Testimony to the New York City Council on the Department of Cultural Affairs Preliminary FY 2012 Budget
Monday, June 6, 2011
Testimony to the New York City Council on the Department of Cultural Affairs Preliminary FY 2012 Budget
I submitted testimony to the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations in March, requesting a full restoration of the Department of Cultural Affairs’ (DCA) budget. On behalf of New York City’s dance community—1,200 entities and 500 dancers—I am here today to restate this request for a restoration and to bring you voices from the field.
Lori Belilove, Artistic Director, Isadora Duncan Dance Company:
With the support of DCA my dream has come true. The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation (IDDF) is celebrating the birth of the mother of modern dance appropriately with performances, remembrances, guest speakers… and screenings of contemporary work-in-progress. Annually [IDDF] has been honoring the life and art of this American treasure [who] started a dance revolution fostering the legendary spirits [of] generations of modern dancers up to the present day. Without DCA this would not be happening.
Renata Celichowska, Director, 92Y Harkness Dance Center:
Public funds we are able to garner for dance at 92Y enable us to: provide free dance performances via our Fridays at Noon series [reaching] over 60 choreographers and approximately 1,200 audience members, including over 450 school children, annually [;] keep our Sundays at Three performance series at a low cost of $10/ticket [;] provide subsidized rehearsal space for approximately 200 dance artists annually [;] maintain inexpensive access to great quality programming [;] provide dance/movement therapy services for people from a diverse set of circumstances and backgrounds and with movement disorders.
Choreographer Risa Jaraslow, Risa Jaraslow & Dancers:
DCA is critical. [It’s] been very important for both our performance and community based workshop projects. The previous cuts have hurt. Another one, especially of this size, will be devastating.
New York Live Arts, an organization created in February 2011 when Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Dance Theater Workshop, both DCA grantees, merged:
DCA funds are incredibly important for our organization to leverage additional support from other institutional and individual supporters… New York Live Arts stands as a model for creativity, sustainability, efficiency and a great partnership for the dance field. Our historical success and future role in the culture of New York City is due in part to the support we receive from DCA. We are incredibly grateful for their support and all they do for dance.
Dance/NYC Junior Committee member Adrienne Westwood:
VIA Dance Collaborative (the company I co-founded), is a three-time recipient of grants from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, funded by DCA and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. As a young company, this is the very first way we were able to receive government support. I also rely on organizations who are DCA-funded to carry out my day-to-day existence as a dancer and dance-maker, from rehearsing at DANY Studios, taking classes at Dance New Amsterdam and Movement Research, and teaching at Gibney Dance Center, to attending performances at the Chocolate Factory in Queens, the Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, and the Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project...
These voices are examples from an industry whose size, audiences and activity make NYC the dance capital of the nation and whose contributions to local government, to jobs, to tourism, to education and to the socio-economy make DCA a good investment for the City. Dance is an industry I ask you to watch and join, and these are voices I ask you to hear and act on.
END
Lori Belilove, Artistic Director, Isadora Duncan Dance Company:
With the support of DCA my dream has come true. The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation (IDDF) is celebrating the birth of the mother of modern dance appropriately with performances, remembrances, guest speakers… and screenings of contemporary work-in-progress. Annually [IDDF] has been honoring the life and art of this American treasure [who] started a dance revolution fostering the legendary spirits [of] generations of modern dancers up to the present day. Without DCA this would not be happening.
Renata Celichowska, Director, 92Y Harkness Dance Center:
Public funds we are able to garner for dance at 92Y enable us to: provide free dance performances via our Fridays at Noon series [reaching] over 60 choreographers and approximately 1,200 audience members, including over 450 school children, annually [;] keep our Sundays at Three performance series at a low cost of $10/ticket [;] provide subsidized rehearsal space for approximately 200 dance artists annually [;] maintain inexpensive access to great quality programming [;] provide dance/movement therapy services for people from a diverse set of circumstances and backgrounds and with movement disorders.
Choreographer Risa Jaraslow, Risa Jaraslow & Dancers:
DCA is critical. [It’s] been very important for both our performance and community based workshop projects. The previous cuts have hurt. Another one, especially of this size, will be devastating.
New York Live Arts, an organization created in February 2011 when Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Dance Theater Workshop, both DCA grantees, merged:
DCA funds are incredibly important for our organization to leverage additional support from other institutional and individual supporters… New York Live Arts stands as a model for creativity, sustainability, efficiency and a great partnership for the dance field. Our historical success and future role in the culture of New York City is due in part to the support we receive from DCA. We are incredibly grateful for their support and all they do for dance.
Dance/NYC Junior Committee member Adrienne Westwood:
VIA Dance Collaborative (the company I co-founded), is a three-time recipient of grants from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, funded by DCA and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. As a young company, this is the very first way we were able to receive government support. I also rely on organizations who are DCA-funded to carry out my day-to-day existence as a dancer and dance-maker, from rehearsing at DANY Studios, taking classes at Dance New Amsterdam and Movement Research, and teaching at Gibney Dance Center, to attending performances at the Chocolate Factory in Queens, the Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, and the Joyce Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project...
These voices are examples from an industry whose size, audiences and activity make NYC the dance capital of the nation and whose contributions to local government, to jobs, to tourism, to education and to the socio-economy make DCA a good investment for the City. Dance is an industry I ask you to watch and join, and these are voices I ask you to hear and act on.
END
