Theory of Change
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
The future of dance in Metro Boston is at risk due to a small population of professional dancers and a lack of long term structural support and limited pathways for creating a sustainable career. Early-career artists, particularly artists of color, face these local challenges combined with larger societal issues, including rising cost of living, gentrification, structural racism and other forms of systemic oppression, and more. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these issues by forcing vulnerable artists to leave the area, increasing the generational and genre-based siloing between dance artists, and harming the most marginalized artists in our community in ways that are still experienced today.
THEORY OF CHANGE:
MIDDAY believes that there is a unique opportunity to create a more vibrant and just arts sector by supporting emerging dance artists and developing their capacity to become future leaders -- artistically, administratively, and in advocacy. Using the ecological principle of keystone species, MIDDAY sees teacher-choreographers as "keystone artists" in the dance ecosystem: simply by the nature of their work, teacher-choreographers impact professional dancers, studios and performance venues, audiences, and more. We believe that, by training these new dance leaders in sustainable practices that center and even normalize creativity and justice, while teaching them to optimize their resonant impact in their communities, we will collectively transform the dance sector -- locally and beyond.