Dance Exchange
STRATEGIC PLAN FY2020-FY2022
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Our MISSION Fueled by generosity and curiosity, Dance Exchange expands who gets to dance, where dance happens, what dance is about, and why dance matters.
Our VISION Dance Exchange harnesses the power of creativity and inquiry through dance to connect communities, to deepen our understanding of ourselves and to foster a more embodied, resilient and just world.
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Our LEGACY Dance Exchange collaborates across generations, disciplines, and communities to channel the power of dancemaking as a means for dialogue, a source of critical reflection, and a creative engine for thought and action. The work we cultivate and steward today grows from a legacy and commitment to intergenerational and community exchange, artmaking at the intersection of social relevance and community participation, and moving as a way to notice our world and noticing as way to move our world. Founded in 1976 by Liz Lerman and under the artistic direction of Cassie Meador since 2011, Dance Exchange is a non-profit dance organization based in Takoma Park, Maryland. Over our 43-year history, Dance Exchange has created and supported more than 250 groundbreaking performance projects that explore content as far ranging as nuclear physics, immigration, ecology, prayer and action, aging, and the advancement of racial equity. Over the years, we have collaborated with and/or been commissioned by wide-ranging partners, including NASA, Facing Race, National Park Service, the Kennedy Center, Kohler Arts Center, Jacob’s Pillow, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Bealtaine Festival, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Harvard Law School, and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University. Dance Exchange is committed to dancemaking and creative practices that engage individuals and communities of all ages and backgrounds to cultivate a deeper understanding of themselves and advance how we come together through process and performance to envision and deepen understanding of our shared world.
Photo by Ben Carver
Dance Exchange leading a community workshop in Takoma Park. 33
A Vision for Our Future Dear Dance Exchange Supporter,
October 2020
Dance Exchange staff, board, and key stakeholders have reflected on our legacy and the future we are growing together. We have looked at how dance can inspire inquiry, foster resilience, and initiate change. This planning process has helped us to examine our practices, organizational culture and structure, and the impact and growth we hope to support and create. This roadmap will ensure we steward our mission and vision while navigating the complexities of our changing world. 2020 has illuminated the need for responsive planning. We are committed to continuing to find the ways our work can support individuals and communities to foster connection, care, and resilience through COVID and the ongoing impacts of systemic racial and economic injustices. As we move forward, we hold a renewed commitment to expand who gets to dance, where dance happens, what dance is about, and why dance matters. We value the ways this vision will deepen through our work with partners, communities, and supporters like you.
Sincerely,
Cassie Meador Executive Artistic Director
Erica Bondarev Rapach, Chair Board of Directors
Photo by David Andrews
Thomas Tyger Moore, Christine King, and Juliana Pongutå Forero in Elizabeth Johnson and Nik Zaleski’s A body, home.
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photo above by John Matchtig. Cover photo: Jaclyn Borowski
Stewardship of the Dance Exchange Values On the next page you will see the visual model we have created to illustrate the ways in which our committments as an organization grow from values at the roots of our mission: community exchange, intergenerational exchange, artmaking with social relevance, and moving to notice and noticing as way to move. In this Strategic Planning document, we explain what elements of our work fit into these four areas of growth and impact. On the pages following the model, we will share examples of how these committments are manifested in our current work. Cassie Meador’s Moving Field Guide facilitator training in Maryland.
Photo by Jer Banks
Photo by Ben Carver
Dance Exchange working with community members at the New Hampshire Avenue Rec Center.
Hallelujah by Liz Lerman.
photo by Stan Barouh 55
Research & Development Programming Engaging Performance Legacy & Repetory
Operations Hosting & Space Rental
Creation of New Work
Dancemaking & Performance
MISSION
Community & Creative Hub
Fueled by generosity and curiosity, Dance Exchange expands who gets to dance, where dance happens, what dance is about, and why dance matters. 6
Community Exchange
VISION
Institutes Fellowship Programs Artist Cohorts
Dance Exchange harnesses the power of creativity and inquiry through dance to connect communities, to deepen our understanding of ourselves and to foster a more embodied, resilient and just world.
Cultivating Sharing Documenting & Disseminating
Organizing with Artists for Change
Creative Tools & Practices
Noticing to move, moving to notice Intergenerational Exchange
Social Relevance 7
Dancemaking & Performance Cassie Meador’s New Hampshire Ave: This is a Place To...
Photo by Ben Carver
Photo by Kevin Kennifick
Liz Lerman’s Ferocious Beauty, Genome.
