Dance + Business: Community Supported Art

Last winter, I attended the DanceNYC symposium where I was drawn to the Bringing Entrepreneurship to the Arts panel. Most of the discussion seemed to revolve around ever more administrative tasks for choreographers and dancers in order to network and promote their work. Many people in the audience expressed frustration about the time all those tasks take away from actual dancing and dancemaking. However, Zlato Fagundes mentioned an idea that still resonates with me as truly innovative and possible: serving up performance as part of a local CSA (in this case, CSA stands for Community Supported Art).

Taking a cue from agriculture and farm-to-table culture, Springboard for the Arts provides kits to help artists establish a CSA in their community. The task of establishing such a program might be daunting for many artists, so I am heartened by the emergence of one in Brooklyn. Right now, there are no performances offered in the subscription, but I am hopeful that the future will include dance.

Performing artists of Brooklyn: send CSA+D Brooklyn inquiries and apply for inclusion in the spring subscription. Performing artists beyond Brooklyn: check out whether your city or community has an established CSA. The future of dance can be vibrant if artists seek to engage directly with other disciplines and build audience in the neighborhood in which they live.

And in case you were wondering, “What should the price of a dance performance be?” Well, Springboard has your back with a simple formula:

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