Year: 2017-2018
DanceForce Member: Kim Engel
Community Partners: Dance Alliance – Ballston Spa NY; The Egg, Albany; Proctor’s Theatre, Schenectady; Skidmore College; Toni Smith; UAlbany Performing Arts Center; Union College, Schenectady
Audience: 4,000
Counties: Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady

DF member Kim Engel helped to support this initiative of fellow member Toni Smith that was established many years ago. Toni is in her non-funded year, so a portion of Kim’s allocation allowed the calendar to continue this year despite the absence of funds available to its main proponent. In addition to the DanceForce allocation, the Dance Alliance, Skidmore College, UAlbany Performing Arts Center, Proctors, The Egg and Union College committed funds to support the project’s expenses. A small surplus was realized and will be kept in the coffers to support next year’s calendar.

The Capital Region Dance Season Calendar is a project in which dance presenters, dance sponsors, arts organizations, colleges, universities and schools collaborate to market a four-county dance season, including renowned touring dance companies, regional dance companies and dance festivals. The calendar spans a 12-month period and provides listings of dance performances, dance festivals and dance residencies. In addition, it provides box office and contact information for approximately 10 organizations that sponsor dance. Four thousand full-color, double-sided, folded calendars were designed, printed and distributed in the region. A first-class mailing was sent to members of a local dance membership organization, the Dance Alliance, as well as to presenters and NYSCA . A bulk mailing to over 3000 dance audience members culled from the lists of multiple venues was also sent. The remainder of the calendars have and will continue to be tabled at dance-friendly and arts organizations as well as inserted into programs at dance performances. Regional dance educators use the calendar to schedule buses for students to attend concerts. In addition, the calendar provides a reference for dance educators to use in arranging outreach activities with dance companies.