Submitted to the City Council Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations on June 12, 2026
Prepared by Melinda Wang, Research and Advocacy Manager of Dance/NYC

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Thank you for your consideration of this testimony, submitted on behalf of Dance/NYC (Dance.NYC), a service organization for the 6,000 individual dance artists and 1,700 dance entities in the New York City metropolitan area. We champion the dance sector by fostering a more just, equitable, and inclusive landscape where dance workers and organizations can thrive. Rooted in research, Dance/NYC engages in advocacy, regranting, and knowledge-sharing that works toward establishing dance as a valued form of cultural expression and a common good.

Dance/NYC joins colleague advocates in the Culture for All and the It Starts with the Arts Coalition in thanking you for your leadership and calling on you to:

• Restore and baseline the $30 million that was added to the FY26 budget to support the Department of Cultural Affairs
• Index the baseline for DCLA funding to increase with the inflation rate to ensure stability amid rising costs
• Improve and reform the capital project process to increase transparency, efficiency, and ease for cultural institutions
• Increase the Coalition of Theaters of Color Council Initiative to $8 million to stabilize the 63 organizations
• Restore and enhance Support for Arts Instruction Initiative ($6 million) to meet increased demand and extend to early childhood students
• Increase transparency on the MTAC contracting process & arts education in our schools

Funding culture is critical to building a budget that works for New Yorkers.
Dance and the arts are inextricable to the cultural identity, social health, and economic life of New York City. Dance programming takes place across theaters, community centers, schools, faith institutions, public parks, and more, with 65% of dance entities conducting programming in public space¹. Our dance workers are deeply embedded in their communities, with 28% working in education, 23% in healthcare and wellness, and 19% in leisure and hospitality. The research is clear: cultural assets are associated with improved outcomes in health, schooling, and personal security.² New York City is a liveable, vibrant place for New York families precisely because of culture– because the 70-year-old immigrant in Queens can go to dance classes from his home country, the teenager from the Bronx can take classes on the history of hip hop in her neighborhood, and the working mom in Brooklyn can take her child to free performances in the park.

This social impact shows in the dollars. Research indicates that arts and culture create the conditions for healthy economies by driving traffic to businesses and encouraging local spending.³ The dance industry alone contributes an estimated $300 million⁴ annually to the city’s economy. This does not include fiscally sponsored organizations, for-profit enterprises, sole proprietorships, and individual dance workers. In addition to being the number one driver of tourism to the city, the broader arts and cultural sector generates $143.8B in economic activity and accounts for nearly 13% of New York City’s total economic output.⁵  In 2019, New York City’s arts, entertainment, and recreation sector employed 93,500 people at 6,250 establishments, totaling $7.4 billion in wages.⁶

Culture’s impact on New Yorkers is especially evident in the classroom
Cultural workers and organizations are deeply embedded in education– 900 arts and cultural organizations partnered with NYC public schools during the 2024-2025 school year.⁷ The arts organizations, teaching artists, and certified arts teachers in our schools have an outsized impact on young New Yorkers. Research shows that low-income students who participate in the arts are five times less likely to drop out and more than twice as likely to graduate from college. They achieve higher test scores and are more likely to participate in civic engagement opportunities like volunteering, student government, and voting in their young adulthood.⁸

Moreover, arts education fosters inclusion and belonging. 88% of NYC schools said arts education was a driver of social and emotional learning.⁹ Dance therapy, in particular, supports emotional, cognitive, and physical integration and has proven especially beneficial for people with chronic conditions. According to the National Dance Education Organization, dance also provides immigrant and non-English-speaking students with a nonverbal way to express themselves and maintain aspects of identity that are not always supported in a new culture or language. Similarly, dance creates meaningful opportunities for cognitive development and inclusion for disabled students.¹⁰

The affordability crisis is shrinking the cultural sector, threatening our impact
The workers and organizations providing these vital services have been undergoing significant financial strain since the pandemic. Based on Dance/NYC’s 2023 report,¹ 40% of dance organizations classify their financial health as weak or very weak. More than half of them have no reserves, meaning even modest funding fluctuations threaten to shut down organizations. On average, dance workers earn about 15% below NYC’s living wage, while dancers and choreographers earn about $23,000. This makes living in our city entirely unaffordable for our workers– the median asking rent in 2023 was 82% more than the average dancer’s monthly pre-tax income from dance.¹¹ Nearly a quarter of dance workers have no savings, leaving them vulnerable to the sector’s economic fluctuations.¹²

This affordability crisis has very real impacts on the dance ecosystem's ability to survive and thrive as a whole. Since before the pandemic, the city has lost 18.8% of its dancers. 1 in 4 arts organizations in lower-income zip codes lost their only physical space during the same period.¹³ 79 NYC public schools—that’s about 1 in 5—lack a certified arts teacher.¹⁴ The cumulative effects of the sustained underresourcing of our sector are clear: dance is being literally erased from the map of New York City.

Once again, we call on the city government to:

• Restore and baseline the $30 million that was added to the FY26 budget to support the Department of Cultural Affairs, and index the baseline for DCLA funding to increase with the inflation rate to ensure stability amongst rising costs
• Improve and reform the capital project process to increase transparency, efficiency, and ease for cultural institutions
• Increase the Coalition of Theaters of Color Council Initiative to $8 million to stabilize the 63 organizations
• Restore and enhance Support for Arts Instruction Initiative ($6 million) to meet increased demand and extend to early childhood students
• Increase transparency on the MTAC contracting process & arts education in our schools

The $30 million we are asking for is a vital stopgap, and represents only 0.02%-- that’s 2% of 1%-- of the total city budget. Cutting the arts will not balance our budget. But investing in it will protect a world in which every New Yorker, from every background, can access the cultural experiences that make our city what it is.

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¹ State of NYC Dance 2023: Findings from the Dance Industry Census. https://hub.dance.nyc/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/State-of-NYC-Dance-2023-Report-FINAL-23_12_11_ACC.pdf

² The Social Wellbeing of New York City’s Neighborhoods: The Contribution of Culture and The Arts. https://repository.upenn.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/d7531a8f-f046-497f-aa37-494486d98cf4/content

³ Center for an Urban Future, Big Ideas to Help NYC Thrive in a Post-Pandemic Economy https://nycfuture.org/research/big-ideas-to-help-nyc-thrive

⁴ State of NYC Dance 2016 & Workforce Demographics 2016. https://www.dance.nyc/uploads/State%20of%20NYC%20Dance%20and%20Workforce%20Demographics%20Online%20Version.pdf 

⁵ Office of the New York City Comptroller (2019). The Creative Economy: Art, Culture and Creativity in New York  City. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/the-creative-economy/ 

⁶ Office of the New York State Comptroller (2021). Arts, Entertainment and Recreation in New York City Recent Trends and Impact of COVID-19.

⁷ NYC Public Schools Arts in Schools Report 2024-2025.

⁸ Americans for the Arts. Arts Education Navigator: Facts and Figures.

⁹ Arts in Schools Report, 2024-2025.

¹⁰  National Dance Education Organization. Evidence: A Report on the Impact of Dance in the K-12 Setting (2013).

¹¹ Office of the New York City Comptroller (2024). Spotlight: New York City’s Rental Housing Market. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/spotlight-new-york-citys-rental-housing-market/

¹²  Paying for Professionalism 2025: Teaching Artist Compensation & Employment Report

¹³ Center for an Urban Future, Creative New York 2025.

¹⁴ Department of Education - Arts Education Report 2024