Dance Project’s strategic priorities form the lens through which we make decisions about programming, staffing, and community relationships. From these priorities, we set specific actions toward these aims.
DEVELOPING ARTISTS & COMMUNITY
Intention: Dance Project will lead efforts to create a cohesive and vibrant dance community in the Triad and across NC, supporting the artistic and economic development of regional dancers and dancemakers, and encouraging the creation and presentation of rich, innovative, relevant choreography and performance, and making efforts to enhance the community at large.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSIVITY EFFORTS
Intention: Dance Project will work towards creating a space where people, no matter who they are, can see themselves reflected in our programming and infrastructure, and will work intentionally towards the elimination of oppression (racism, sexism and misogyny, ableism, ageism, etc.) in the local and regional community.
RESOURCES
Audience Development
Intention: Dance Project will maintain our core audiences and add to this group, deepening the core audiences’ relationship with our organization. At the same time, we will seek to broaden our audiences through engagement with the content we provide. We will also work to cultivate future generations of audience members through intentional engagement of young dance students.
Visibility
Intention: Dance Project will increase visibility through cohesive branding and marketing strategies on an institutional and programmatic level. Dance Project will also continue building relationships through participating in community events, and engaging targeted groups and community members.
Funding
Intention: Dance Project will achieve greater financial stability and flexibility and plan for future growth and sustainability, by continuing to build a broader base of contributed income and strategic partnerships.
Organizational capacity, infrastructure & effective use of board
Intention: Dance Project will work to sustainably increase the organization’s capacity through added staff positions, effective use of the board of directors, and increased volunteer support. The growth of the organization and its capacity will be built on a foundation of effective management and governance policies.
Access, Equity, and Belonging Taskforce
Dance Project has created a taskforce to guide our action as an organization striving to ensure access, equity, and belonging to all who interact with us.
In defining what these terms mean to us, we acknowledge how intertwined they are with each other; true access requires that the door is not just open but that people feel they matter and belong once inside. Equity involves determining the kind or degree of access each person needs, in order for us to meet people where they are. Ensuring that we are providing Access, Equity, and Belonging is a continual and intentional process, an active practice of checking in to determine who is in need, what their needs really are, and what each person brings to the community. We have not used the terms Diversity or Inclusion specifically here, understanding them to be embodied in the action of valuing each person for who they are and their lived experience, and providing welcoming access to Dance Project.
Access: Dance Project seeks to be an accessible space by removing barriers that limit the freedoms and abilities of all types of people.
Equity: Dance Project recognizes that not everyone comes to a space with the same lived experience or with the same needs. Equity demands that resources are directed in a way that meets the needs of the recipients, and that we establish a consistent and ongoing process of meeting people where they are.
Belonging: Dance Project seeks to be an inclusive community in which each person can be their authentic self, and feels valued for who they are and what they bring to the community.
Latest Action (as of September 2022):
Following the AEB Taskforce’s initial organization audit to assess our needed actions around Access, Equity, and Belonging, we have focused our immediate attention in 3 areas:
Want more information? Contact Anne at anne@danceproject.org.
Dance Project encompasses the NC Dance Festival, a showcase of artists in the field of modern dance from across the state; The School, our community dance studios in the Greensboro Cultural Center; and the Van Dyke Dance Group, which performs and manages the repertory of Jan Van Dyke (1941-2015).
The NC Dance Festival is an annual touring showcase of modern and contemporary choreography by NC artists, coordinated by Dance Project. The Festival establishes a network of venues for professional regional choreography and performance, expanding accessibility of dance throughout the state while raising the profile of North Carolina’s own artists. The North Carolina Dance Festival has been supported by state and local arts councils as well as local and national foundations and individual donations.
The Van Dyke Dance Group performs and manages the repertory of Jan Van Dyke (1941-2015), as a supporting arm of the Dance Project. It was formerly a part of the Gamble/Van Dyke Dance Company which began in North Carolina as a collaboration between Jan Van Dyke and John Gamble in 1989. For many years, the company produced annual concerts at the UNC-Greensboro, where Van Dyke taught dance, and in the GreenHill Gallery in the Greensboro Cultural Center. The company also performed frequently in the NC Dance Festival, which Van Dyke founded in 1991.
