2024 National Dance Project Production Grant Webinar

Indira is a Black woman in a bright blue blouse. She poses in front of city buildings.

Senior Program Director, Dance

National Dance Project Production Grants are made to projects led by professional choreographers or companies to support the creation and U.S. touring and/or sharing of a new dance project.

Download the webinar slide deck

Learn more

Video Content

06:46 | About the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA)
09:37 | About the National Dance Project (NDP)
10:36 | Production Grant Framework
13:10 | Ongoing Opportunities for Touring/Sharing
14:29 | Grant Eligibility and Funding Criteria
31:03 | Application Process
38:24 | Application Narrative Questions
54:04 | Work Sample Submission Instructions
57:15 | Application Timeline

ASL Interpretation provided by Interpreter Now.

Read the Video Transcript

[Indira]

Welcome and thank you for joining us for this 2024 National Dance Project Production Grant Informational webinar. It is NEFA's practice to share a land acknowledgement for all convenings, including the virtual space we are in today.

We believe that a land acknowledgement is necessary, yet only a first part of a much more engaged process towards deeply rooted healing and reconciliation. We see the role of the arts as an opportunity to uplift and uphold truth and recognize our responsibility to not perpetuate the erasure of peoples.

Therefore, as a committed ally and as artists, NEFA wishes to acknowledge that the grounds on which our offices are located are the traditional, current and future lands of the Massachuset, Naumkeag, Nipmuc and Wampanoag Peoples.

We recognize that many Indigenous peoples have come to this place, and the connection between displacement and removal, so we honor their presence. We also acknowledge the many Indigenous people and lands where our distributed staff live and work, including the NDP team who are leading today's webinar from the lands of the Mahican, Massachuset, Pawtucket, and Munsee Lenape Peoples.

We honor their ancestors past, present, and future, and recognize their continued existence and contributions to our society. Furthermore, we recognize the many native lands in which all of you are joining us from across the country, and respect the choices you make in honoring and recognizing the caretakers of those lands. It is also important to acknowledge those of you in attendance and your respective ancestors who did not come to this land by choice, and those who did.

Since our activities are being shared digitally to the internet, let us also take a moment to consider the legacy of colonization embedded within the technology, structures and ways of thinking we use every day. Even the technologies that are central to much of the art we make leave significant carbon footprints, contributing to changing climates that disproportionately affect Indigenous people worldwide. We feel it is important to reflect on this as we continue to use these digital spaces to connect.

Lastly, NEFA understands this process requires a constant state of learning and growth, and we are committed to doing the work that ensures our acknowledgement is directly linked to accountability and action. We expect our shared education and efforts will be reflected in multiple revisions of our land acknowledgement over time, as well as other direct actions that continue to uplift the Indigenous people on whose land we have the privilege of working. I invite you to join us in acknowledging all of this, as well as our collective responsibility to make good of this time and consider our roles in decolonization and allyship.

We will now pause for a moment of silence to honor and reflect on the deep history of these lands and its people.

Thank you for joining us in that.

Hello again and thank you for joining us for today's webinar. While our cameras will be off throughout this informational webinar to highlight slides, we are sharing an image of who we are, and will acknowledge how we identify at this time.

My name is Indira Goodwine-Josias, and I am the Senior Program Director for Dance at NEFA. My pronouns are she/her, and I'm a black woman, who, in this image, has straight shoulder-length hair and is wearing a blue blouse with white pearls around my neck and matching earrings.

[Cheri]

Hello, my name is Cheri Opperman. I am the Senior Grants Manager for Dance at NEFA. My pronouns are she and her, and I am a white woman who, in this image, has shoulder-length brown and gray hair, wearing a blue shirt and blue earrings.

[Kristin]

Hello, this is Kristin Gregory speaking. My pronouns are she/her, and I am the Program Manager for Dance at NEFA. I am a white woman who, in this image, has long, light brown hair and I am wearing a teal V-neck sleeveless blouse.

