BWW Reviews: Dance/NYC Symposium Explores the State of NYC Dance

On Sunday, February 24, dance professionals from all over New York City convened at Gibney Dance Center for Dance/NYC's fourth annual symposium. The sold-out 2013 symposium sought to "explore the role and reach of NYC dance and dig deep into the current circumstances of funding, touring, marketing, and education."

Dance/NYC hosted an entire day of events, discussions, and workshops in six different studios at Gibney.

The day opened with a "Welcome" from Lane Harwell (Executive Director of Dance/NYC) and Amy Fitterer (Executive Director of Dance/USA). The other main sessions included "Touring and the Marketplace(s)" (moderated by Mario Garcia Durham, President & CEO, Association of Performing Arts Presenters), "Digital and Media Space for NYC Dance" (led by Elizabeth Scott, Chief Media and Digital Officer at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts), "Meet the Funders: (Inter)national Giving for NYC Dance" (with panel representatives from such foundations as the National Endowment for the Arts and New York Lives Arts) and "Dance Education in a Global City: the Future of NYC Dance" (with panelists from the New York Department of Education, the National Dance Education Organization, Hunter College, and Marymount Manhattan College).

Studio workshops included "Workshop with Urban Bush Women: Entering, Building, & Exiting Community, "Discussion: What We Talk About When We Talk About Dance" (moderated by Lucy Sexton, Director of the New York Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies), "Turn Up The Volume - Become a Dance Advocate" (developed by the Dance/NYC Junior Committee), and "Bringing Entrepreneurship to the Arts" (moderated by Clint White, President, Arts and Culture Network).

Dance/NYC also hosted one-on-one workshops. In the legal clinics, registrants could sign-up for 30-minute appointments with arts and entertainment attorneys to discuss "legal issues concerning entertainment, intellectual property (i.e. copyright and trademarks), licensing, corporation/incorporation, and collaboration agreements." Additionally, the symposium held smART bars, individual 30-minutes appointments with consultants from the Arts and Cultural Consultants Network regarding "Board Development, Fundraising, Human Resources, Marketing, Strategic Planning, Technology, and Disaster Planning: Preparedness and Recovery, etc."

And the symposium wasn't all "talk;" Michelle Boule, Hristoula Harakas, Pamela Pribisco, Matt Lopez, and K.J. Holmes taught open level movement classes throughout the day in one of Gibney's dance studios.

"Dance/NYC's mission is to bolster the support structure for dance in the New York City metropolitan area, serving as a voice and guide for dance artists and managers." This year's symposium fulfilled that mission and set the stage, quite literally, for another exiting year of dance in New York City.

For more information about Dance/NYC's advocacy and events, visit www.dancenyc.org.

Photo credit: Christopher Duggan (www.christopherduggan.com)

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Mary Callahan recently performed in the Broadway workshop of Sugar Babies, in Riverside Theatre's Funny Girl, and as a backup dancer for pop singer, Lily Halpern. She is a graduate of Broadway Dance Center?s Professional Semester and is studying ?Writing for the Arts? at New York University. In addition to broadwayworld.com, Mary writes for Broadway Dance Center and the Verdon Fosse Estate. www.missmarycallahan.com