American Dance Abroad

American Dance Abroad is pleased to announce the launch of a series of programs to

strengthen the export of American dance. With a two-year grant of $175,000 from the

Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, American Dance Abroad will focus on expanding

global visibility of American dance artists, encouraging relationship building between

American dance artists and their international counterparts, and facilitating opportunities

for international presenters/programmers to see American dance in live performance.

Co-Directors Carolelinda Dickey and Andrea Snyder are spearheading American

Dance Abroad. The priorities and strategies of American Dance Abroad were identified

during a multi-year research project concluded in 2010 and funded by the Robert

Sterling Clark Foundation that investigated the global challenges facing America’s

choreographers and dance companies. The research evaluated the work and effort that

foreign governments and NGOs employ to support the artistic and economic

development of their national artists. Conversely, the research explored with American

dance artists and organizations their needs, interests and capacities to engage

successfully in international cultural exchange. According to Snyder, “The work we

undertook highlighted the glaring trade imbalance that exists between the U.S. and the

rest of the world with regard to equitable cultural exchange for our artists.” American

artists identified the need to gain access and information about opportunities to work

abroad as well as to obtain tools to help them understand the international global

market. The research also confirmed what many in the field already knew – that foreign

programs have little knowledge of American dance and even less access to see it. The

report, Dance America: An International Strategy for American Dance, was published

under the auspices of Dance/USA in 2010. (The report can be found at:

http://www.danceusa.org/internationalstrategy.)