Dance/NYC #ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers Conversation Series August 4 – Dance as Dignified Labor

New York – Dance/NYC moves into the final two weeks of the twelve-part Facebook Live Conversation Series with arts workers from across the arts and culture sector. These discussions highlight the importance of the arts ecology, point to current challenges and offer considerations on our way forward as a field. This series is a part of #ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers, a new online and social media campaign dedicated to the acknowledgement, representation and integration of dance and arts workers into the decision-making processes that will envision the future for New York City post-pandemic. The series launched successfully on Thursday, May 21, 2020, and will continue to take place every Tuesday from 5:30 – 7:00pm ET through August 4, 2020 on Dance/NYC’s Facebook Page.

Upcoming dates include:
Tuesday, July 28, 2020 | 5:30pm – 7:00pm
Tuesday, August 4, 2020 | 5:30pm – 7:00pm

What’s Next for Festivals? | July 28, 2020, 5:30pm-7:00pm
Join Dance/NYC in a discussion on the festival model, its significant role in dance presentation and its viability moving forward, with Pamela Tatge, Executive & Artistic Director, Jacob’s Pillow; Karesia Batan, Executive Director, Queensboro Dance Festival; Stanford Makishi, Vice President for Programming, New York City Center; and Denise Roberts Hurlin, Founding Director, Dancers Responding to AIDS. 

Dance as Dignified Labor | August 4, 2020, 5:30pm-7:00pm
Join Dance/NYC as we round out the #ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers series and circle back to our initial prompt – that dance work is labor that should be valued. Since our campaign launched on May 14th the world has shaken and in that upheaval even more emphasis has been placed on arts workers across disciplines to lead change. For this final conversation, we hear from speakers across this ecology about the shifts that they have witnessed or instigated and how we can continue to advocate for #danceasdignifiedlabor as a field. Speakers include Alejandra Duque Cifuentes, Executive Director, Dance/NYC; Gonzalo Casals, Commissioner, Department of Cultural Affairs; Sheila Lewandowski, Executive Director, The Chocolate Factory Theater; Cliff Matais, Cultural Director, Redhawk Native American Arts Council; Courtney J. Cook, Performer, Bold Facilitator, Co-Rehearsal Director with Urban Bush Women, Performer with MBDance, Mover, Visual Artist, Vocalist, and Creative Collaborator; and Georgina Pazcoguin, NYCB Soloist, Co-Founder A Final Bow for Yellowface.

“Dance/NYC is grateful to our community for being active participants in these fruitful conversations over the past two and a half months,” said Candace Thompson-Zachery, manager of justice, equity and inclusion initiatives. “Especially at a time when there is so much about our dance ecosystem that must be reconsidered. These discussions are just one step towards a more equitable field – where the work that dance workers do is understood as central to our humanity.”

#ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers Campaign Video   
More than 150 videos were received from a cross-section of dance workers in all disciplines from choreographer to educator to administrator to fundraiser to be used in the campaign, including Alice Sheppard, Andrea Miller, Donald Borror, Eduardo Vilaro, Ephrat Asherie, Herman Cornejo, Josh Prince, Lane Harwell, Maleek Washington, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Mark Morris, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, among many others. Full list available here.

Artists serve New York City at every level: leading tourism, strengthening education, fueling the economy, and ensuring our health, wellness and imaginations. With this in mind, Dance/NYC has initiated a series of actions to highlight the importance of arts workers; build and amplify solidarity as a dance community and across the arts sector; and reimagine a world that is just, equitable, inclusive, and abundant.

For reimagining our world
For moving toward an equitable future
For celebrating our diverse cultures
For maintaining our humanity
For strengthening education
For caring for our families
For fueling our economy
For showing the beauty of movement
For sustaining our emotional health
For demanding justice
For rebuilding New York City
As a dignified workforce
#ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers.

To learn more about why Dance/NYC is advocating for arts workers visit:
bit.ly/ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers
Dance/NYC’s mission is to promote the knowledge, appreciation, practice, and performance of dance in the metropolitan New York City area. It embeds values of justice, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the organization. It works in alliance with Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance. Dance/NYC serves a wide variety of constituents: 5,000+ individual dance artists, 1,200+ dance-making entities, 500+ nonprofit dance companies, general public and visitors to New York, students, educators, and researchers, public and private funders, and government and civic leaders. For more information, visit www.dance.nyc.