The NC Dance Festival is an annual touring showcase of modern and contemporary choreography by NC artists, coordinated by Dance Project. The Festival establishes a network of venues for professional regional choreography and performance, expanding accessibility of dance throughout the state while raising the profile of North Carolina’s own artists. The North Carolina Dance Festival has been supported by state and local arts councils as well as local and national foundations and individual donations.
The Van Dyke Dance Group performs and manages the repertory of Jan Van Dyke (1941-2015), as a supporting arm of the Dance Project. It was formerly a part of the Gamble/Van Dyke Dance Company which began in North Carolina as a collaboration between Jan Van Dyke and John Gamble in 1989. For many years, the company produced annual concerts at the UNC-Greensboro, where Van Dyke taught dance, and in the GreenHill Gallery in the Greensboro Cultural Center. The company also performed frequently in the NC Dance Festival, which Van Dyke founded in 1991.
Dance Project was founded by Jan Van Dyke; an American dancer, choreographer, dance educator and scholar who was considered a pioneer of modern and contemporary dance. Dance Project’s life began in Washington, DC, in 1973 where Jan Van Dyke first founded the organization (later renamed Dance Place). Following a period of international work, Jan restarted Dance Project in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1989. Anne Morris and Lauren Joyner have been the Executive Directors since 2015.
Jan Van Dyke (1941-2015) choreographer, teacher, scholar, and community leader, spent four decades creating and showing her choreography widely throughout the United States and in Europe over the course of her career. Additionally, she founded and directed Dance Project, which runs the NC Dance Festival, Van Dyke Dance Group, and School at City Arts, from 1973-2015. She was Professor Emerita in the Dance Department at UNC Greensboro, where she served as Head from 2006-2011. Van Dyke was the recipient of a NC Choreography Fellowship, and a 1993 Fulbright Scholar. In 2001, she was honored with the North Carolina Dance Alliance Annual Award for contributions to the development of dance in the state. An acclaimed teacher, DANCE TEACHER MAGAZINE gave her the 2008 Dance Teacher Award for Higher Education. In 2010, UNCG honored her with the Gladys Strawn Bullard Award for leadership and service. The United Arts Council of Greensboro presented her with the Betty Cone Medal of Arts Award in 2011. The Van Dyke Dance Group continues as a repertory company, under the umbrella of Dance Project.
Awards
Jan Van Dyke (1941-2015) choreographer, teacher, scholar, and community leader, spent four decades creating and showing her choreography widely throughout the United States and in Europe over the course of her career. Additionally, she founded and directed Dance Project, which runs the NC Dance Festival, Van Dyke Dance Group, and School at City Arts, from 1973-2015. She was Professor Emerita in the Dance Department at UNC Greensboro, where she served as Head from 2006-2011. Van Dyke was the recipient of a NC Choreography Fellowship, and a 1993 Fulbright Scholar. In 2001, she was honored with the North Carolina Dance Alliance Annual Award for contributions to the development of dance in the state. An acclaimed teacher, DANCE TEACHER MAGAZINE gave her the 2008 Dance Teacher Award for Higher Education. In 2010, UNCG honored her with the Gladys Strawn Bullard Award for leadership and service. The United Arts Council of Greensboro presented her with the Betty Cone Medal of Arts Award in 2011. The Van Dyke Dance Group continues as a repertory company, under the umbrella of Dance Project.
Awards
Dance Project is a non-profit resident organization of the Greensboro Cultural Center, made possible by a significant in-kind contribution from Creative Greensboro, the City of Greensboro’s office for arts & culture.
Dance Project is a non-profit resident organization of the Greensboro Cultural Center, made possible by a significant in-kind contribution from Creative Greensboro, the City of Greensboro’s office for arts & culture.