Dance Parade Press Conference
City Hall, May 14, 2012

I'm Lane Harwell, Director of the dance advocacy group Dance/NYC, a branch of the national service organization, Dance/USA, and a partner to the Dance Parade.

On behalf of more than 1,200 New York City dance makers, we join the City of New York in recognizing and celebrating May 19 as Dance Parade Day.

We thank the City and its cultural leaders: Mayor Bloomberg; the City Council, Speaker Quinn, Arts and Cultural Affairs Committee Chair van Bramer, and Councilmember Mendez for her leadership in this effort; and the Department of Cultural Affairs, Commissioner Levin. New York is a global dance capital because our City invests in dance.

I bring findings from Dance/NYC’s State of NYC Dance (2011), which uses a sample of the first-ever New York State Cultural Data Project data on nonprofit dance groups, to underscore the importance of dance as a contributor to and an ambassador for our City:a??

• Total aggregate expenditures of groups analyzed: $231 million—healthy contributions to our economy and powerful returns on investmenta??
• Performances in NYC: 1,600; On tour: 1,300—representing the City to the worlda??
• Paid attendance: 2+ million.

The Dance Parade engages an even wider community, including those unencumbered by institutional parameters. Founded to encourage freedom expression and advance the right of every citizen and resident to dance, the Dance Parade takes the art form to the streets and gives us a new way to experience and shape our City.

In a challenging budget climate, as we face potential cuts to City aid, the Dance Parade is a welcome sign of the role dance—in its many forms—can play in communicating and unifying and advancing social health, contributing to a brighter future for every New Yorker.