Donate to the BIPOC Professional Dancer Mentorship
A Word From Our Director:
We at MIDDAY are excited and inspired by the impactful change we fostered in the first cycle of our BIPOC Professional Dancer Mentorship Program, and we are dedicated to making it a fixture in our ongoing programming. We need your help to make this happen! The BIPOC Professional Dancer Mentorship Program requires about $12,000 to run, with costs including:
• Class-taking stipends ($750 per mentee)
• Personal stipends ($500 per mentee)
• food and program supplies ($1900)
• 62 total mentorship hours (valued at $50/hour)
• space rental for cohort meetings and final events (about $1000)
• professional development workshop facilitators ($800)
This budget does not include our Director's donation of administrative hours (valued at $9600)
Help us sustain this program! Click the button below to donate via our fiscal sponsor, Studio at 550. Comment in the "Note" field to indicate your donation is for the BIPOC Dancer Mentorship Program.
We at MIDDAY are excited and inspired by the impactful change we fostered in the first cycle of our BIPOC Professional Dancer Mentorship Program, and we are dedicated to making it a fixture in our ongoing programming. We need your help to make this happen! The BIPOC Professional Dancer Mentorship Program requires about $12,000 to run, with costs including:
• Class-taking stipends ($750 per mentee)
• Personal stipends ($500 per mentee)
• food and program supplies ($1900)
• 62 total mentorship hours (valued at $50/hour)
• space rental for cohort meetings and final events (about $1000)
• professional development workshop facilitators ($800)
This budget does not include our Director's donation of administrative hours (valued at $9600)
Help us sustain this program! Click the button below to donate via our fiscal sponsor, Studio at 550. Comment in the "Note" field to indicate your donation is for the BIPOC Dancer Mentorship Program.
Apply to the BIPOC Professional Dancer Mentorship Program
Midday Movement Series is thrilled to launch our second cycle of the BIPOC Professional Dancer Mentorship, a mentorship program supporting early-career BIPOC professional contemporary dancers to establish their dance paths in Metro Boston. This program aims to empower and celebrate early-career BIPOC dancers by creating a sense of connection and community, and by providing a space to address the impacts of structural inequities and strategies to help navigate and overcome them.
This program is a crucial part of MIDDAY's racial justice work. By providing a new generation of BIPOC dance artists with resources and support to create their own sense of purpose and belonging in the Greater Boston dance community, MIDDAY will continue to cultivate a sustainable and vibrant local dance sector that is directly shaped by the voices and self-determination of artists of color.
This program is a crucial part of MIDDAY's racial justice work. By providing a new generation of BIPOC dance artists with resources and support to create their own sense of purpose and belonging in the Greater Boston dance community, MIDDAY will continue to cultivate a sustainable and vibrant local dance sector that is directly shaped by the voices and self-determination of artists of color.
Program Description:
In this eight month program, four early-career professional contemporary dancers (4 years of experience or less) will receive and commit to the following:
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Eligibility Criteria
This program is open to contemporary dancers of color who are:
Applications Are Open!
Applications for this cycle are now open! Deadline to apply is July 10th, 2023. Click below to apply now! Questions? Email us for more information.
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Inaugural BIPOC Professional Dancer Mentees (2022-2023)
This program is supported in part by grants from the following:
The Somerville Arts Council
The Boston Cultural Council, administered by the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture
The Somerville Arts Council
The Boston Cultural Council, administered by the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture
Why Is BIPOC Mentorship Necessary in Dance?
Relationship- and community-building pathways for newly arrived dance artists is crucial in our local dance sector in general. Metro Boston's professional dance sector --even among dance professionals-- is often described as "hidden" and "hard to find," as well as "deeply siloed" and difficult to navigate. Mentorship provides an opportunity for more seasoned artists to not only welcome new artists in and orient them within the local landscape, but also allows for resource sharing and "showing them the ropes;" formal and informal goal-setting; networking; encouragement and artistic growth; and more. Mentorship has proven to be a valuable resource across sectors, and the dance sector is no different.
For BIPOC artists, the need is even greater. Due to a lack of visibility across the sector and representation in sector leadership, BIPOC artists are prone to isolation, macro- and micro-aggressions, and a lack of a sense of belonging, dance artists of color have a hard time making Metro Boston their home, especially in predominantly white genres such as contemporary dance. This program seeks to addres some of these needs.
In addition, living as a person of color in Metro Boston is difficult enough on its own, due to issues including gentrification and cultural erasure; housing, food, and medical injustice; the historical and growing wealth gap, and more. Below are a few resources that provide more detail and data about these specific hardships:
The Weathering Hypothesis
As summarized by PubMed: "The weathering hypothesis states that chronic exposure to social and economic disadvantage leads to accelerated decline in physical health outcomes and could partially explain racial disparities in a wide array of health conditions." The weathering hypothesis was originally proposed in 1992 by public health researcher Dr. Arline T Geronimus to explain disparities she observed in health outcomes especially for Black women.
WEALTH + OPPORTUNITIES
MEDICAL RACISM
For BIPOC artists, the need is even greater. Due to a lack of visibility across the sector and representation in sector leadership, BIPOC artists are prone to isolation, macro- and micro-aggressions, and a lack of a sense of belonging, dance artists of color have a hard time making Metro Boston their home, especially in predominantly white genres such as contemporary dance. This program seeks to addres some of these needs.
In addition, living as a person of color in Metro Boston is difficult enough on its own, due to issues including gentrification and cultural erasure; housing, food, and medical injustice; the historical and growing wealth gap, and more. Below are a few resources that provide more detail and data about these specific hardships:
The Weathering Hypothesis
As summarized by PubMed: "The weathering hypothesis states that chronic exposure to social and economic disadvantage leads to accelerated decline in physical health outcomes and could partially explain racial disparities in a wide array of health conditions." The weathering hypothesis was originally proposed in 1992 by public health researcher Dr. Arline T Geronimus to explain disparities she observed in health outcomes especially for Black women.
WEALTH + OPPORTUNITIES
- The Color of Wealth in Boston: A 2015 study looking at the widening wealth gap in Boston
- For entrepreneurs of color, Boston lacks access and capital: A 2020 publication from MIT Sloan
- Boston’s Booming - But For Whom? : A 2018 study from Boston Indicators
MEDICAL RACISM