[Indira]

This is Indira speaking. For today's webinar, we will provide important information related to the NDP production grant application process, inclusive of information about NEFA and NDP, NDP's framework of support, ongoing opportunities for touring and sharing, grant eligibility and funding criteria, how to access the NDP production grant application, a review of the NDP application narrative questions, work sample submission instructions, and an application timeline. As a reminder, everything that is shared today can also be found on NEFA's website at www.nefa.org.

As one of six regional arts organizations, New England Foundation for the Arts, also known as NEFA, was established with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to strengthen regional arts opportunities. Today, NEFA's programs are regional, national, and international in scope, and support artists and communities through grants and other opportunities in dance, music, theater and public art.

NEFA's vision is to contribute to a nation where artists flourish and communities celebrate art as essential to a thriving, equitable society, and we strive to reach this vision via our mission o invest in artists and communities and foster equitable access to the arts, enriching the cultural landscape in New England and the nation. Each program and project that is brought to life at NEFA is created with the underlying goal of building a stronger and more dynamic infrastructure for the arts. We achieve these goals by leaning on our core values and continuously deepening our commitment to equity, diversity, intersectionality and accessibility.

NEFA values an equitable, diverse and inclusive world, which we interpret as all people having fair access to the tools and resources they need to realize creative and community endeavors. We acknowledge structural inequities that have excluded individuals and communities from opportunity based on race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, class, language, culture, age, genre and geography, and strive to counter those inequities in our daily work.

The National Dance Project Production Grant is generously supported by the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation. Their generous support and partnership have contributed to the many ways we support artists, presenting organizations, and the communities they choose to engage with and impact.

[Cheri]

This is Cheri speaking.

Let's talk about the National Dance Project.

Now in its third decade, the National Dance Project is widely recognized as one of the country's major sources of funding and field building for dance. NDP has invested more than 46.9 million in funding primarily to support the creation and touring of new dance projects, as well as other initiatives, including production residencies and regionally focused professional development for dance artists.

Today we'll be talking about our major grant program, the Production Grant, which is inclusive of creation and touring support and awards 20 dance projects annually through a competitive two-stage application process. These comprehensive grants are made to projects led by professional choreographers or companies to support the creation and US touring of a new dance project.

This comprehensive framework of support includes: $45,000 to artists/companies towards all costs associated with making the project, $10,000 for production residency and/or community engagement plans, including the costs of activities that support the full realization of the new dance project during a residency experience and/or expenses related to deepening relationships with existing communities or engaging new communities via activities directly related to this new project, $10,000 to artists/companies for general operating support.

With deep thanks to the Doris Duke Foundation, this funding is totally unrestricted. For instance, it can be used for salaries, rent, insurance, retirement, computers, cameras or other equipment, a tour coordinator or administrative support. You can put it towards the project, or for anything.

Production creation funds, general operating support and production residency community engagement funds are paid directly to the artist/company if they are a nonprofit or to their fiscal sponsor.

Additionally, $35,000 is reserved for each project's US tour and it's allocated by the artist/company to US-based organizations to subsidize a presentation of the NDP-funded project and must be used during the work's NDP touring period. Tour funds are allocated by the artist designated tour coordinator and distributed directly to the presenter through the NDP presentation grant process. Tour coordinators may be an agent, a manager, or the artist themselves.

NEFA defines us as all 50 of the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, Washington DC, as well as Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.

[Indira]

This is Indira speaking.

NEFA recognizes that our social climate continues to impact the ways that artists create and intend to share their work. We value their continued ingenuity through changing times and the artistic experiences they choose to share with communities and audiences, whether in-person, virtually, or some imaginative combination of both.

Additionally, NEFA understands that there are more opportunities and interests in artists and companies to share their work virtually, reaching a more global audience. While we support the many ways artists and companies have been able to expand their reach, it is important to note that the NDP tour subsidy can only be allocated to US-based organizations. This, of course, does not prevent an artist or company from securing opportunities outside of the US. However, we must be clear about how tour subsidies can be allocated and distributed.

