Join Your Colleagues in the Field at the Dance Forum during the APAP Conference

Friday, January 8, 2010
9:00 AM–noon
Hilton Hotel (6th Ave between 53-54 Streets)

Preceding the Arts Presenters conference, we hope you’ll take the morning to gather as dance colleagues for some much needed discussion about our field. This year’s Dance Forum will explore bold new ideas and strategies that address current issues and opportunities for the next decade of dance. The session will begin with a brief "tour" of projects and initiatives focused on artist residencies, dance presentation and touring, audience engagement, presenter mentoring, and technology developments.

Presenters at the 2010 Dance Forum:
click each name for more information on the presenter and project

Suzanne Callahan - Dance/USA’s Engaging Dance Audiences Project
Chris Elam - Audience Engagement Platform Innovation Project
Jane Forde - NEFA’s Regional Dance Development Initiative
Margaret Jenkins - CHIME (Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange)
Rosemary Johnson and Ivan Sygoda - Southern Arts Federation’s Dance Touring Initiative
Marc Kirschner - TenduTV's "Dance Anywhere" Initiative
David Sheingold - Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography’s Artist Residency Program
Pam Young and Randy Swartz - "Building a Network of New Dance Presenters" Consortia

Suzanne Callahan - Dance/USA’s Engaging Dance Audiences Project
With support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation, Dance/USA launched Engaging Dance Audiences (EDA), a $2.1 million pilot program that enables Dance/USA to analyze current dance-going activities, and its members to explore and research methods of engaging audiences for dance, learn from peers, and share the learning nationally.

Dance/USA developed EDA in response to concerns voiced by the field relating to audiences’ changing patterns of attendance and behavior – from aging and/or decreasing loyal audiences; to a shifting preference for accessing arts and entertainment online rather than in person; the lack of audiences’ knowledge of and connections with the art form.

At its core, EDA is a learning initiative for Dance/USA members and the field.  Managed by Callahan Consulting for the Arts, EDA consists of three main components: project support for grantees, audience engagement research conducted by grantees in conjunction with consultants WolfBrown, and a national learning community.

The learning community is being designed to share what emerges from EDA projects and audience research with the dance field.  The field will be invited to actively engage in the learning community online, through social media, webinars, and reports that will be posted, as well as through meetings such as this Dance Forum and Dance/USA’s annual meetings.  Through these entry points, we hope to engage the field in a lively discussion of current issues and strategies related to audience engagement.  Throughout the next 18 months, EDA strives to increase the knowledge and skill level of the national dance field as it relates to engaging audiences for dance. 

Overview of Engaging Dance Audiences: www.danceusa.org/engagingdanceaudiences
Includes an overview of the program components, including the Learning Community, as well as links to recent research about audience engagement, as it relates to dance.

Definition of Audience Engagement: www.danceusa.org/uploads/EDA/AudienceEngagement_Definition.pdf
The definition is evolving and we encourage the dance field to contribute its own impressions.

Projects funded: www.danceusa.org/engagingdanceaudiencesgrantees
Grantees are addressing a range of issues, and conducting related research to be shared with the dance field.  Areas of exploration include building relationship with audiences through a range of online mechanisms; generating interest in online viewing of performances; comparison of the experience of live to remote dance performance and participation; the role of memory in increasing audiences’ engagement; adapting enrichment curriculum from other arts disciplines to engage dance goers; and increasing interest in touring companies through residencies.  

For more information contact eda@forthearts.org. 

Chris Elam - Audience Engagement Platform Innovation Project
Chris Elam is the founding Artistic Director for Misnomer Dance Theater, a dance company in New York. Misnomer is the creator of the Audience Engagement Platform (AEP) for the Arts, an innovative web platform designed to give audiences greater access and ability to interact with artists and their art year-round. Through a singular portal, AEP aims to make it easier for artists and arts organization to create and manage opportunities for their audiences, donors and volunteers to have a window into their ongoing creative process by using videos, live streaming, blogging, photos and messaging. Additionally, using the tools of AEP, arts administrators can drive donation-focused actions towards specific initiatives and/or performances, thus amplifying marketing and fund raising efforts, and making more efficient use of time. AEP aims to assist arts organizations in giving their audiences a deeper sense of connection and participation with their art.

AEP is in development and will launch in 2010.  You can sign up to stay informed about AEP at www.aeplatform.org, and can learn about Misnomer at www.misnomer.org.

Jane Forde - NEFA’s Regional Dance Development Initiative
The Regional Dance Development Initiative helps dance artists to reach new markets by improving their ability to communicate with audiences about the meaning of and context for their work, and by developing relationships with dance presenters. The ten-day "lab," for up to 12 artists, emphasizes mentoring by more experienced choreographers, managers, and presenters. An artist/presenter exchange component is part of each lab.

Margaret Jenkins - CHIME (Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange)
CHIME (Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange) is a mentorship program for professional choreographers. Grants and cost-free studio time are given to support an exploration between artists interested in learning from one another. Now in its 6th year in the San Francisco/Bay Area and having recently launched a three-year program in Southern California after an initial pilot year, CHIME provides a welcome exchange about the craft of making work.
 
In addition, CHIME Across Borders, a new CHIME program which begins in 2010, brings choreographer mentors of renown to work in San Francisco with a group of local choreographers over the course of one year. CHIME Across Borders intends to bring mentors of great vision and experience to San Francisco to establish long-term mentoring relationships. For the pilot phase in 2010, the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company has invited David Gordon, a dancer, choreographer, writer and theatrical director prominent in the world of  postmodern dance and performance, to act as the first CHIME Across Borders Chair.

