Economic Profile of the Dance Field

There are now over 600 professional dance companies in America as well as over a thousand pre-professional and semi-professional groups. The following points summarize some information about the 145 companies with expense budgets of $500,000 or more for fiscal years ending in 2008.¹

Because these figures are from fiscal years ending in 2008, they do not necessarily reflect the dramatic developments of the past ten months. 

These 145 companies:

• Employed over 7,000 people in a mix of full time and part time positions. These included over 1,600 dancers.
• Performed for total home audiences of nearly 4.0 million people. This finding is consistent with the 2008 National Endowment for the Arts' Survey of Public Participation in the Arts total for dance audiences of 15.8 million because the majority of dance audiences actually attend performances by companies with budgets smaller than $500,000.
• Paid approximately $321.4 million in wages and benefits.
• Had operating expense budgets totaling $535.6 million.
• Earned $192.2 million, or 37% of their income, from performances.
• Earned $109.5 million from sales, tuitions, and activities other than performances, representing 22% of total income.
• Received $10.4 million, from state, local, and government contributions, representing only 2% of total income.
• Received $9.9 million from corporate contributions. This is slightly less than 2% of total income.
  
• Received $77.9 million from private foundations, representing 15% of total income.
• Received $119.5 million from individual contributions through donations, benefit events, and guilds. This represents 23% of total income.

^{Prepared August 2009.}

¹This data is somewhat approximate because it draws on extrapolation from a sample of 49 companies that have provided data for three consecutive years. It should be noted that this sample skews slightly toward ballet companies. In the full population of 145 companies, 61% are ballet. This sample, however, includes 71% ballet. Learn more about the full population by visiting the National Company Roster.

For links to current news about the field, visit Dance in the News.

For information about the current state of the field or to request a PDF version of this information please contact the director of research.