NDP production grant recipients have a window during which they must use the creation funds and tour subsidy. If you or your company's project is selected as an NDP production grantee, the window of time you will have to create, tour and/or share your project is January 1st, 2025, through December 31st, 2028. Please note, touring subsidy can be used for the premier of the NDP-supported project.

[Kristin]

This is Kristin speaking.

To be eligible to apply for a National Dance Project Production Grant, applicants must be able to meet the following criteria at the time of application, which is March 1st, 2024. These eligibility requirements are also always available online at nefa.org, nefa.org.

A few notes about eligibility. Applicants must be professional choreographers or companies. Preference is given to US-based dance artists and companies, but artists and companies based outside the US may apply. We do accept applications from international artists and companies, however, preference is given to US-based dance artists and companies because we recognize that many countries have different and/or more robust funding opportunities for artists. Additionally, keep in mind that all NEFA funds must be paid to a US-based organization.

Applicants must propose a new dance project to be developed and toured or shared. Projects may be interdisciplinary and can include creators in other artistic forms, including hybrid art forms. We recognize continued and involving ideas of dance and movement-based forms of expression. However, this grant will be evaluated by a dance panel, and there is an expectation that the focus of the project will have a movement-based practice or process.

At the time of application, projects may be in an early, mid or late stage of development, so long as the project is not scheduled to premiere before October 1st, 2024. Artists and companies proposing projects that will premiere after fall of 2026 may consider applying in March of 2025. We recommend this potential delay of the application process until the project is in a later stage of development, as this may allow the applicant to be able to more clearly articulate the project and its goals through our application process.

Applicants can only submit or appear in one application per choreographer or company, including applications for a project that will be created by a guest choreographer on another company. Applications including a work that will be created by a guest choreographer on another company are considered to be part of the one application per choreographer or company. If you are a company interested in submitting an application with a guest choreographer, please be in touch with that choreographer to ensure that they themselves will not be applying, or that they have not given permission to another company to apply as well.

Applicants must work with at least one US-based organizational partner committed to supporting the development and/or presentation of the proposed new project. We will go into further detail about what organizational partners look like and the kinds of resources they may provide to a project later in this presentation.

Applicants must have nonprofit status or a nonprofit fiscal sponsor who will act on their behalf. If you do not have nonprofit status, you may work with a fiscal sponsor. You do not have to have a fiscal sponsor or nonprofit status confirmed in order to apply, but you will need to have one or the other to receive payments should your project advance to the finalist stage. We are not able to make grant payments to individual artists, LLC entities, or organizations incorporated outside of the US.

Applicants will be expected to fulfill the requirements and reports for grant recipients, if awarded.

At this time, we are not able to accept applications that fall within the following categories: artists/companies currently in a creation period from an NDP production grant, or who are currently touring with NDP support through the end of the current calendar year. If you are a current National Dance Project Production Grantee and have not completed all aspects of the project supported by NDP funding, including your touring/sharing, you are not eligible to apply at this time. If you have recently received NDP support and you are not sure about your status, please be in touch with us as this varies by project. We will only discuss the eligibility of a project with the artists who are associated.

School, youth or student companies and groups. We are not able to support projects that are working primarily with youth under 18 or students, especially if those youth are the main performers, and that does include college students. The primary artists involved in the creation and performing of the work should be professional, which generally equates to being paid for their time, though there is some nuance within that definition.

Artists/companies who are planning to self-produce their NDP tour. As part of the overall package that each funded project will receive the NDP tour subsidy of $35,000 per project will support up to 50% of the artist fee per touring or sharing engagement. These funds are paid to presenters on a reimbursement basis. Subsidy cannot be paid to the artist/company receiving the NDP production grant. NEFA defines a self-produced tour as engagements which are being mainly supported financially by the touring artist or company. The touring subsidy cannot be paid to the artist/company, also referred to as the grantee, receiving a production grant, and therefore engagements supported by touring subsidy must have some kind of artist fee associated with the engagement that is paid to the artist/company by a separate entity. The separate entity is then reimbursed by NEFA via a presentation grant for a portion of that artist fee. The kinds of organizations that may receive presentation grants as part of a grantee's NDP-supported touring/sharing period are varied. We do not strictly mean performing arts centers and dance presenters. Many kinds of 501c3 nonprofit organizations can receive touring subsidy as part of an NDP-supported touring/sharing period.

