Useful Links
Dance Advocacy and Activism Across the Region
Massachusetts Cultural Council: Join their email list!
MassCreative: Arts advocacy throughout the Commonwealth
Artists Under the Dome/MALC: Advocacy at the State House for artists, by artists including their new recommendations for improving the working conditions of artists across the sector
New England Foundation for the Arts and CreativeGround
Americans for the Arts Lobbying and news at the federal level, especially good on arts education
Proceedings of Configurations in Motion: Performance Curation and Communities of Color
Coalition of Diasporan Moving Scholars
Webinars on artistic activism –– how do you know your work creates change?
Dance Education
National Dance Education Organization and its local affiliate MADEO
Creative Youth Development, a consortium that includes the Massachusetts Cultural Council and has an email list
Online course for teaching artists
Arts/Learning, support for arts in Massachusetts public education
Amazing digital representations of human anatomy useful for dancers, body workers and more
Rights and Business Information You Can Use
Pentacle Next Steps has compiled an amazing and comprehensive series of free business-oriented webinars and documents
Pay Rate Calculator for teaching artists.
FormsPal provides free high-quality legal templates and information online
Standards for touring contract negotiations for touring dance groups
- Dance/USA Standardization Document
- General Tech Rider Prototype
- Hotel Questionnaire
- Sample Tour Book
A Life in Dance, new book. by Rebecca Stenn and Fran Kirmser. While most of the artists are based in New York, there’s clear applicability to the topics they cover (got student debt? teach in the schools? live project to project? ) with personal narratives by artists.
Soft Skills in Dance, a guide to practice by a European consortium
Legal advice from our partners the Arts and Business Council, say BDA sent you.
Massachusetts Society of CPAs (Find a CPA for your needs/in your area)
Art and Taxes is a site developed to address the tax needs of artists of all disciplines. Great resources for free!
Artists in the gig economy: what’s right for you?
Artist2Artist production cost calculator
401 (k) retirement programs for small (<20) nonprofits.
Music rights demystified, from Dance/USA
Royalty free music, especially good for virtual events, is at Pond5 and Freemusicarchive
Copyright and fair use for dancers, from Dance/USA
Work of Art tool kit from Minnesota based Springboard for the Arts
Determining your artist fee, from Creative Capital
Getting over your fear of Wikipedia, from Creative Capital
Writing a realistic grant budget, from Creative Capital
Choosing the best work sample for your application, from Creative Capital
Crowdfunding ideas from Leeway Foundation
CreateEquity podcast on issues of business and arts careers
Courses from Creative Study
Example of a good technical rider, from American Dance Abroad
Need health insurance for yourself or your dancers? In Massachusetts, contact the helpline at the advocacy organization Healthcare for All and Healthcare for Artists
Information on insurance in this guide. Insurance for Nonprofits — competitive rates (but remember you don’t need to go to a specialized broker for most things)
Some BDA members have dance teacher’s liability insurance through Alternative Balance or Philadelphia Insurance
Artists Rights primer on issues of censorship, privacy and more
With the Artist Legacy Toolkit and new Ask an Archivist free phone and online service from Dance/USA and the Dance Heritage Coalition, you have a road map to preserving your dance-related materials from paper records to videos (including in obsolete formats).
Estate planning for artists in all disciplines
Design Your Personal Brand in 3 Steps Artists & Creatives and Your Personal Brand as an Artist webinar from Americans for the Arts
Making Your Life as an Artist from Artists U
Podcast on budgeting for artists from the College Art Association, information pertinent to dancers too
Marketing for Artists 101 from National Arts Marketing Project
Dance jobs self-assessment (consider many elements to create your dance job portfolio, since almost none will provide a full-time income)
Presenting Art in the City of Boston including rules for public events. You can also schedule time to meet with the city’s Artist Resource Manager.
Putting together a work sample to go with your application? Review this helpful guide from Creative Capital.
Dance and Eating Disorders
An overview article describing warning signs and resources. Don’t be too proud to get the help you need.
Dance and Disability (check out our page)
A huge bibliography by BDA Executive Director Debra Cash and Jo Verrant of Unlimited in the UK, currently managed by AXIS Dance Company
National Endowment for the Arts 2017 report on career opportunities for artists with disabilities
Links from Midatlantic Arts
VSA ART of MA serves individuals with disabilities by creating opportunities for participation in the arts and integration into the cultural and educational mainstream of our communities.
Resources to Help Ensure Accessibility of Your Virtual Events for People with Disabilities to help you create inclusive classes, workshops, performances, and more during the pandemic when so much is being shared over digital devices and to create the foundation for inclusive practices going forward.
The Communications Network has also created an accessibility checklist to make sure your virtual event is accessible.
Planning a special performance for audiences with sensory sensitivities? Share the information on the BDA website here and also send the information to our friends at the The Asperger / Autism Network (AANE) so that they can share this information with potential audience members!
Resources on Sexual Harassment, Abuse & Discrimination in Dance (National services)
Disrupting Dance is a free online self-directed course offering information and tools for dancers, performers, and adjacent professionals to work more safely together. This toolkit was designed to support dancers and dance institutions in addressing sexism, exploitation, abuse, ableism, white supremacy, toxic capitalism, and more in the workplace.
The Actors Fund New York: 917-281-5919 intakeny@actorsfund.org Provides free, confidential counseling, support, and legal referrals to all professionals in performing arts and entertainment.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 1-800-669-4000
Responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an
employee based on their protected class. File a complaint against an employer online or over the phone.
