Managing an Artistic Life: A Conference for the Dance Community

Conference Schedule and Description:

4pm Welcome

4:15-5:15pm Workshops- participants will be able to choose between the following.
So You Have a Budget, Now What?
Workshop leader: Jill Sigman
The budget for your next production is complete, but now you have to raise the money. How do you improvise when costs change or the institutional funding you anticipated doesn’t come through? Where do you turn if you're new to this and don't have a funding history? This workshop will explore alternative sources of funding, with particular focus on raising support from individual donors. We will consider innovative ways to involve individuals such as commissioning clubs, silent auctions, house parties, and other structures that are related to your artistic work. We will also address the need to juggle cutting costs with preserving artistic goals and standards.
As a Freelancer: Making Ends Meet
Workshop Leader: Sahar Javedani
Do you have multiple sources of income at one time? Does it feel like it is always either feast or famine? This workshop explores budgeting techniques specific to freelancers supporting a career in dance. It will look at a range of examples of how to structure your personal finances, as well as tips for dancers and choreographers working with multiple companies.

5:30- 6:30pm Panel Discussion
I’ll Never Work for Free Again Unless: Balancing the Options With so many opportunities and funding so hard to come by, we all have worked for free. When do you say no? When do you still say yes even if you know you won’t get paid. A group of dancers and choreographers will address the big question of doing what you do for free.

6:30-7:15pm Hearing from You- Discussion with Dinner

7:15- 8:30pm Thriving in the Face of Invalidation Speaker: Steve Gross
Those in the field of dance face challenges at every turn: finding artistic clarity, gathering sufficient resources to realize an artistic vision, encountering a lack of interest from the larger culture, facing bleak prospects for financial reward and future security. This workshop will focus on naming the sources of invalidation that artists experience as a point of departure to develop a more rewarding and grounded sense of why they choose to dance. We will also explore things that artists can and cannot control, sources of inspiration to keep participants moving forward in their career paths, and how to maintain a solid sense of self.

8:30-9pm NYFA Source workshop/ demo with Linda