CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, February 27, 2024

The Economics of Dance—Dance's Future According to the Numbers

Dance Magazine: To help kick off the December release of findings from Dance/NYC’s Dance Industry Census, Lorena Jaramillo gave a short performance, dancing barefoot as she talked to the audience. “When I started this solo, I had $132 and 30 cents in my bank account,” she said, breathing heavily into the small microphone taped to her cheek. “I had $4,232 in credit card debt. I owed $2,087 and 10 cents in medical bills. I owed $7,075 to the IRS.”

1 comment:

Ellie Yonchak said...

I think it was really interesting to look at the numbers for how the pandemic affected the area of dance performance. I didn’t expect that there would be far less of a loss in ticket sales when compared to theater, but in retrospect that makes sense considering that I think it’s more common for dance companies to survive a bit more heavily off of donor money and other ways of getting financial support. It was also interesting to look how post-covid organizational changes could have affected financial status when it comes to the dance companies and their missions. For me I think the most surprising statistic, however, was that dollars earned through performance programs in 2023 were approximately 90% of 2019 levels, even with 15% fewer performances, meaning there was a greater uptake in audience interest. I look forward to seeing how that trend plays out, and if it means that there is a larger audience post-covid than there was pre-covid.