Dedicated to Dance: The New Jersey Dance Needs Assessment Project

Dedicated to Dance: The New Jersey Dance Needs Assessment Project provides a superb snapshot of the talented and diverse community of choreographers, performers, scholars and teachers of dance that make New Jersey their home. This study is the first step to create an awareness of the extraordinary contribution these individuals make to the cultural life of our State.

This project sought to identify New Jersey’s rich and diverse population of individual choreographers, performers, folk and traditional artists, administrators, and educators (public/private schools, colleges/universities and private studios) throughout the state, and develop a comprehensive profile of New Jersey’s dance workforce in order to better understand the most critical needs confronting this essential community.

Analysis of the survey results, conclusions and recommendations are included in Dedicated to Dance: The New Jersey Dance Needs Assessment Project. The full report and its executive summary are available on pdf.

Funded by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation’s Dodge Fund for Dance, the New Jersey Dance Needs Assessment provides a unique look into New Jersey’s vibrant dance field, its professionals, and the impact these individuals have throughout the state.

To conduct the assessment project, Dance New Jersey engaged noted researcher Joan Jeffri and the Resource Center for Arts & Culture (RCAC) at Teacher’s College, Columbia University. RCAC for more than thirty years has held a national and international reputation as one of the foremost research centers on the needs and issues facing individual artists. Most recently RCAC completed an international study- The aDvANCE Project: a study of Career Transition for Professional Dancers.


Download The Executive Summary.


Download The Full Report.