Artists/companies with an overdue grantee report to NEFA. To regain eligibility, outstanding grantee reports must be submitted online to NEFA prior to the deadline of March 1st, 2024. If you have an outstanding grantee report with any NEFA programs, we will not be able to accept a new application at this time, so please be in touch with us to restore your eligibility. Grantee reports that are outstanding must be submitted and approved by NEFA staff prior to the application deadline of March 1st, 2024. We cannot make exceptions at this time. Any outstanding grant reports can always be viewed in your account through our online portal.

Please note, if you are a New England-based artist or company and are a grantee of another NEFA program and have concerns about your eligibility based on your other grant status, please contact an NDP team member to confirm your eligibility.

Artists/companies creating dance projects that are specifically made for camera or dance film. The intention of the production grants is to support a live engagement of some kind. Film may be associated with the engagement, but there should be an intention of live performance happening in association with the film. Given the current landscape, we understand this may be happening virtually. We are looking for the intention of live performance. Whether that can realistically happen continues to change, and we understand the complications and nuances of this.

All grant applications are evaluated based on the following criteria across both application rounds. Myself, Cheri, and Indira have no role in determining the 20 artists and companies that will receive NDP support. The selection process is guided by a rotating group of advisors who are leaders in the dance field, including dance artists, presenters, administrators, independent arts consultants, curators, educators, and social justice practitioners. Collectively, they're responsible for selecting the 20 projects that will receive the NDP production grant and serve as a policy and accountability council for NDP's overall process.

There are 12 individuals serving in this role for 2024 and that information will be made public on our website in the near future. Though we acknowledge that 12 individuals cannot amply account for the richness of diversity within our field and country, we remain committed to uplifting new voices and perspectives each year as part of our process. The process of selecting and guiding these individuals is done with deep consideration and commitment to our values. We seek individuals who represent various communities and life experiences that will support the assessment, evaluation, and discussion of applications during the grant panel meetings. As decision makers, NDP advisors understand the impacts of equitably distributing resources and intentionally prioritize countering against structural inequities that have excluded individuals and communities from opportunity based on race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, class, culture, language, age, and geography.

These 12 advisors evaluate each application individually based on the following criteria: support the creation and development and US touring/sharing, virtual or in-person, of new dance projects that demonstrate excellence in artists' practice; support new dance projects within a range of cultural and aesthetic diversities that bolsters today's dance field; reflect partnerships with organizations that are essential to the realizations of the proposed new dance project; applications must include at least one US-based partner; demonstrate a commitment to an engagement process with four communities and audiences because of the new dance project's, relevance, originality and/or timeliness; develop a viable plan for touring/sharing the supported project in multiple communities in the US and its territories.

We also want to acknowledge the virtual space we have found ourselves in more and more, and what that means for touring sustainability and NDP's tour subsidy. Artists are welcome to share their work internationally. We do encourage this, but keep in mind we are not able to distribute NDP funds to international organizations. Therefore, we are not able to financially support those engagements.

- [Cheri]

This is Cheri speaking.

NDP believes strongly in artist organizational partnerships to strengthen the development of new projects and to connect communities to dance. As part of your application, you will need to identify organizational partners that will support you in reaching the goals of your project, which can range from ideation to community engagement, to how you will tour and/or share your work, and while projects may have more than one partner, and you must list at least one on the application form, but you can and should include information about additional partners in the narrative section.

The National Dance Project defines organizational partners as US nonprofit organizations who have working relationships with dance artists or companies and are committed to providing support for the creation and/or touring of the proposed project. Organizational partners can be community-based, institutions of higher education, cultural organizations or producing and presenting performing arts centers, et cetera. The organizational partner is not required to present the finished work at any time, though many do.

