^{Prepared February 2011.}

Economic Profile of the Dance Field

There are now over 600 professional dance companies in America, as well as over one thousand pre-professional and semi-professional groups. The following points summarize some information about the 288 companies with expense budgets of $100,000 or more for fiscal years ending in 2009.¹

These 288 companies:²

• Employed over 12,000 people in a mix of full-time and part-time positions.
• Had nearly 4,000 members collectively serving on their 501c3 boards.
• Had expenses totaling $613.5 million.
• Paid approximately $320.5 million, or 45% of expenses, in wages and benefits.
• Earned approsimately $189.0 million, or 34% of their income, from performances.³
• Received $273.8 million, or 49% of their income, in contributions.
• Collected the remaining 17% of their income form a variety of sources.

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¹The distribution of U.S. dance companies is drawn from Dance/USA’s National Company Roster, a listing of all known 501c3 dance companies in the U.S. with expense budgets greater than $100,000 for fiscal years ending in 2009.

²This data is somewhat approximate because it draws on publically available data for 2009 fiscal years with 241 companies reporting information in this year of the 288 total.

³A majority of companies reporting this figure (55% of 153 reporting) listed performance revenue between 20% and 49% of total income.
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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 manager of research.