Despite the immense role that Black dance organizations have played both in Chicago and in the national dance sector, structural inequity in arts philanthropy threatens the future of these companies. In a 2019 report, Mapping the Dance Landscape in Chicagoland, an extensive review of Chicago-based dance companies confirmed a drastically skewed history of funding in the city, with over 56 percent of grant dollars going to just three majority-White institutions. According to the report, dance organizations with budgets below $100,000 make up nearly 60 percent of the city’s total groups, with more than half below $50,000.

These funding inequities disproportionately affect Black dance makers, who make up 31 percent of the city’s dance community but struggle to achieve growth, visibility, and sustainability at the same pace as larger, majority-White, Euro-centric dance institutions. Black dance companies already face a critical dearth of essential resources, from scant performance and rehearsal space to a lack of visibility and administrative capacity beyond day-to-day survival. With limited access to funding opportunities, these challenges compound to limit the potential for Black-led organizations to grow in capacity and reach, let alone to pass their legacies to the next generation of dancers and choreographers.

In recognition of the critical issues facing the field of Black dance and the importance of its continued survival, the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project fills the need for a dance service organization in Chicago that partners directly with Black dance companies to strengthen their financial and operational capacity, ensuring the long-term survival of their work. Developed through a partnership between the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at The University of Chicago and Tracie D. Hall, Director of The Joyce Foundation’s Culture Program, this initiative leverages the strategic resources of the Logan Center and UChicago to facilitate access to funding, support dance programming and training, and provide key administrative support to eight Chicago-based Black dance companies. The Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project aims to serve as a local and national model for collaborative strategies to strengthen the Black dance field as a whole.

Launched in 2019, CBDLP brings together a cohort of dance companies to learn from each other and leverages the resources of the Logan Center and other University of Chicago entities to bolster Black dance companies’ operational capacity to ensure the long-term survival of their legacies.

The Joyce Foundation awarded the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project a $396,600 grant — the single largest cultural grant ever given by the foundation—to launch the project. Further funding and support was provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Trust, and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (DCASE), as well as Pam Crutchfield, Ginger Farley, Maggy Fouche, and other individual donors.

On September 17, 2019, the Logan Center hosted the first formal workshop for the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project, led by Hall, and 13 participants representing the senior and artistic leadership of the project’s eight partner companies: Ayodele Drum and Dance, Chicago Multicultural Dance Center, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Forward Momentum Chicago, Joel Hall Dancers & Center, Muntu Dance Theatre, Najwa Dance Corps, and Red Clay Dance Company. Selected specifically for their artistic excellence, the quality of their technical training, the diversity of forms represented, the longevity and stability of their leadership, and their prominence in their respective communities, these companies range from established legacy organizations to emerging ensembles and training schools. All are united in their shared vision for the continued vitality of Black dance forms and their commitment to long-term sustainability.

After an initial needs assessment of the individual companies by the Community Programs Accelerator, a program of UChicago’s Office of Civic Engagement, the September 2019 convening focused on refining the goals of the initiative and identifying individual and collective areas of need by engaging the leadership of the dance companies in dialogue with each other. The resulting discussions and SWOT analysis revealed and confirmed the complex factors necessitating greater philanthropic investment in this critically underfunded sector of the arts.

Following the success of the first phase of the program, the CBDLP will begin a new two-year cycle with 10 outstanding groups representing a variety of traditions and perspectives.

The first round of the program brought eight companies together for capacity building and collaborative programming, including high-visibility performances at Logan Center, Navy Pier, and Millenium Park. The companies that participated saw an increase in their operating budgets, and an increase in funds raised.

The new cohort will receive similar support, thanks to lead funding from the Joyce Foundation and the Mellon Foundation and additional support from Walder Foundation, University of Chicago Women’s Board, and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.

The project establishes five areas of support for partners, including general operating support, performance and rehearsal coordination for two years, enhanced visibility through marketing and box office support, organizational development through the Community Programs Accelerator, and exploring the creation of a South Side home for dance across a network of performance venues.

In response to the needs identified by each of the project’s dance company partners, the initiative will:

● enhance the visibility and sustainability of Chicago-based Black dance companies;

● support succession-planning of veteran Black dance choreographers;

● build audiences through cooperative marketing and communications strategies;

● advance youth, professional, pre-professional, and avocational dance training programs in the South Side;

● bolster connections between participating organizations through collaborative programming; and

● safeguard the legacy and future of Black dance — locally, regionally, and nationally.

The Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project celebrates the national impact of Black dance in the performing arts and addresses the historic inequities in arts funding by providing critical financial and operational support to local Black dance makers.

The 2019-2022 cohort included:

• Ayodele Drum & Dance

• The Chicago Multicultural Dance Company

• Deeply Rooted Dance

• Forward Momentum Chicago

• Joel Hall Dancers & Center

• Muntu Dance Theatre

• NAJWA Dance Corps

• Red Clay Dance Company

The first cohort was supported by funding from the Joyce Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Trust, and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (DCASE), as well as Pam Crutchfield, Ginger Farley, Maggy Fouche, and other individual donors.

The 2023 cohort includes:

• The Chicago Multicultural Dance Company

• Deeply Rooted Dance

• Forward Momentum Chicago

• Joel Hall Dancers & Center

• M.A.D.D. Rhythms

• Move Me Soul

• Muntu Dance Theatre

• NAJWA Dance Corps.

• Praize Productions

• The Era Footwork Collective

This cohort is supported by lead funding from the Joyce Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, with additional support from Walder Foundation, University of Chicago Women’s Board, and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.

Get in touch with the CBDLP here.