The organizational partner overview.

An organizational partner may provide a variety of resources during the creation and/or touring/sharing of a project, including but not limited to: access to communities who will be involved in the research, creation and/or presentation of the new work, residency space, mentorship, presentations, commissioning support, tour planning assistance, administrative guidance or support, research assistance, marketplace advocacy, and the leveraging of additional funds for the project. The partner does not have to be a presenter.

Additionally, the applicant should demonstrate how the partnership is supporting the new project and it is also beneficial to understand how the partnership will support the goals of the organization, demonstrating reciprocity in the relationship.

Please note, on the application there is a partnership narrative question to uplift the relationships and support you may be receiving from any and all partnerships. Additionally, there is a tab to uplift one main or lead partnership. We will go over this further when we get to the narrative questions section.

[Kristin]

This is Kristin speaking.

The following slides will offer some insight for how to submit an application to NEFA, as well as some tips and important information about our online grant portal.

Before you begin a production grant application, you will have the ability to preview the application narrative questions that you will be required to answer. These questions are available on the production grant informational page by clicking the preview application questions hyperlink from the gray box located on the upper right-hand side of the page.

Instructions for how to start a new form.

When you are ready to start an application, scroll down and click on Apply Now from the same location.

Please only click the Apply Now button once, as this will bring you to a brand new blank form every single time you click the button, which is frustrating for you as well as for us. If you have already completed this step once, to get back to an already saved version, you may click the Resume My Application button also located in the same place. Otherwise, you'll continue to have to fill in the same information over and over, and it creates duplicate applications in our system, which are tricky to navigate for both ourselves and for you.

Instructions for how to return to an already started form.

Once you have started and saved an application form, you can return to your form at any time from a few different locations. First, you'll find a Return to Grant Application link at the bottom of any page on nefa.org. Second, you'll also find a link to return to your grant application underneath the Apply Now button on the production grant informational page. Third, you can bookmark the portal login page and return to your application directly any time.

Whichever option you choose, all of them will navigate you back to the grants portal login page, where you can log into your online account and access any applications or report forms you have started and/or have completed. It will show you the status of each form, for instance, In Progress, Submitted or Awarded.

Everyone who has not applied with this system previously will have to create a new account. Please use the beginning of your email as your username or something similar and easy for you to remember. The portal will not accept the @ part. For example, my email address is kgregory@nefa.org. The system will not accept this as my username, but to make it easy for me to remember, I would use kgregory as my username. If you don't remember your password, click on Forgot Your Password. It's much easier and more efficient than requesting a new password through an NDP staff member. We can look up your username if you have forgotten it, but again, I do recommend using your email address or something else easy to remember. NDP staff have restricted permissions in our system, and we are not able to change your username or password for you, nor can we see what your current password might be, so please use the Forgot Password link on the portal landing page. If you are still having difficulty accessing your account, or if you are having any application submission issues or need tech support once you are logged in, please contact tech@nefa.org. That's tech@nefa.org. This email is heavily monitored, and will often received a much swifter, and more helpful, email response than if you were to contact NDP staff directly.

We do hope that the portal is easily navigated and more accessible to folks, though we continue to address access issues. If you need an alternate format for application submission, please contact our accessibility coordinator, Jane Preston at jpreston@nefa.org. That's jpreston@nefa.org.

After clicking Apply Now and logging in, you will be taken to a blank inquiry form immediately. To start a new form, you must click Apply Now. You will not be able to start a new form directly from the portal.

Once in the blank form, we recommend entering at least your name and project title first and hitting save immediately. This will ensure that the form saves in your portal and you can view and return to it at any time.

Please save often. Our system will not auto-save for you, and if you have not saved information that has been entered, there is nothing we can do to get it back for you. We recommend viewing the form and copying the required information over into a Word Doc or a Google Doc or some other word processing program and working editing on your application from there. When you are ready to submit your application, you can then copy and paste everything back into the online form. This also ensures that you have a copy of your materials if anything should ever happen to our system.

