About New Stages for Dance
Formerly the Theater Rental Subsidy Program, New Stages for Dance is an innovative re-granting initiative that provides affordable access to quality venues so professional dance artists can produce successful, high-quality home seasons. Established in 2008, the initiative has distributed more than $90,000 to 17 companies.
The 2010 addition of a Technical Support component provides professional one-on-one coaching, free of charge, for participating artists and companies in areas such as budgeting, production timeline, insurance law, and contract negotiation.
Recently, MetLife Foundation has awarded our parent organization, Dance/USA, a grant to transform this program into a national model, with launches in San Francisco and Chicago anticipated in 2011.
THE NEED
Producing dance companies and presenting organizations in Philadelphia have limited access to many wonderful theaters in the region because rental rates are often prohibitive for them. This leaves many venues that are well-suited for concert dance underused by the local dance community. As a result, this negatively impacts audience development, production values, and visibility for the art form in general. Without a dance-specific venue in Philadelphia, it is important that dance programmers have more affordable access to the many non-dance specific theaters throughout the region to accommodate the explosion of dance activity.
THE GOALS
• Provide affordable access to quality venues for dance producers and presenters;
• Enable dance companies to present home seasons;
• Build dance audiences by leveraging marketing support from host venues;
• Increase rental income for area venues.
LEARN MORE: visit Dance/USA Philadelphia
