2026 Largest Contemporary and Modern Dance Companies Report
August 28th, 2026
This is the fifth report ranking U.S. contemporary and modern dance companies by their fiscal year expenditure. This is the second year that the Largest 150 U.S. contemporary and modern dance companies has been examined, providing an opportunity for direct comparisons at our maximum scope of analysis.
For the 2026 report, DDP researched 229 contemporary and/or modern dance companies, 211 of which are nonprofit organizations. Of the 211 nonprofit companies, DDP found FY 2024 data for 189 companies before finalizing the Largest 150. Report Lead Junyla Silmon notes, “With each new report, DDP dives deeper into the contemporary and modern dance sector to present the most comprehensive and transparent financial picture possible. While most new companies have been discovered from news publications, company websites, and social media, a growing number are contacting DDP directly for report inclusion, which highlights our expanding reach into the contemporary and modern dance industry. The economic assessments presented in this ranking report are meant to serve companies of all levels, and the more dialogue that occurs between DDP and the dance field, the better our research can encapsulate the financial conditions shaping the sector as a whole.”
Note: This is not a subjective ranking of companies based on aesthetics, contribution to their communities, abilities, cultural impact or integrity of an organization’s work, but rather an objective study based on their economic contribution to the contemporary and modern sector of the dance economy.
For the sixth consecutive fiscal year, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater ranked #1 based on annual expenditure. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is also ranked #3 in DDP’s upcoming 2026 Largest Ballet & Classically Based Companies report. The rest of the largest 5 consist of Mark Morris Dance Group, Gibney Company, ODC/Dance, and Paul Taylor Dance Company.
In FY 2024, the Largest 150 U.S. contemporary and modern dance companies operated with a total aggregate expenditure of $222,502,523. From FY 2023 to FY 2024, aggregate expenditure for the Largest 150 companies increased by $15,630,011, or 7.56%. Aggregate revenue for the Largest 150 contemporary and modern dance companies rose 23.47% from FY 2023 to FY 2024, from $181,158,749 to $223,683,303. On a consistent Largest 125 basis, FY 2024 revenue is only 0.36% above FY 2022, and among the Largest 50, revenue sits 2.77% below its FY 2022 level. FY 2024 expenditure for the Largest 125 is 22.65% higher than FY 2022, and expenditure for the Largest 50 across the same time period rose 18.11%.
The FY 2024 Largest 150 companies by expenditure generated a total revenue of $223,512,771, ending the year in a cumulative surplus of $1,010,248. However, the majority of companies finished in a deficit for the second consecutive year. In FY 2024, 44.0% of the Largest 150 companies finished with a surplus (down from 46.0% in FY 2023), and 56.0% finished in a deficit (up from 53.3% in FY 2023). Among the 66 companies that reported a FY 2024 surplus, the median surplus equaled 10.59% of that company’s own annual expenditure. Among the 84 companies with deficits, the median shortfall equaled 11.10% of annual expenditure.
DDP continues to evaluate the economic divide between the largest ballet and contemporary and modern dance companies to better understand the relative financial structures and operating conditions of both sectors. In FY 2024, DDP determined that the Largest 150 ballet and classically based companies’ total expenditure of $885,293,266 was 3.98x larger than the Largest 150 contemporary and modern dance companies’ combined expenditure of $222,502,523.
Figure 1: FY 2024 Largest 150 Ballet vs. Largest 150 Contemporary and Modern Adjusted Expenditure
* / ** Note: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, BalletCollective, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and PHILADANCO! are ranked in both the ballet and contemporary and modern dance reports – the removal and replacement of these companies from both reports demonstrates an increased financial disparity between the sectors.
“This isn’t a single bad year. It’s the structural reality of a field running on almost no financial margin,” notes DDP’s Research Lead, Isaac A. Garcia. “American dance produces extraordinary creative work on an increasingly fragile foundation, where a handful of institutions hold most of the resources and the majority of companies run deficits just to keep the curtain up. Measuring that gap, in dollars and in opportunity, is why we do this work.”
DDP’s President and Founder Elizabeth (Liza) Yntema comments, “Dance Data Project keeps going deeper with each report. We work incredibly hard every year to conduct ever more exhaustive outreach, refine our research protocols and provide essential information to the entire performing arts sector. This report, and the upcoming ballet ranking report, serve as pillars of data based insights into where performing arts stand in the US, but also as essential proof points for imagining a more equitable, locally based arts economy.”
