessie Awards and Guggenheim Fellowships for work developed during residencies and made connections with additional teaching and performance engagements.
One of the groups, an all-female tap-dance band called the Syncopated Ladies, used its residency at John Jay College to develop a successful new show. At the end of an intensive two weeks, it sold out the premiere of We Are the Music, with an audience of 650. A New York Times review helped secure future bookings. “Having concentrated rehearsal time,” said company co-founder Maud Arnold, “was the only way we could have made this show happen.”
“Finding space in the densest city in America is tough, especially for dancers,” said Salem Tsegaye, program officer for arts and culture at The Trust. “This program not only makes great use of underutilized spaces, but also brings an incredible cultural resource to CUNY campuses.”
Because a choreographer can’t create at their kitchen table—they need space—The Trust extended its work, providing rehearsal space to even more dancers. Recent grants to Partners for Sacred Places to work with Dance/NYC and the New York Landmarks Conservancy enable dance troupes to rehearse and perform in the City’s historic houses of worship. In 2022, Partners worked with Brick and Mortals to launch venuely.org—a service that opens a new market for affordable rentals for dancers and other performers.
The Trust is proud to support these partnerships to help the city’s dance scene grow and thrive.