Resources for Dancers in the Modern World

In a previous post, I spoke briefly about how information in the dance world is exchanged almost exclusively by word of mouth. So, as a dancer navigates the field and builds a career, the pool of resources grows. Dancers learn from teachers, from fellow dancers, from dance media like exploredance.com, and the various Dance Magazine publications, and to a surprising extent, from social media.

So I think that more experienced dancers have a responsibility, now that the internet has provided us with a more efficient way of exchanging information in a way that is so similar to the one we know and rely upon, word of mouth, to provide other dancers with information about the resources we discover.

In this post I'd like to focus on one resource that has changed my career: dancenyc.org. The Dance/NYC organization website provides a forum on which auditions, internships, and administrative opportunities are posted. This is where I got hooked, as a young Ailey school student, searching for audition opportunities. But lately, as I've started to write about dance as well (I write reviews for exploredance.com, as well as write passionately about dance, dancers and dance health here on this blog) and have begun to rely upon Dance/NYC Events as a way of meeting and hearing from leaders in the field.

From a journalistic point of view, especially in terms of travel journalism, dance is an unexplored and fascinating subject. And organization websites like Dance/NYC not only provide information about local audition opportunities, but also provide the backbone for credible research for local dance journalism. Dance/NYC has, for the last few years, begun conducting annual research on numbers that previously went unacknowledged. Numbers like audience increases, ticket sales, and number of tours; also less hopeful numbers. The number of unemployed dancers. The percentage of employed dancers who work outside of dance in order to support themselves. This information is, for the dance journalist, an invaluable resource.

It's also an important resource for dancers themselves. Because it's important to know how many of us are struggling. How many companies are struggling. It's important for us to know not only where the opportunities may be found, but also what they may entail. Because the economics of this business aren't what they used to be. And we need all the information we can get.