A new initiative in New York City will hand out $324,000 to freelance dancers struggling to make ends meet.
Inspired by guaranteed income programs, the Dance Workforce Resilience (DWR) Fund will provide $1,000 grants with no strings attached to more than 320 dancers.
The nonprofit dance advocacy group Dance/NYC, which announced the initiative, says funding for the grants comes from the Ford Foundation, New York Community Trust and other donors.
Grants will be awarded through a weighted lottery system that gives priority to underpaid and unprotected groups of dance workers. Awardees must have contracted dance work completed between January 1st, 2025, to April 30th, 2026.
Says Sara Roer, interim executive director of Dance/NYC,
“Inspired by guaranteed income programs and peer-led wage subsidy efforts, the DWR Fund pilot is an important intervention to confront the economic disparities that have long defined the dance industry. By linking support to contracts, we are not only putting money in dancers’ hands, we’re helping shift the culture of labor in dance and incentivize practices that safeguard workers from financial and physical precarity.”
According to a 2023 Dance/NYC’s research report, dance is financially unsustainable for most workers as they earn on average $22 per hour, 15% below NYC’s living wage standard. The report also found that 44% of dancers take jobs without formal contracts, which contributes to their economic instability.
Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis from June 18th, 2025, to March 3rd, 2026. Award notifications will be sent out after each month-long application round.
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