Largest 50 U.S. Contemporary and Modern Dance Companies
October 05th, 2021
July 31st: Community Engagement Artists and Creatives Grant, December 31st: New England Presenter Travel Fund, December 31st: Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Scholarship, December 31st: 24 Seven Dance Convention, December 31st: National Theater Project Presenter Travel Grant, December 31st: Breck Creek Artist-in-Residence Program
×October 05th, 2021
This Report expands the scope of Dance Data Project®’s research to examine, for the first time, the largest U.S. contemporary and modern dance companies. Past research by Dance Data Project® (DDP) has examined various aspects of the dance industry with a lens of gender equity, including leadership and programming at the largest ballet companies, dance festivals, venues presenting dance, and more. This is DDP’s first study which explicitly looks at contemporary and modern dance companies.
The Report finds that the Largest 50 U.S. contemporary and modern dance companies operated with aggregate expenses of about $150 million in fiscal year 2019. For context, in the same year, the Largest 50 U.S. ballet companies operated with aggregate expenses of about $664 million, showing an extreme disparity in available resources.
The Report also shows the even gender distribution of current Artistic Directors at the Largest 50 U.S. contemporary and modern dance companies (50% women and 50% men), as well as the gender distribution of company founders (54% women and 46% men), and the average age of companies (37 years).