Addressing race: Thank you, DanceNYC!

Last evening at the Ailey studios, DanceNYC--under the courageous and energetic leadership of its director, Michelle Burkhart--hosted a valuable conversation on the issue of race in the dance field, focused on the scarcity of arts administrators of color. The organization's first town hall on race, held in 2007, was devoted to dance artists.

Researcher Ebonie Pittman presented the results of her study of sixteen dance organizations, including the unsurprising but still unacceptable conclusion that the preponderance of dance administrators and dance audiences are Caucasian. That means that the majority of the people doing marketing and development--and thus, tasked with reaching out to a diverse potential audience--do not reflect the diversity of that community. Pittman said that she concluded that, while she found no evidence of blatant discrimination, it was clear that the dance field has not been keeping up with communities that should be served.

Pittman's interesting presentation was followed by a lively discussion, moderated by Baraka Sele (Assistant VP for Programming and Curator/Producer at New Jersey Performing Arts Center) and including George Banks, author of The Issue of Race, Sharon Williams, Director of Development, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Cassandra Oliveras, Director of Marketing, Ballet Hispanico.

Among other topics, the panelists and audience addressed barriers to inclusivity and solutions to the lack of awareness of opportunities in the field of arts administration. They cited the need for effective training of future administrators and the significance of mentorship from accessible veterans in the field.

To paraphrase one of Sele's remarks, talking about a problem or concern is indeed a form of action. Clearly, these conversations within the dance community are essential to our development and must continue. I commend DanceNYC for taking up this task, and I look forward to their future forums on race.

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