Please pay attention to the character counts. We cannot do anything to help you if you go over character limits. The form will not allow you to submit, and we do not have the ability to override this. Character counts are inclusive of special characters, spaces and paragraph marks. Special formatting, including bold, underline, and italics, will not appear in the form. Bullets, tab and numbering may appear in the form different to how they appear in a Word document and may take up extra characters than you had allotted for. The form does allow diacritical marks.

When you return to our grant system to find an already started application, you will not immediately see it on the dashboard. You will need to navigate to the Inquiry section, in blue on the left-hand side of the browser, and from there you should see your already started application. Additionally, you can preview previous applications in the Closed Items tab anytime you wish. You are welcome to copy and paste from previous applications if you would like to.

[Indira]

This is Indira speaking.

As mentioned earlier, the selection of NDP grantees is the sole responsibility of the 12 NDP advisors. They seek to select projects that represent the fullness of our field as exemplified through NEFA's values, as well as artistic and life experiences, career stage, dance, aesthetics, forms, genres and more. As you complete your NDP proposal, we encourage you to answer all questions to the best of your knowledge, including sharing aspects of your project and subsequent touring that are still in ideation. Remember, while you will respond to each question separately, all of your responses should work together to provide the advisors with a full understanding of your proposed new dance project.

Now, we will share the narrative questions that you will need to answer as part of the 2024 NDP Production Grant Preliminary Application. As part of this review, we will also provide insight on what to consider when crafting your responses.

Question one, "Please describe the proposed new dance project." While this question may seem self-explanatory, it is also an opportunity for you to share with advisors why this project is important now.”

This narrative question aligns with the criteria that states, "Support the creation/development and US touring or sharing, virtual or in-person of a new dance project that demonstrates excellence in artists' practice.”

Question two, "Please share the full," and I repeat full, "timeline for the proposed new dance project, inclusive of an ideation phase, creation/development period, projected premier date or window, and desired touring and sharing timeframes."

This question is an opportunity for you to outline in a more concise and linear way how the project comes together. You can think of it as a quick guide for sharing your project's key activities from its ideation phase to creative process and residencies, the project's premier, and the project's desired touring and sharing plans. Please note, we understand that some applicants have been working on their project prior to applying to NDP. You should feel empowered to still include that information, as it relates to the project timeline.

This narrative question aligns with the criteria that states, "Support the creation/development and US touring or sharing, virtual or in-person, of a new dance project that demonstrates excellence in artists' practice."

Question three, "What does success mean to you in respect to the proposed new dance project?" What is your overall desired impact for the project?”

This is a very important question. It offers space for you to define success on your own terms and uplift your values as it relates to your project. This response will ground the advisors in how they assess and evaluate your application by centering your definition of success and desired impact for your project. Ideally, how you answer this question should be in alignment with the ways in which you will choose to engage with community, establish partnerships, and explore creative methodologies as part of the project.

This narrative question aligns with the criteria that states, "Support new dance projects within a range of cultural and aesthetic diversities that bolsters today's dance field."

Question four, "Who are the communities and audiences this proposed new dance project is intended for, and how do you plan to connect with them?"

Here, the advisors are interested in learning more about the communities and audiences you desire to reach through your proposed new dance project and how you will engage with them. This goes beyond the presentational aspect of the project and should include other ideas for deepening and/or building connections with the audiences and communities that you have identified. It is also important to acknowledge that we recognize that who you create your project with and who you create your project for may not be the same. Providing this level of specificity is very important to furthering the advisor's understanding of your proposed new dance project.

This narrative question aligns with the criteria that states, "Demonstrate a commitment to an engagement process with and/or for communities and audiences because of the new dance project's relevance, originality, and/or timeliness."

Question five, "How will accessibility be addressed in the proposed new dance project? Please be explicit in naming the communities that your project desires to be more accessible to and/or for.”

