Capital Region Dance Season Calendar

Year: 2013-2014
DaanceForce Member: Toni Smith
Community Partners: 20 regional dance presenters, colleges and dance companies; Dance Alliance (Ballston Spa NY); Kim Engel
Audience: 2,500
Counties: Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady
The Capital Region Dance Season Calendar is the only project in which dance presenters, dance sponsors, arts organizations, colleges, universities and schools collaborate to market a four county dance season. The calendar spans an 11-month period and provides listings of dance performances, dance festivals and dance residencies. In addition it provides box office and contact information for twenty organizations that sponsor dance. 2,500 full color, double sided, folded calendars are designed, printed, and distributed in the region. A first class mailing is sent to a local dance membership organization – the Dance Alliance (250 members). The remainder of the calendars are tabled at dance friendly and arts organizations.
The calendar is a project that involves all dance sponsors in the Capital Region of NY. It provides a single document where a dance audience can review the year’s dance offerings and plan their participation. The calendar has become a striking, colorful, refrigerator item for the entire community.

The challenge is to keep tables everywhere full of the calendar as the year progresses. Local dance educators use the calendar to plan their student bus tickets and all the presenters have designed an very reduced price for student audience members.
One often overlooked benefit of organizing the calendar is that it provides gentle pressure to local dance presenters and dance companies to plan their seasons well in advance.