CHIME in Southern California is funded by The James Irvine Foundation with additional support from The Mellon Foundation. CHIME in the San Francisco Bay Area is supported by The Hewlett Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, with additional support from The San Francisco Foundation; CHIME Across Borders is funded by The Mellon Foundation.

For specific guidelines and information please go to www.mjdc.org

Rosemary Johnson and Ivan Sygoda - Southern Arts Federation’s Dance Touring Initiative
The Southern Arts Federation’s Dance Touring Initiative 2010-2012 is a major effort to develop stronger dance presentation and audiences for modern dance and contemporary ballet. Eleven presenters have been selected and will receive intensive professional development, peer mentorship and tour development assistance, as well as substantial touring subsidies during this three-year initiative. Facilitated by a three-member consulting team, the goals of this initiative are to (1) assist presenters in their ability to more effectively present dance by promoting greater understanding and audience engagement; (2) move presenters from sporadic to regular dance presenting; and (3) create a strong network of dance presenters.

Learn more: View general information and the list of presenters, mentors, consultants.

Marc Kirschner - TenduTV's "Dance Anywhere" Initiative
The “Dance Anywhere” initiative is TenduTV’s solution to the leading and most fundamental challenges that have faced the dance industry since its earliest days.  The premise of “Dance Anywhere” is simple: allow audiences to engage with dance anywhere, anytime, on any device. Through TenduTV’s streaming and download partners, audiences can consume and purchase dance content on 200 million devices in 10 countries, including iPods, TiVos, Blu-Ray players and internet-enabled televisions. TenduTV’s distribution network includes nearly 70 top digital platforms, including iTunes, Hulu, CinemaNow, Netflix and Comcast’s Fancast.com.
 
For additional information on TenduTV, please visit www.tendu.tv, twitter.com/tendutv, or www.facebook.com/tendutv. Dance companies and their staff are also encouraged to email content@tendu.tv directly.

David Sheingold - Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography’s Artist Residency Program
The Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) is a dance and choreographic research center affiliated with the School of Dance at The Florida State University. The mission of MANCC is to raise the value of the creative process in dance by 1) providing a model of support for professional choreographic creativity within a comprehensive research university, 2) providing choreographers access to a stimulating environment where experimentation, exploration and life-long learning are both valued and encouraged, and 3) providing opportunities for the students, staff and faculty, the community of Tallahassee and the national dance field at large to engage with the creative process in dance.

While the Center officially began in 2001, it wasn’t until the facilities were complete, the Center was endowed, and the first Director was hired in 2004 that the current programming structure was initiated.  Through several pilot programs; Choreographic Fellowships, Living Legacy and Free to Rep, International Exchange, Digital Explorations, and Partnership Initiatives, choreographers and companies are brought into the center for two to four week research based choreographic residencies to experiment, reflect, edit, hone their research and choreographic process, and ultimately develop new work.  Participating artists are primarily selected through a competitive nomination, application and peer review process.  To date, 50 choreographers and companies have been supported by MANCC including Wally Cardona, Chunky Move (Australia), Urban Bush Women, Philadanco, Eiko & Koma, David Neumann, AXIS Dance Company, Anouk Van Dijk (Netherlands), Yasuko Yokoshi, Limón Dance Company, Deborah Hay, Tania Isaac, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, KT Niehoff, Art Bridgman & Myrna Packer, Nami Yamamoto, Miguel Gutierrez, Kate Weare, Reggie Wilson and JANT-BI (Senegal). The work developed at MANCC has toured the U.S. and abroad, reaching thousands of audience members across the globe. A complete listing of artists is available at www.mancc.org/artists.html.

Part of the residency commitment is to document the artists’ activity using film, audio and photography, providing the artists as well as presenters, managers, agents and other related media outlets a digital toolkit to use in promoting the work to various audiences. To date, over 40 short films and audio podcasts have been created for artists in residence and they can be viewed at www.mancc.org/multimedia.

For more details about MANCC go to: www.mancc.org

MANCC FORUM: Advancing the National Dialogue
From August 13-16, 2009, a committed group of artists, presenters, dance departments, residency retreat centers and funders from across the country met at MANCC to advance the national dialogue about how we make research and development a more vital cornerstone of what we value and achieve as a field.

For more details about the MANCC FORUM including agenda, keynote by Kristy Edmunds, brief narrative and video highlights, go to: www.mancc.org/forum/12.html

Pam Young and Randy Swartz - Building a Network of New Dance Presenters
DANCECleveland, Dance Affiliates (Philadelphia) and Dance St. Louis, three stand-alone dance presenting organizations, are working together as a consortium to build a new network of dance presenters.  By working collaboratively, it is our goal to strengthen the infrastructure for dance presenting and to combat the current decline in presenters who include dance on their annual arts programming.  The project will be:

• expanding the number of presenters within a regional area surrounding our primary venues (Ohio, Pennsylvania and Missouri) that include dance on their annual series,
• providing mentoring to these nascent presenters through a high level of hands-on help with curatorial advise, outreach and programming development, staffing, technical and production assistance and an on-line tool box,
• creating new opportunities for dance companies to provide performances and meaningful community residencies and outreach opportunities which can travel within this new presenter route.
• planning for a multi-year project to give the new presenters a solid foundation for presenting dance in their communities.

As a result, this program will build a sustainable network of new presenters for dance which will in turn, facilitate new and expanded opportunities for dance companies, dance touring and begin to build new audiences for dance.