We encourage you to also revisit NEFA's EDIA statement which was shared earlier in the presentation. As NEFA deepens its EDIA work, we felt it was important to uplift accessibility as part of this application in a more intentional way. You will notice that we, as NEFA, have not defined what accessibility is. We recognize that the term accessibility can encompass a lot of things. However, the advisors are interested in understanding more about your plans to address accessibility specifically as it relates to your proposed new dance project. This will show up differently for all applicants based on the themes within your work, the communities and audiences you wish to engage with, and your desired impact.

Keep in mind that as the advisors review your application, they are looking for alignment, and certain responses will provide them with the additional context. For example, your project may deal with specific themes or bolster a creative process that requires a particular approach to community engagement and accessibility. It may even guide who you choose to collaborate and/or partner with to support the development of this project. The advisors will be looking for how all of this connects throughout your application, especially as it relates to your and/or the project's values that have been shared.

Lastly, we recognize that the work of accessibility is not that of artists alone. It is a matter of collective responsibility that we hope is amplified in your application through the partnerships you choose to engage with for creation/development and/or the US touring and sharing of your project.

Question six, "Who are the current organizational partners for the proposed new dance project? What are their contributions and why are they important to helping you reach your project goals?"

We want to emphasize that for this question, the advisors are assessing and evaluating what the organizational partners are doing for you and the project, not the other way around. It is important that what is shared in this response supports a clear understanding of alignment between your goals for the project and the organizational partner's involvement. This question also provides space for the advisors to begin to understand more about your partnership network and lean into how that will not only support the creation and development of your proposed new dance project, but also the potential touring and sharing opportunities.

This narrative question aligns with the criteria that states, "Reflect partnerships with organizations that are essential to the realization of the proposed new project."

Question seven, "Please describe your creative process or practice and how it supports achieving the goals you outlined above. For collaborative models of making, include how and why the collaborators contributions are integral to the realization of the proposed new dance project."

At this point in the application, you have shared a lot about your project, its intention and desired impact. Now, the advisors want to directly connect how your creative process or practice will support you in manifesting your project goals.

Question eight, "In addition to the performers and collaborators, how does this project contribute to the diversities of today's dance field?"

As part of NDP, we value how artists are choosing to advance, enhance, or subvert various forms of dance. We remain committed to disrupting the perpetual exclusion and erasure of artists representing forms, genres, practices, traditions, lineages, experiences and/or identities through their projects. We believe that representation is important, and creating space for challenging and rich dialogue is essential to manifesting the change we seek in the world. We recognize that the contributions of diverse artistic collaborators, including the dancers, is important. However, the advisors seek to also understand how the overall proposed new dance project is contributing to the diversities of today's dance field.

This narrative question aligns with the criteria that states, "Support new dance projects within a range of cultural and aesthetic diversities that bolsters today's dance field."

And the last question, question nine, "How do you imagine the proposed new dance project being toured or shared? How will your previous touring or sharing experiences inform these ideas?"

Given this grant is a creation and touring funding opportunity, we felt it was important for the advisors to begin to understand how applicants are imagining their project being toured or shared at the preliminary stage. While we understand that tour planning takes time, the desire to tour or share your project should already exist. There should not be an expectation that if or because you receive NDP funding, that touring will then manifest. We encourage you to revisit what you have shared already in your application, especially as it relates to the communities and audiences you intend to impact, and your partnership network.

This narrative question aligns with the criteria that states, "Develop a viable plan for touring or sharing the supported project in multiple communities in the US and its territories."

As a reminder, when inside of the portal, we encourage you to press save often when filling in responses. Unfortunately, our current system will not auto-save, and any information you have entered will not be able to be retrieved for you. Should you have any questions as you prepare your preliminary application, the NDP team invites you to lean on us as a resource, as it is our desire to support you in submitting your most confident application.

[Cheri]

This is Cheri speaking.

