Sustainability and the Future
of Contemporary Dance

Recent reports from organizations such as Dance/NYC and broader arts research initiatives have highlighted the growing economic instability facing artists in New York City, where rising rent, rehearsal space costs, and financial precarity increasingly make sustainable artistic creation difficult. Recent reporting has described how many artists are being pushed out of New York due to the rising cost of living and lack of affordable creative space.

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Through my own experience operating a contemporary dance company in New York, I rarely encountered situations in which creation grants or production funding were realistically accessible to emerging artists. In many cases, hundreds of applicants compete for only a few grant opportunities, while major funding structures are often concentrated around already well-established organizations with long institutional histories. Even highly talented young choreographers frequently continue creating work at a financial loss, sustained primarily through personal sacrifice rather than sustainable infrastructure.

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As a result, many artists spend years building recognition only to eventually shift their focus toward commissioned projects, commercial work, university teaching positions, or freelance careers in order to survive financially. In numerous cases, their companies gradually become inactive despite strong artistic potential. Within the current system, the contemporary dance companies that are able to function sustainably as long-term organizations are often those that already possess large-scale institutional support, educational systems, or decades of accumulated funding networks.

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These realities deeply influenced my decision to relocate Yu.S.Artistry from New York to Bucks County. Rather than pursuing a model dependent solely on the highly competitive New York funding structure, I became interested in developing a community-centered approach that combines artistic creation, education, cultural exchange, outreach programming, and interdisciplinary collaboration. My research therefore does not focus only on philosophy and history, but also on the question of sustainability: how contemporary dance can continue to exist meaningfully within local communities while maintaining artistic depth and cultural relevance.

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The chart above compares the landscape of dance funding during the peak grant era of the 1970s with the realities of 2026.

When viewed only in nominal dollar amounts, funding levels appear to have increased dramatically: if the average grant value in 1970 is treated as 100, the equivalent figure today rises to approximately 2,286 dollars. However, when adjusted for inflation and purchasing power, the actual increase in practical value is closer to approximately 2.86 times.

In contrast, the cost of living in New York City has increased by roughly nine times, while production expenses such as studio rentals, theater costs, transportation, and artist fees have risen accordingly. At the same time, the artist population has expanded significantly, estimated at approximately 3.5 times larger than during the 1970s.

Within this comparative model, the possibility of obtaining sustainable grant support as an independent contemporary dance artist in New York can be understood as dramatically reduced in comparison to previous generations. Even this calculation includes organizations that already possess established institutional structures and recurring access to major funding networks.

These conditions suggest that New York has increasingly shifted away from functioning primarily as a space where emerging choreographers can sustainably develop long-term artistic careers through artistic practice alone. Instead, survival often depends upon institutional visibility, administrative infrastructure, educational affiliation, and access to existing funding ecosystems.

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A Regional Model with Sustainable Potential

 

Outside major metropolitan centers, alternative models for sustaining contemporary dance have begun to emerge through close collaboration with local communities. While it is often difficult to recreate the full-time company structures that existed during earlier periods of dance funding, some regional companies have succeeded in developing systems in which artists are able to continue performing while supporting themselves through a combination of teaching, outreach, commissions, and community partnerships.

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Recognizing the potential of this model, I relocated Yu.S.Artistry to Bucks County. As a result, the financial structure surrounding the company changed significantly. Rather than personally absorbing the majority of production expenses, as was often necessary in New York City, the company gradually began receiving institutional partnerships, local sponsorship, grant support, and community-based collaborations that allowed the organization to grow more sustainably as both an artistic and educational platform.

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Examples of these developments include:

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• Institute of Dance Artistry became a sponsoring partner and provided rehearsal space through a residency-style arrangement, significantly reducing production overhead and allowing the company to maintain a stable creative process.

• Michener Art Museum supported performances centered on Japanese culture and contemporary dance as part of a broader cultural exchange initiative, becoming an important presenting and sponsoring partner.

• The intercultural and educational significance of these projects led to grant support from The Japan Foundation, New York.

• Culturally focused productions were also recognized by Philadelphia Fringe Festival, resulting in invited performances and additional production support.

• Teaching yoga through organizations such as YMCA helped expand connections with local residents and audiences outside traditional contemporary dance communities.

• Teaching Japanese literature and culture at a Japanese supplementary school strengthened relationships within the regional Japanese and Japanese American community. Because the community network in Bucks County is smaller and more interconnected than in New York, these relationships developed into long-term cultural support systems that successfully brought many Japanese visitors and audiences into the region.

• These cumulative developments contributed to the establishment of the Michener Museum performance project as an ongoing annual Japanese cultural event.

• Local restaurants and community businesses organized fundraising events that helped offset production costs and strengthen local investment in the company’s activities.

• Collaborations with music schools and classical musicians expanded the company’s network beyond dance, creating interdisciplinary partnerships with artists from multiple fields.

• Connections were also formed with individuals involved in the historic New Arts Program residency space, where artists such as John Cage, Philip Glass, Trisha Brown, and Yvonne Rainer once participated. Through these relationships, the company received valuable archival materials, historical resources, and donated dance flooring that continue to support both artistic creation and historical research.