JUSTICE, EQUITY & INCLUSION
Dance/NYC believes the dance ecology must itself be just, equitable, and inclusive to meaningfully contribute to social progress and envisions a dance ecology wherein power, funding, opportunities, conduct, and impacts are fair for all artists, cultural workers, and audiences. It seeks to advance policies, investments, programs, mindsets, and actions that remove and prevent inequities that exist along the continuum of lives in dance, from the public school classroom to the stage.
Dance/NYC’s approach cuts across its public programs—research, advocacy, regranting and knowledge-sharing—and all aspects of its operations. Its approach is intersectional, building upon multiple issue areas that together create a more just, equitable, and inclusive dance ecology. Dance/NYC’s approach is also grounded in collaboration. It recognizes generations of people and organizations working to advance justice, equity, and inclusion in the arts and culture and strives to contribute to their efforts. It established partnerships with colleague arts service organizations. Learn more about our partners on our website: Dance.NYC/equity/equityinclusionpartners.
Dance/NYC is currently focused on these main issue areas:
RACIAL JUSTICE
Dance/NYC seeks to dismantle white supremacy in dance and amplify the voices and autonomy of the African, Latina/o/x, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA) community. Please refer to Dance/NYC’s Racial Justice Agenda to learn more about our work.
Agenda: Dance.NYC/RacialJusticeAgenda
DISABILITY. DANCE. ARTISTRY.
Dance/NYC aims to dismantle ableism in dance and amplify the voices and autonomy of disabled people. It seeks to advance a cultural ecosystem that expressly includes disabled artists and disability communities. In doing so, it puts disability front and center as a positive artistic and generative force. Dance/NYC launched its Disability. Dance. Artistry. initiative on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (Dance.NYC/equity/disability/disability-initiative). Please refer to Dance/NYC’s Disability. Dance. Artistry. Agenda to learn more about our work.
Agenda: Dance.NYC/DDAAgenda
IMMIGRANTS. DANCE. ARTS.
Dance/NYC seeks to dismantle xenophobia in dance and extend the role of dance artistry in fostering the inclusion, integration, and human rights of more than three million immigrants in the New York City area. Dance/NYC launched a multi-year Immigrants. Dance. Arts. initiative in 2018 (Dance.NYC/equity/immigrant-artists/immigrant-initiative).
DANCE. WORKFORCE. RESILIENCE.
Dance/NYC aims to address economic inequity and strengthen the dance ecology by directly serving individual dance workers, dance organizations, fiscally sponsored groups and projects, and nonprofit and for-profit dance entities. Dance/NYC launched its Dance. Workforce. Resilience. (DWR) Initiative in 2022. Learn about ongoing initiative activities at Dance.NYC/DanceWorkforceResilience.
Dance/NYC’s use of terms builds on learning with Race Forward and established leaders and experts in justice, equity and inclusion. Dance/NYC recognizes that language is constantly in flux and that words might have different meanings depending on their context and use. Please refer to a full glossary and resource directory: Dance.NYC/JEIdirectory.
