TESTIMONY
Candace Thompson-Zachery, Co-Executive Director of Dance/NYC, on the Vital Role of Dance Workers and the Need for Investment in NYC's Dance Community
4:33:29
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148 sec
Thompson-Zachery testifies on the significance of NYC's dance community, which generates $300 million in economic activity and encompasses diverse roles like performers, educators, and cross-sector workers.
- She highlights dance workers' impact on communities through developing social-emotional skills, cultural awareness, and confidence in youth.
- Thompson-Zachery notes dance workers are innovators building artistic practices that influence stages locally and commercially.
- She paints a challenging picture facing the dance community due to hostile conditions for arts pursuits, funding changes, housing costs, and pandemic impacts.
- Thompson-Zachery underscores the need for NYC to invest in and support the dance community through budget increases and restoring recent cultural funding cuts.
- She advocates for a $76 million budget addition and restoration of cuts to CDF and CIGs to provide stability and recognition of dance's value.
Candace Thompson-Zachery
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Greetings.
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My name is Kenneth Thompson Zachary.
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Sheerher pronouns, and I'm the co executive director of Danson Y.
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C.
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A service organization dedicated to the dance industry in the New York City metro area.
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The dance community is a mean and mighty group representing 300,000,000 in economic activity that includes dance performers, choreographers, directors, educators, administrators, musicians for dance, and the list keeps going.
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Our dance leaders play such a critical role in our communities, working with our young people to develop social and emotional skills embedding cultural awareness and appreciation, and building confidence in their physical bodies.
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In our arts and culture sector, our dance workers are the innovators, building strong artistic practices and genre bending dance work that has ripple effects on local, indie, large, and commercial stages.
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Today's dance graduate is tomorrow's Camilla Brown.
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Dance workers are working with elders, creating room for their wisdom, keeping them agile, and socially connected.
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And lastly, they are working across sectors as nurses, fitness trainers, massage therapists, waiters, hosts, upholding the very fabric of our service industry's as they bring beauty to this world.
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And yet, this city is becoming increasingly hostile to the pursuit of a life in the arts.
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The anchor that keeps most of our dance workers here and that keeps dance alive as an art form.
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They could choose to be anywhere but they come for the chance to be a part of a legendary arts ecosystem.
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And now between the inflationary costs, continued changes in funding and affordable housing crisis and the existing shortfalls of the social safety net since most of our workers are independent.
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We said that pant in the pandemic that culture stays, but even culture has a breaking point.
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Earned revenue in dance is down across the country.
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Our workers are working upwards of 4 jobs and weekends meet.
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Our small organizations, the majority of which are under 500 k are taking out loans, going into debt, or closing shop altogether because they can no longer afford to make it work.
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The city's investment is critical to provide stability to these organizations.
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And moreover, give the acknowledgement that, yes, dance does matter to New York City and that, yes, despite the hardship, I can count on my city government to be an exemplary investor in the arts.
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I'm here to support the $76,000,000 addition to the budget and underscoring the need for restoration of both the 2425 cuts to both CDF and CIGs.
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Thank you.
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Sheila Lewandowski, Executive Director of Chocolate Factory Theater, on Increased Funding for Arts and Culture in New York City to Support the City's Recovery
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Melody Capote, Executive Director of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, on Inequities in City Funding for Arts and Cultural Organizations Serving Communities of Color
