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30th Anniversary Year Timeline

January	Dance Forum The 2012 Dance Forum took place on January 6 at the Hilton New York in New York, NY. The event was a prelude to the annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The theme of this year’s Dance Forum was ‘Residencies In Dance’. Ten speakers contributed unique perspectives and presented research on the state of residencies in the dance community. The Dance Forum raised awareness of the value of and lack of funding for dance residencies. To discover residencies in dance, check out the Alliance of Artistic Communities’ comprehensive listings. Launch of National Leadership Council on Dance The National Leadership Council for Dance (NLCD) campaign was launched in January 2012 to coincide with Dance/USA’s 30th Anniversary. The NLCD is a group of highly recognized patrons of dance who wish to support and advance the field of professional dance in the United States while continuing to support local dance. Fifteen Founding Members joined the NLDC before July 1. Founding Members received the benefit of access to the NLCD House Seat program. The House Seat Program offers Founding Members the opportunity to purchase house seats from participating Dance/USA member companies and presenting organizations. Dance/USA is very grateful to the companies participating in the House Seat program.
February	Launch of Dance/USA Institute for Leadership Training 2012 In response to a successful Mentorship Pilot program in 2011, American Express has generously continued funding for Dance/USA's Institute for Leadership Training throughout the organization's 30th Anniversary year. The program expanded to include 12 pairs of mentors and mentees (up from 8 pairs during the pilot year) and several guest speakers for the pre-conference Leadership Training Seminar among other improvements. Dance/USA received an overwhelming number of applicants for the Institute for Leadership Training and was thrilled to launch the program with an excellent group of emerging and established leaders. Read more about the program and check out this year’s mentors and mentees.
March	Engaging Dance Audiences Launches Round Two In December 2011, Dance/USA received a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to renew Engaging Dance Audiences (EDA). Through this three-year, $1,748,000 award Dance/USA will continue the EDA program with a second round of research. During Round Two, Dance/USA http://www.danceusa.org/repositorywill accelerate its efforts to share the results from Round One, and support its members in implementing new audience engagement practices within their own companies and communities. In March, Dance/USA built partnerships with Gibney Dance Center in NYC and ODC in San Francisco to host its first-ever Learning Exchanges, events to share the learning from EDA Round One with members and the field at large. Eight Round One Grantees sign onto the effort in March, and shape new content and tools so that peers can adapt their projects. Read the full press release.
April	Dance/UP Five Year Anniversary On April 17, 2012 Dance/UP celebrated it's 5th Birthday at the Society of Colonial Dames in Philadelphia. Over 200 members of the Philadelphia arts and culture community and national guests attended. The weather was perfect, the food and wine were wonderful and the white azaleas were in bloom. Amy Fitterer, Executive Director of Dance/USA, addressed the crowd and congratulated the staff of Dance/Up on all of their accomplishments. The event was coordinated with Dance/Up's annual Philadelphia Dance Showcase. Take a look at Dance/Up’s website. Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, DC Dance/USA served as a national co-sponsor for Arts Advocacy Day 2012. The event took place in Washington, DC on April 16-17. The event brought together a broad cross section of America’s cultural and civic organizations, along with more than 500 grassroots advocates from 40 states across the country, to underscore the importance of developing strong public policies and appropriating increased public funding for the arts. Alec Baldwin delivered the 25th Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy which was intended to stimulate discussion of policy and social issues affecting the arts. View videos from Arts Advocacy Day on the Americans for the Arts Website.
May	NYC Engaging Dance Audiences Learning Exchange Dance/USA hosted two Learning Exchanges in 2012. The first was in New York, on May 13, at the Gibney Dance Center. Dance/USA members and others from the field attended this all-day professional development event in order to learn about audience engagement methods. Grantees from Round One were on hand to share the results of their projects, and guide attendees in adapting methods for their own audiences and communities. Travel subsidies allowed participation from those who otherwise would not be able to attend. The event was videotaped, so that others could access this knowledge; videos are available through the Dance/USA website and on our YouTube and Vimeo pages. View the content from the Learning Exchanges and the EDA Vimeo album.
June	30^th Anniversary Conference in San Francisco The Dance/USA 2012 Annual Conference held June 27-30 in San Francisco was a resounding success. With more than 500 attendees, the conference brought together artists, administrators, agents, presenters and others involved in the field of dance to address pressing topics facing the field today. Featuring a new “campus style” format, conference sessions were held in multiple arts venues, providing the opportunity for attendees to entrench themselves in the local dance scene. More than 50 speakers and 20 educational sessions made up the conference program, allowing for in-depth exploration of topics and extensive networking. Key conference themes that emerged and will continue to evolve and be discussed include diversity, technology, and collaboration. View the 2012 Conference website. San Francisco Learning Exchange The final Learning Exchange took place at ODC Theater, in San Francisco, in conjunction with the annual conference. A group of about 55 members, including artists and administrators, were joined by others from the dance field at this professional development event. Similarly to the first Learning Exchange, grantees from Round One shared the results of their projects, and guided attendees in adapting methods for their own audiences and communities. Travel subsidies allowed participation from those who otherwise would not be able to attend. Dance/USA Institute for Leadership Training Seminar The Institute for Leadership Training Seminar marked the official beginning of Dance/USA's 2012 Institute for Leadership Training. Accepted mentors and mentees gathered for a full-day pre-conference session which included several guest speakers. Presenters included Cookie Ruiz of Ballet Austin, Jen Edwards of JenEd Productions, and Kaisha Johnson of Women of Color in the Arts, among others. Participants gained additional insight about how to make the most of their upcoming mentorship journey, and also about how to exercise consistent, positive leadership in their organizations.
July	Spotlight on Members Campaign Begins To celebrate its 30^th Anniversary, Dance/USA is nationally recognizing its members who renewed for the 2012-13 membership year prior to July 1, 2012. Up to 30 Spotlight on Members interviews will be published nationally to the Dance/USA membership via special e-blasts and website updates. Members were selected at random and will be interviewed during the month of August for a series of Spotlight on Members to be published in early fall 2012.
August	Costume and Set Repository Last year Dance/USA began building a digital Costume and Set Repository to facilitate costume and set rentals between members. As members continue to submit their listings, we are beginning to update the extensive list of rentable productions. Dance/USA is thrilled to see the network expand. View the current Repository and download the corresponding forms.
September	National Leadership Council on Dance Founding members of Dance/USA’s new National Leadership Council for Dance (NLCD) convened in Washington Sept. 19-21 for its first gathering. The NLCD was launched in January 2012 as a way for individuals from across the country to learn about the issues facing the field, share information, and raise the visibility of professional dance. For more information, contact Vicki Kimble, director of development, at 202.833.1717, ext. 103 or vkimble@danceusa.org.
October	Dance/USA's Executive Director, Amy Fitterer, has been "on the road", meeting with members and attending key dance events. Her first stop was in Miami where she presented financial trends in the dance field on a panel at the Grantmakers in the Arts Conference, participated in the first-ever CDP National Forum, and visited with Miami City Ballet's new Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez. Second stop was Milwaukee where Amy visited with Milwaukee Ballet. During the visit, she connected with Milwaukee Ballet's Board members, toured their facilities, and connected with the Education Department staff. She also watched the world premiere of MB's new ballet, La Boheme, to a standing ovation. Finally, her travels wrapped up on Ottawa, Canada where Amy attended Dance/USA's sister organization's conference, the Canadian Dance Assembly. She also engaged in discussions with Canadian dance company managers, heard presentations on pluralism in dance in Canada, and attended the first National Canadian Dance Awards.