This application requires you to offer a three-minute work sample. For work samples longer than three minutes, clearly indicate cue times. If you are submitting two clips, each clip should be at least one minute in length. All video work samples should utilize original audio if available. Since you are applying for funding of a project not yet fully produced, you may submit a clip of the in-progress project named in the application. Video of the proposed project is not required. However, we recommend that you submit work samples that show the capacity by the artist or company to fully realize their ideas. This is an opportunity to connect and align the narrative answers to the application with the visual manifestation of the work. A clip of similar work with the company or choreographer named in the application, or a combination of both.

The description field offers an opportunity to highlight your choices. These might include important collaborators, content and context relating to the new project. We encourage you to use the description to offer what you want the advisors to see within the work samples. Please also note that the panel reviewers will be looking at these on computers, tablets, and phone screens, so please be mindful of very dark or hard to see images, or audio that is not clear.

For work sample submission, please upload video work samples to the video sharing sites of Vimeo or Google Drive. Enter the URL link to the video in the Work Sample Link form field. Please include one work sample per section. For multiple work samples, please enter the information in the order the videos should be viewed. And for password-protected links, please provide the password.

Do not change the permissions for video before May 1st, 2024, and ensure that videos can be downloaded. If you are a company and you are looking to bring in another choreographer, it is helpful to see a sample from the company who will be performing the work, as well as the artist who is creating the work.

And a reminder, if you do not submit specific cue times, advisors will watch the first three minutes and will stop after three minutes total. NDP staff are not responsible for contacting applicants for work sample corrections.

[Kristin]

This is Kristin speaking.

All applicants will be notified of their application status in early May. The second stage full proposal application is by invitation only, selected from the pool of applications submitted on March 1st, 2024.

For those applications not selected, we do offer an opportunity for all applicants to receive feedback each fall.

Up to 40 applicants are invited to submit full proposals by June 10th, 2024. Applicants invited to submit proposals will be paired with one of the 12 NDP advisors. Advisors will work with finalists on the development of full proposal applications. They can let you know any questions that came up about your application during the panel meeting, and will provide panel feedback. They can also look at your budget, narrative questions, help you select work samples, et cetera. As a finalist, it is important to get your application materials to your advisor well in advance of the deadline so that they have time to read, review, provide feedback, et cetera, ahead of the June application deadline. We encourage you to start your application as early as possible.

During the open application phase, we try to make ourselves as available as possible to answer questions and support applicants with technical difficulties. However, please keep in mind that there are only three of us and last year we had 167 eligible applications. If you have questions or are having difficulty, please reach out early, as we cannot guarantee our availability and responsiveness as the deadline approaches. We are not available after 5:00 PM Eastern Standard time on the day of the deadline, which is March 1st, 2024, though you do have until 11:59 PM Eastern Standard time to submit your application.

If you run into issues with the portal, lose power or are having some other kind of issues after 5:00 PM on the day of the deadline, please send us an email as soon as you are able, but know that we will not be able to support you until we return to the office on the following business day. We will be in touch with you about any issues experienced trying to submit your proposal should the circumstances require some more support.

NDP staff are able to provide feedback for all applicants. However, this is a very involved process, and it takes time to gather panel feedback, as well as to have the availability in our calendars to give these conversations the time and space they deserve. We appreciate your patience with this process. We are able to begin scheduling feedback calls in the fall. Applicants will be notified of the process to receive panel feedback on applicants' application submissions via email following the conclusion of the full grant process in early fall 2024. Feedback is provided via a phone call with an NDP staff member. We do not provide written feedback.

If you are interested in learning about the National Dance Project, NEFA's strategic plan, about our grant system, the NDP Panel Review process, last year's NDP advisors, or the most recent grant recipients, you can find all of these resources and many more on nefa.org.

[Indira]

This is Indira speaking.

This concludes our 2024 NDP Production Grant informational webinar. As always, should you have any questions, we encourage you to contact us prior to submitting your preliminary application on March 1st, 2024. All of our contact information can be found on NEFA's website at www.nefa.org. We thank you for joining us and look forward to receiving your applications.