Welcome to the Reopening Dance in NYC Website! This website and all of its content are made possible through the dance community’s dedication to supporting each other. As a collective effort between DanceNYC, Gibney, and multiple dance community members, these guidelines aim to help the dance community overcome the COVID-19 pandemic safely and equitably.
What is the Reopening Dance in NYC website?
The Reopening Dance in NYC website offers a digital toolkit to help guide reopening plans for the dance community in the metropolitan New York City area, including Bronx, Kings, Manhattan, Queens, and Richmond counties, as well as Westchester, Rockland, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties in NY State. Deciding whether to reopen is a difficult and complex decision. Neither Dance/NYC, Gibney, nor any of the contributors to this project endorses or encourages anyone in the dance sector to reopen without NYS government-mandated and fully developed, tailor-made reopening plans.
In addition, and given the community-centric characteristic of making dance work, we encourage members of the dance sector who endeavor to reopen to do so in a spirit of reciprocity, collaboration, and calculated risk, informed by conversations with your collaborators, colleagues, and within your business entity. COVID-19 remains a persistent and active pandemic whose presence continues to present increased risks for racial and ethnic minorities, children, the elderly, immigrants/refugees; those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, disabled, underinsured; from rural communities, incarcerated, facing domestic violence, LGBTQ+; and with certain medical conditions such as severe mental illness, cancer, chronic kidney disease; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, down syndrome; heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies; immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant, obesity, severe obesity; pregnancy, sickle cell disease, smoking, and Type 2 diabetes mellitus. In addition, the effects of stay-at-home orders put essential workers, who are lower-wage earners and unable to work from home, among the most vulnerable.
For some members of the sector, reopening is not possible or practical. However, we recognize that in order for many organizations to survive, reopening safely is a necessity. As such, this site aims to provide the sector with tools by which reopening can be possible. The content incorporates knowledge and resources made available by the State of New York, the CDC, and WHO, as well as the guidance of experts in the fields of medicine, operations, HVAC, and sanitation. This effort marks a work-in-progress that will be updated regularly as new information becomes available.
Who is the Reopening Dance in NYC website for?
The Reopening Dance in NYC website is for the 500+ nonprofit dance companies and for profit dance businesses, 1,200+ dance-making entities, and 5,000+ independent dance workers, and theaters living and creating in the metropolitan NYC area. The Reopening Dance in NYC website is for adults over 18+ and currently does not include additional guidance for children or the instruction of children. Each organization or individual is responsible for making their own informed decision about how to safely move forward and how to utilize these recommendations as a tool in their efforts.
Why was the Reopening Dance in NYC website created?
In lieu of state guidance for the performing arts industry, the dance community has been left in a state of uncertainty around reopening amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The community has banded together to address this unmet need. Along with the contributions of many collaborators, Dance/NYC and Gibney have developed a set of field-wide reopening recommendations to help guide our community forward.