How can I benefit/participate in American Dance Abroad programs?
American Dance Abroad is artist-centered and open to any inquiries and ideas from artists and other dance professionals at home and abroad. In addition, self-submission is welcomed for participation in all American Dance Abroad programs.
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How can international colleagues learn more about American dance?
International programmers wishing to become more familiar with American dance should contact us. We publish a monthly newsletter featuring upcoming international engagements by U.S. companies, news, and writing on American dance: sign up here. For those interested in research, here is a short bibliography listing some places to begin researching American dance.
American Dance Abroad also holds an intensive symposium, American Dance Recon, for a selected group of 9-10 international dance programmers. Over 4-1/2 days, participants from all over the world are introduced to a vast array of dance artists from the U.S. For more information, click here.
Can American Dance Abroad provide resources for my company to tour internationally?
American Dance Abroad’s resources are limited. It is not an agent; it does not endorse or sponsor particular artists; and it does not produce tours. It can assist with modest travel expenses for artists and managers attending international marketplaces, conferences, festivals and other networking opportunities; it subsidizes international programmers who want to see American work in live performance; and it maintains a quick-turnaround assistance program, Rapid Response, that supports transit costs for U.S. dance artists needing to respond quickly to international invitations.
American Dance Abroad remains non-curatorial and non-preferential. The Co-Directors do offer one-on-one consultation to arts organizations that wish to increase their strategic planning and institute international work. All American Dance Abroad opportunities are open to self-submission and depend on vigorous participation by the artist or organization.
How does American Dance Abroad choose which artists it includes in its activities?
The Directors and staff of American Dance Abroad do not engage in curatorial review, but we do seek the advice and experience of others to assist us in determining the appropriate match of particular artists to projects. For instance, artists who will be invited to travel to marketplaces will be those who are well-suited to and enjoy networking in a pressured environment. Similarly, we seek to match the genre of an artist’s work to the context of an event. We have found that experienced, self-managed artists generally tend to be better champions of their own work. American Dance Abroad estimates that the U.S. has over 2,500 professional dance companies. There are opportunities around the world for everyone, but not everyone is uniformly appropriate to every situation. We support all genre of dance; we have no aesthetic mandate other than supporting professional, U.S.-based dance artists and companies of quality.
How do I increase my international skill set?
American Dance Abroad runs a pop-up training intensive, Beyond Our Borders. This is the most effective way to learn about instituting international work into your organization in a short amount of time. Keep in touch with American Dance Abroad and subscribe to our newsletter in order to be notified when Beyond Our Borders is taking place near you.
More generally speaking: read up on international news. Consider the world from a non-U.S. perspective. Try to gain at least basic facility in another language. Cultural isolationism must be overcome and, if you wish to work on the international field, it is up to you to reach beyond your comfort zone.
What are the main obstacles to presenting American dance?
The cost of travel is a prohibitive expense in presenting American dance internationally. Other immediate barriers include geographic isolation and international programmers with out-of-date perceptions about dance in the U.S. In addition, not all companies are tour-ready. For those who are, building relationships is essential (programmers need to be able to contextualize the work they are presenting). Tech riders, music royalties, and other technicalities need to be negotiated differently when working abroad.
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