The website also contains information on the law and employee rights.
RAINN 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline and provides resources
and advocacy for sexual assault victims. Call the main number and they will connect you to a confidential provider in your community.
Better Brave Online guide to help targets of sexual harassment understand their rights and options for addressing issues
with an employer. Provides a template for recording incidents of sexual harassment.
Dance Scholarships (and a few grants)
Dance Scholarships primarily for training at associated institutions; US listing is mostly at college level.
Dance History and Dancing Personalities Today
Virtual Pillow An online treasury of dance performance clips filmed at Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires from 1930s to today.
Jacob’s Pillow digitized archive, a treasurehouse of resources including a complete set of digitized programs from throughout the Pillow’s 84-season history.
Danza Organica’s Dance Research Online Forum for video interviews in Boston and beyond
Luminarium’s Backlight monthly web video series from the Boston dance scene
Hub Dance Narrative project, a timeline of Boston area dance history by Eugenia Kim
Kathleen Breen Combes’ blog Artistic LeadHERship with initial focus on ballet
Space for Dance Artists
Check our website
Artists Space including tips on developing a space to support your practice
This list of artists’ Co-working spaces also includes some suitable for dancers and choreographers
Assets for Artists has a Space Finder with resources that can help artists secure affordable rental housing or homebuying opportunities, and affordable workspace.
Dance in Media
Dance Tech: International site for technology-enhanced dance activity and its Vimeo site
Dance Films Association: while most of their activity is in New York, check for regular competition submission guidelines
On The Boards TV Great contemporary dance film site from the leading presenter in Seattle
On Facebook (postings may overlap)
- Boston Dance Alliance
- Boston Dance Community
- Boston Dancers & Choreographers
- MADEO Massachusetts Dance Education Organization
- Dance Research Online Forum moderated by Marsha Parrilla
- Dance Entrepreneurs Funding Think Tank moderated by Kat Nasti
- Boston Flash Reviews moderated by Kelley Donovan
- Kinebago
- International Women’s Artist Salon Meeting, Boston Chapter, meets 15th of every month, all types of artists welcome
- Dance Teachers of NH MA & ME
Dance Action Network subscribe to this listserve at
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/DAN-Boston/join
You should see a link to “Join Group” click on that and read the instruction, do what it says!
Alternately, send an email to dan-boston+subscribe@googlegroups.com (this works best if you do NOT have a google account)
You will receive a reply from google within 10 minutes. You must hit reply to that message in order to confirm subscribing.
Local Dance Coverage Online
Original features and reviews
Arts story aggregators
Inspiration for Artists — and Everyone Else!
Our colleague Rachel Boggia at Bates College asked her Facebook network to recommend resources about artistic practice for her students. Here’s the list, in no particular order; BDA is not including the names of the original recommenders since we did not have their permission.
Please add your favorites by sending them to info@bostondancealliance.org and let us know if we can identify these as your contribution to the discussion.
Boston dancer Carl Alleyne on motivation
The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura
Anna Deveare Smith’s work, Letters to a Young Artist.
Are We Here Yet? by Meg Stuart,
Drafting Interior Techniques by Steve Paxton
The Courage To Create by Rolo May
Liz Lerman — Hiking the Horizontal
Local Acts, by Jan Cohen-Cruz
Paulus Berensohn’s Finding One’s Way with Clay
Carol Lloyd’s Creating a Life Worth Living
Simon Callow’s Being an Actor
Annie Lamott’s Bird by Bird
Susan Rethorst A Choreographic Mind
Writing Down the Bones Natalie Goldberg
Six Memos for the Next Millennium by Italo Calvino
“My Body the Buddhist” by Deborah Hay
Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by S. Nachmanovitch
Peter Handke, The Weight of the World.
And Then You Act by Anne Bogart
Twyla Tharp’s books The Creative Habit and The Collaborative Habit
Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel
Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Steven Pressfield: “Do The Work!”
Miranda Tuffnel’s Body Space Image
Andrea Olsen’s The Place of Dance
Danny Lewis’s The Illustrated Dance Technique of Jose Limon
Jeanette Winterson’s Art Objects (first chapter)
Misty Copeland’s Life in Motion, an Unlikely Ballerina, recommended by Reme Gold
Baroque dancer Ken Pierce suggests a number of European treatises, including Pierre Rameau, Le Maître a Damser, Kellom Tomlinson, The Art of Dancing,Thoinot Arbeau, Orchesography, Fabritio Caroso, Il Ballarino, and to a lesser extent: Fabritio Caroso, Nobiltà di Dame, Cesare Negri, Le Gratie d’Amore, John Weaver, Anatomical and mechanical lectures upon dancing and Gennaro Magri’s, Trattato teoretico-prattico di ballo
How much do you need to live in Boston?
Boston, Cambridge, and the surrounding communities are expensive places to live. This is an especially significant issue for dancers and choreographers, whose rehearsals are often unpaid and performances are compensated at an average of $100 per performance. This is a problem across the dance field: in fact, many dancers feel Boston is a more equitable community for artists than many in the United States.
BDA is working with our cultural colleagues to try to expand budgets and opportunities. We can report that our community is better served now than just a few short years ago. But we still have much work ahead.
As you settle here, check out this handy tool: http://artshacker.com/handy-living-wage-calculator/
Food insecure? Don’t wait until you are desperate, the community is coming together to help everyone. Call 1-800-645-8333.