DDA Artist Residency

2021-2022 Application Details and Review Rubric


Table of Contents


Eligibility Requirements

Applicants are eligible to apply if they:

  • Identify as a disabled dance artist and/or integrated dance company led by people with disabilities;
  • Are based (reside) in the United States; and
  • Provide a copy of their U.S. IRS Determination letter, which proves the entity's 501(c)(3) designation or tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code Section 170(c)(1), or proof of fiscal sponsorship. For details on how to become fiscally sponsored, please visit Dance.NYC.

Disabled dance artists or integrated dance companies led by people with disabilities, regardless of disability, are invited to apply. Dance/NYC will prioritize self-identification. No artist will be required to provide verification of their impairment in the application.

Disabled dance artists and integrated dance companies led by people with disabilities are encouraged to apply if they are a current or past grantee of Dance/NYC and/or the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, or if they have not previously been funded by Dance/NYC or any of these organizations.

Applicants are not eligible to apply if they are:

  • An individual artist who does not identify as disabled, or a dance ensemble that is not led by disabled dance artists;
  • An individual artist without a fiscal sponsor;
  • An organization that is not focused on the creation and/or performance of dance; 
  • An organization for which dance therapy is a primary function;
  • An organization for which arts education is a primary function;
  • Based (reside) outside of the United States;
  • An educational institution;
  • A producer;
  • A presenter;
  • A festival;
  • A service organization.

The program’s goals are artistic, and applicants with primarily therapeutic or educational goals will not be competitive.


Funding Priorities and Review Rubric

Review Criteria:

The review panel will evaluate applications based on the following criteria:

  • Clear artistic vision and artistic excellence as defined by applicants. Dance/NYC uses Animating Democracy’s Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change as a foundational resource to assess artistic vision and excellence;
  • A well-articulated narrative for how the residency will help advance the artistic practice of the applicant; and
  • A willingness to engage in ongoing learning/professional development and to share learnings within a cohort of grantees. 

Priority in grant selection will be given to applicants who:

  • Demonstrate artistic excellence and potential to benefit from a residency;
  • Demonstrate a commitment to justice and equity; 
  • Are based (residing) in the metropolitan New York City area, including the five boroughs of New York City, as well as Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester counties in New York State, and Bergen and Hudson counties in New Jersey; and
  • A grantee pool that:
    • is representative of a wide area of demographic identities. The review panel will consider the role that historically marginalized groups—including African, Latina/o/x, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA), LGBTQ+, women-identifying, gender nonconforming and/or nonbinary, and immigrant artists—play within the applicant pool and wider dance field. For information on Dance/NYC’s values and commitments on justice, equity, and inclusion, please visit Dance.NYC/equity/values; and
    • reflects a diversity of dance making genres and artistic perspectives.

Dance/NYC’s goal in focusing on the metropolitan New York City area is to foremost support the disability dance community in Dance/NYC’s area of operation while simultaneously recognizing that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to the migration of many dance artists. Dance/NYC’s aim in considering demographics as a selection criterion is to address misalignments highlighted by Dance/NYC research, in particular, racial homogeneity in the dance workforce1, lack of representation of disabled dance leadership in dance making organizations and groups in the metropolitan area2, and a lack of income for immigrant artists3 (According to 2020 Census data, the New York City population is approximately 69% ALAANA. Census Data from the 2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates suggests that the New York City population is 11% disabled, 52% female, and 37% foreign-born. Source: US Census Bureau American FactFinder 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates).

Footnotes:

1. State of NYC Dance & Workforce Demographics 2016 (Dance.NYC/StateofDance2016)
2. Defining “Small-Budget” Dance Makers in a Changing Dance Ecology (Dance.NYC/SBDMdata2020)
3. Advancing Immigrants. Dance. Arts. (Dance.NYC/IDAData2019)

Review Process:

As an underlying tenet of its equity and inclusion work, Dance/NYC embraces the concept of “Nothing Without Us”: no program or policy should be formed without the full, direct involvement of those impacted. To that end, grantees will be selected by a review panel of seven (7) dance workers, including Laurel Lawson, Rose Tree Production; a representative from Gibney; members of Dance/NYC’s task forces and committees; and additional candidates Dance/NYC identifies with majority participation by disabled dance workers.

Panelists will be selected for:

  • Their lived and learned expertise in disability arts and creating, performing, funding, and/ or presenting dance in the metropolitan NYC area; 
  • Alignment with Dance/NYC’s justice, equity, and inclusion values; and
  • Their demographic representation of the local population. Dance/NYC seeks a panel that is majority African, Latina/o/x, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA), is majority women-identifying and and gender nonconforming/nonbinary/genderqueer and transgender, majority disabled across a range of disabilities and/or impairments, and includes immigrant artists.

All panelists are:

  • Trained prior to engaging in the review of applications;
  • Must adhere to confidentiality and conflict of interest policies; and
  • Compensated for their time. 

No panelist can be an applicant. Panelists will have the ability to make recommendations for the final slate of grantees, but exercise no oversight function with regard to Dance/NYC as an entity. Dance/NYC does not have a vote in the grantee deliberation process, but will make final determinations


Application Process

Dance/NYC is using an online application portal (dance.nyc.submittable.com). Before completing the application form, interested applicants are asked to first complete a series of questions to determine baseline eligibility. If eligible, applicants will be prompted to complete the application.

To support prospective applicants, Dance/NYC has created an application guide, which includes a full overview of all application questions and required attachments. Dance/NYC estimates applicants may need approximately 2-5 hours to complete their application, if they already have work samples available.

Complete applications must be submitted online no later than 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, October 31, 2021. Incomplete applications, hard copy submissions, and applications received after the October 31 deadline will not be considered.

Eligible applicants who submit completed applications will receive a modest honorarium of $100 in recognition of the labor and resources required to participate in the application process, regardless of the outcome of their application.

START YOUR APPLICATION


Timeline

 
Call for proposals release August 19, 2021

Virtual Technical Assistance Hours


Additional sessions may be made available at a later date

20-minute sessions

40-minute session

Deadline for submission Sunday, October 31, 2021, 11:59 p.m. EST
Panel review November 2021
Participant notification November 2021
Grantee announcement December 2021
Grantee Orientation Webinar* &
Opening Cohort Meeting*
Week of December 6, 2021
Residency Period* December 13, 2021 to
February 26, 2022
Closing Cohort Meeting* Week of February 28,
2022
Deadline for submission of
Final Report
March 11, 2022

* Required for all award recipients

Poster for the Stone Soup Dance Festival with photos of dancers, listing dates and times for workshops and performances.

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