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Causes: Alliances & Advocacy, Arts & Culture, Arts Services, Professional Societies & Associations
Mission: To promote and encourage knowledge, appreciation, practice, and performance of dance. Dance/usa pursues these goals by providing a forum for dance on a national level, recognizing, assessing, and serving the needs of dance on a national level, speaking as a united national voice and responsible advocate for dance, and undertaking other activities which, in the judgement of the board of trustees, will serve the purposes of dance/usa. Dance/usa may provide communication, management, artistic, and other support services to nonprofit professional dance companies and organizations, to individuals, and may serve as a source of information about dance for the public.
Programs: Special projects & regrantingengaging dance audiences - with support from the doris duke charitable foundation, dance/usa administers "engaging dance audiences", a program that enables dance/usa and its members to explore and research methods of engaging audiences for dance, learn from peers, and share the learning nationally. Task force on dancer health - a national program supported by the hellman family foundation funds the convenings of health professionals from around the country to discuss health issues particular to professional dancers. The taskforce presented findings and guidelines at the annual dance/usa conference. New stages for dance - a new initiative funded by the met-life foundation works to subsidize the cost of performance space rental for dance companies without their own space. The program was started in 3 cities and targets small-to mid-sized producing organizations.
annual programs/annual conference - dance/usa hosts the only national convening for dance professionals. The conference includes plenary speakers, break-out sessions, and meetings of all the member councils. Research - dance/usa performs annual surveys to measure the financial health, economic impact, and changing economic landscape of the dance field. Advocacy - dance/usa works to make sure the needs of the field are heard with respect to changing federal regulations and funding. Dance/usa also helps to communicate important changes in the law to membership. Membership & communications - membership and communications departments provide bi-weekly newsletters and monthly e-journal to the membership as well as coordinate conference calls for the council calls of organizational members.
dance/philadelphiadance/usa's branch office focusing on advocacy, increasing the capabilities of local dance artists and organizations, and enhancing the public's awareness and support for dance in philadelphia. Dance/usa philadelphia staff and advisory board members regularly participate in meetings and generate phone calls and emails to state and city legislators and officials to advocate on behalf of the dance community on multiple issues, most recently in the area of arts. Fund projects include the "theater rental subsidy program", a program providing direct financial support to philadelphia-based dance companies to help offset the expense of renting theater facilities for their home season performances, the "'philadelphia is dancing' wall calendar," featuring photos and images of philadelphia dance companies and artists, both promotes and helps generate revenue through sales for the philadelphia dance community. Other programs include the advance planning calendar, a tool to help producing dance companies avoid scheduling conflicting or overlapping performance dates, a video services program provides video dubbing, transferring, and basic editing services at subsidized rates for the dance community, a community access imac computer equipped with design software is available to constituents for creating digital, print, or website promotional materials, and a resource center houses a collection of books on dance as well as articles, studies, reports, and artifacts on wide-ranging subjects from international dance festivals to reviews of local companies, and a video library of works spanning multiple dance genres. A two-day mini-booking conference, organized by dance/usa philadelphia, features philadelphia dance companies and artists in showcase performances for dance presenters who traveled to philadelphia to better acquaint themselves with philadelphia dance. Dance/usa philadelphia's electronic communications regularly reaches members of the dance community and dance audiences with information on dance performances, classes and workshops, auditions, professional development opportunities, and other dance news. Its website, www. Danceusaphiladelphia. Org, is also an important hub for performance and job listings, internships, funding opportunities, and other information for and about philadelphia's dance community.