DDP EXPANDS AND RE-RELEASES ITS FIRST STUDY ON NUMBER OF DANCERS BY COMPANY IN RESPONSE TO STRONG COMMUNITY INTEREST– SPEARHEADED BY RETURNING RESEARCH LEAD JENNA MAGRATH
Northfield, IL | December 15, 2025 | Dance Data Project® (DDP) today releases its Number of Dancers By Company Report, now expanded to include the current 2025-2026 rosters, following significant engagement and requests for deeper analysis from across the dance community. This newly expanded edition reflects collective feedback from the field and coincides with the return of DDP Research Lead Jenna Magrath, whose leadership guided the project’s broader scope and enhanced methodology.
“Our research evolves directly from the conversations we have within the field,” said Research Lead Jenna Magrath. She continued, “The number of dancers project was developed in response to community curiosity, and its expansion emerged from the same place. When people tell us they want deeper, clearer, more contextualized data, we listen—and we build.”
The Number of Dancers By Company Report is the first publication to analyze dancer counts for the Largest 150 U.S. Ballet and Classically Based Companies ranked by FY 2023 expenditure, highlighting how company size by expenditure relates to total dancer numbers. This expanded version offers a fuller picture of how companies define and classify dancers, revealing that some include students in their trainee counts, which increases overall numbers. While most apprentices are official company members, confusion can arise when terms like trainee and apprentice are used interchangeably or when students are classified as apprentices or trainees. By examining these classifications, the report provides a nuanced understanding of how definitions influence public perception, resource allocation, organizational structure, and comparisons across companies.
Across FY 2023’s Largest 150 companies, DDP sourced dancer counts—including both employed dancers and trainees—for 116 companies in 2022, 119 in 2023, 122 in 2024, and 142 in 2025. Full verification across all categories was possible for 68% of the 116 companies in 2022, 79% of the 119 companies in 2023, 83% of the 122 companies in 2024, and 78% of the 142 companies in 2025.
In the 2025–2026 and 2024–2025 seasons, the average number of main company dancers remained relatively consistent across company-size tiers. The Largest 50 averaged 30 dancers in 2025–2026, 31 in 2024–2025, and 30 in both 2023–2024 and 2022–2023. The Largest 10 averaged 58 dancers in both 2025–2026 and 2024– 2025, compared with 56 and 57 in the two preceding seasons. The Next 50 averaged 18 dancers in 2025–2026 and 2024–2025, up from 17 and 16 in the earlier seasons. In the Additional 50, averages increased to 12 dancers in 2025–2026 and 2024– 2025, compared with 11 in 2023–2024 and 2022–2023.
Across the 2024–2025 through 2022–2023 seasons, the share of companies employing 20 or more main company dancers was 42%, 44%, 43%, and 40%, respectively. Companies with 10 or more main company dancers comprised 83%, 85%, 86%, and 87% across those same seasons. Within the Largest 50, Ballet Hispánico, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and Alonzo King LINES Ballet continued to employ fewer dancers than the mean, averaging 14, 13, and 13 dancers respectively across three seasons. In contrast, within the Next 50, Fort Wayne Ballet, Dance Alive National Ballet, and Ballet Theatre of Maryland maintained significantly higher- than-average dancer counts, averaging 32, 31, and 34 dancers, respectively.
“These insights demonstrate how differently companies are organized and how those structures affect dancers’ lives,” said Liza Yntema, DDP President & Founder. She continued, “Understanding the reality of how companies operate—artistically, financially, and organizationally—is essential to building a more equitable and sustainable future for the field.”
Beginning in January, DDP will share updated season analyses, compensation findings, and leadership data across ballet, contemporary, and modern genres. Early 2026 will bring new reports on ballet school leadership, global artistic leadership patterns, and resident choreographer appointments. Spring and summer will focus on the Largest 150 reports across multiple genres, followed by leadership, compensation, and revenue reports later in the year. The cycle concludes with refreshed analyses of choreographic competitions, fellowships, and leadership changes across the industry. Together, these publications reflect DDP’s long-term commitment to rigorous, transparent, and community-responsive research. DDP will announce its planned 2026 research calendar in January.
The expanded Number of Dancers By Company Report is available for download on the Dance Data Project® Research Page.
(Note: FY 2023 rankings were utilized, as many companies have not yet published their FY 2024 990s.)