At Dance Exchange, we expand the ways performance & dancemaking catalyze connection, reflection, and action by: • Engaging our performance legacy & repertory through its evolving relevance in our world. • Creating new work through collaborations and commissions in and beyond the arts. Current examples of Dancemaking & Performance include: Elizabeth Johnson Levine and Nik Zaleski’s A body, home, a project celebrating the brilliance and resilience of survivors of sexual violence. Future Fields a project of Cassie Meador, Jamē McCray and Christina Catanese, which cultivates communal exploration of climate change and agriculture. Dance On Commissions, in celebration of Dance Exchange’s 45th anniversary. Intergenerational collaborators-- MK Abadoo & Judith Bauer; Juliana Pongutá Forero & Martha Wittman; and Thomas Tyger Moore & Vincent Thomas-- will premiere new work at our Dance On Festival in May 2021. Elizabeth Johnson Levine and Keith Thompson’s Of Equal Place: Isotopes in Motion, a project with the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University that highlights the contributions of youth, women and people of color in science. 8
Community & Creative Hub At Dance Exchange, we support and connect the creativity of communities within our home region and beyond, and convene national and international artists and leaders through: • • • •
Dance Exchange Programming Hosting & Space Rental for our Creative Communities Dance Exchange Operations Research & Development
Youth Programs at Dance Exchange
Mark H Rooney Taiko drum classes at Dance Exchange
Dance Exchange programing at the Hub includes: • Family Moves, a community class for all ages • Dance On, a creative aging class that uses the power of moving & making to cultivate connection, creativity, and greater health at all ages • Youth Exchange (for ages 7-12) and Teen Exchange (ages 13-18) • Co|Lab, a community choreography laboratory for all ages to collaborate alongside Dance Exchange • Exploring & Making Dance Camps for youth during spring & summer break
Rental Programs at the Community & Creative Hub include: Aerial Candy, Afrobeat Fit, KanKoruan West African Dance, Mark H Rooney Taiko School, Music Together Montgomery, Nancy Havlik, Dissonance Dance Theater, Word Dance Theater, Wu Shen Tao, and many more. 9
Organizing With Artists For Change (OAC)
Photos by Ben Carver
The goal of Organizing With Artists for Change (OAC) is to connect, support, and grow a network of artists working at the intersection of social relevance and community participation.
Dance Exchange OAC Winter Institute
OAC Institutes: Our Institutes embrace process and performance, dia-
logue and dancemaking, and the role of artists as changemakers. Both our Winter and Summer Institute support reflection and response to important issues and opportunities of our time and build capacities and connections for artists to ignite inquiry and inspire change in their own communities.
OAC Artist Cohorts: We support local artist cohorts during our creative residencies to ensure local value and impact. We have supported artist cohorts on projects in Maryland, Texas, North Carolina, and Michigan.
OAC Fellowship Program: We are developing a year-long fellowship
program that will invite artists to work alongside Dance Exchange through our Institutes, in the development of performance projects and community residencies. Fellows will have opportunities to enhance their facilitation skills and develop their own creative initiatives with mentorship and feedback from other fellows and Dance Exchange artists. 10
Creative Tools & Practices Juliana Pongutá Forero leading a Creative Aging class in Takoma Park.
Cassie Meador and Mark Twery of the USDA Forest Service leading a Moving Field Guide.
We aim to activate, innovate and evolve approaches for discovery through movement and dancemaking by: • Cultivating tools through creative collaboration; • Sharing tools through residencies, workshops, & trainings; • Documenting and disseminating tools through online and print platforms Programs engaging and evolving our creative tools and practices include: Cassie Meador’s Moving Field Guide program provides participants across generations the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of, and connection to, their local environment and community through an immersive outdoor experience. Dance Exchange has led MFGs from the islands of Hawaii to the deserts of Arizona, in the coastal wetlands of Maine and in the swamps of Georgia. We also offer teacher trainings for educators in Prince George’s, Baltimore, and Montgomery County to offer MFGs in their schools. Dance Exchange’s Dance On programming celebrates aging with dance, creativity, and connection. Currently, with lead funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the City of Takoma Park, we have brought this work to residential spaces and community centers in Takoma Park and to older adults nationwide through virtual classes. 11
A structure to steward our Mission, Vision, & Values Dance Exchange has established four committees to actualize this Strategic Plan over the next three years. These committees are made up of Board and Staff members. They meet monthly to advance the goals (below) outlined by each committee and formed through the strategic planning process. These goals include high-level operational and aspirational visions in regards to our work, our building, and our position in the sector. Additionally, we have developed a more detailed internal roadmap for each committee that acts as a living document that will evolve while supporting the organization to move towards our vision.
Elizabeth Johnson & Keith Thompson’s Isotopes in Motion, work-in-progress showing at Dance Exchange. Photo by Malik Carter.
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Executive Artistic Director Cassie Meador at Baycrest Medical Center. Photo courtesy Baycrest.
Dance Exchange leading a workshop at a community center in Takoma Park. Photo by Ben Carver.
Dance Exchange’s first-ever virtual Summer Institute. More than 25 artists and changemakers from across the U.S danced together and shared creative tools via Zoom.
Associate Artistic Director Elizabeth Johnson facilitatingduring the Teen Leadership Institute. Photo by John Borstel.
Bricks & Bones: A performance series in response to the erasure of Black lives and communities in Dallas, Texas, and the movements to recover, rebuild and honor those lost histories, co-directed by Cassie Meador and Paloma McGregor. Photo 13 by Classi Nance.
Dance Exchange Committees
Finance & operations The Finance & Operations Committee oversees the finances of the organization and ensures stability and growth in relation to the vision and mission. This committee helps to steward and lead the vision for Dance Exchange’s Community and Creative Hub, including cultivating opportunities for both financial and volunteer support to maintain the facility and enhance the building through capital improvements in order to build a thriving creative community. Finance and Operations Strategic Planning Goals • Expand Dance Exchange’s capacity and reach by developing a business • model and setting financial goals that maximize the impact of revenue for each of the main threads of activity as articulated in the strategic plan • Grow a robust support-staff structure to support the team to operate at their fullest capacity and create financial sustainability for staff and performers • Expand access and community connection to the Community & Creative Hub • Foster relationships and a sense of community among those who lead or attend programs or events at Dance Exchange.
racial equity The Racial Equity Committee will lead staff and board in the creation of an intentional process to move a racial equity framework forward within Dance Exchange. The committee will establish related practices to build an organizational culture that advances racial justice through the work of our staff and board, partnering artists, and institutional and community partners. Racial Equity Strategic Planning Goals • Capacity-building to deepen interventions, learning and skill-building for operationalizing racial equity • Collecting and analyzing data for documenting and evaluating progress toward advancing a racial justice framework in the organization. • Cultivating and developing new racial equity leadership and active community engagement • Communicating about racial equity across the organization with board and staff, partnering artists, and institutional and community partners. • Championing racial and social justice and celebrating and sustaining success 14
Dance Exchange Committees
development The Development Committee supports and expands Dance Exchange’s fundraising and development capacities, and cultivates opportunities for continued support for the organization. Working with staff, board, and key partners, the committee leads the visioning process for fundraising goals and strategies, enhances the ways we grow our individual donor base, institutional partners, and develops practices that steward donor experiences. Development Committee Strategic Planning Goals • Set process and cadence for planning fundraising events and opportunities that align with artistic programs and projects • Strengthen and continue to build our individual giving donor base • Leverage relationships with other organizations, institutions, and individuals to expand fundraising and development capacities
governance The Governance and Board Development Committee assesses, maintains and creates policy and procedure for Dance Exchange, while accommodating for change. The committee also leads board cultivation, identifying and cultivating prospects in collaboration with staff to connect them to Dance Exchange more deeply through either an advisory board or board of directors membership. The committee stewards development of the board. We are committed to building a more racially diverse and inclusive board and prioritizing the work of undoing racism in our recruitment process. Governance and Board Development Strategic Planning Goals: • Audit the current governance documents for Dance Exchange and update those that need to be changed to reflect current circumstances. Establish regular systems for reassessing governing policy and procedure. • Assess the appropriate size of a Dance Exchange Board of Directors and adjust fiscal support for the organization based on that assessment. • Create an Advisory Board to further support strategic pathways and to create a way for individuals interested in supporting the organization and potentially serving on the Board of Directors in the future. 15
Dance Exchange Staff Cassie Meador, Executive Artistic Director Silvia Roberts, Director of Operations and Finance Elizabeth Johnson, Associate Artistic Director/Partnerships Director Emily Macel Theys, Director of Development Amanda Newman, Communications Manager & Partnering Artist Corina Dalzell, Operations and Facilities Assistant & Resident Artist Liz Lerman, Founder and Choreographer Emerita
Board of Directors Erica Bondarev Rapach, Chair Elliot Maxwell, Secretary Martha S. Head Eleanor Kerlow John LoPorto Deb Riley John Urciolo Elliot Rosen, Chairman Emeritus
Partnering Artists MK Abadoo, Luisa Aviles, Abel Asfare, Judith Bauer, Clarence Brooks, Shawn Brush, C hristina Catanese, Kelly Colburn, Ami Dowden-Fant, Esther Geiger, Roberta Geier, Ralph Glenmore, Margot Greenlee, Christina Helm, Becky Hill, Devin Hill, Sam Horning, Christine King, Peter Leibold, DZ Maciel, Jamé McCray, Airos Sung-En Medill, Kelly Mitchell, Thomas Tyger Moore, Vinny Mwano, Matt Neilson, Tarik O’Meally, Bikem Ozturk, Juliana Pongutá Forero, Sarah Ramey, Alivia Schaffer, David Schulman, Vincent Thomas, Keith Thompson, Vyette Tiya, vickie washington, Martha Wittman, Nik Zaleski* * above list updated as of 10/10/2020 16
Photo by Beth Mwanos
A Sense of Wonder, by Elizabeth Johnson and developed as part of Dance Exchange’s Co-Lab program,
Dance Exchange is grateful for the generous support from these major funders: Montgomery County Government and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Maryland State Arts Council, The Gwendolyn and Morris Cafritz Foundation, The Philip L Graham Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts, The MidAtlantic Arts Foundation, The Dallas Morse Coors Foundation for the Performing Arts, The City of Takoma Park, and the Chesapeake Bay Trust among others, as well as the continued generous support of individual donors.
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photo by Liz Jelsomine
Dance Exchange
7117 Maple Avenue Takoma Park, MD 20912 301.270.6700 www.danceexchange.org mail@danceexchange.org 18