Popular annual productions such as “The Nutcracker,” Trolley Dances and “Ghost Light Masquerade” can be likened to a garden of flowers in San Diego’s dance ecosystem.
Sadly, the threat of getting mowed down by budget cuts and rising costs has permeated the arts landscape.
Despite the fact that dance productions drive economic growth and contribute to a city’s culture, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is proposing a 10% cut to arts funding, and The National Endowment for the Arts is barring applicants with any DEI-related programs.
It could mean fewer professional dance productions and fewer technically outstanding dancers.
But five years after the pandemic shutdown upended the arts world, a lack of grant funding is just one of the many issues that threaten San Diego’s dance community. We spoke to four local company leaders about challenges unique to dance organizations that present shows, in addition to operating schools and serving the community through outreach programs.
Cat Corral
Cat Corral is the co-founder of TranscenDance, a creative development nonprofit celebrating its 20th year. It uses dance and dance performance to shape, build leadership and add meaning the lives of underserved youth.
Matt Carney
Matt Carney, who earned a master’s degree in public administration from San Diego State, started with San Diego Ballet as a company dancer. He also taught adult classes, served as director of communications and, in 2020, accepted the position of executive director.
Molly Puryear
Molly Puryear began teaching the Malashock Dance outreach programs in 2006 when it first opened its studio in the Dorothea Laub Dance Place at Liberty Station. She then served as education director, became company executive director in 2015 and assumed the role of CEO last year.
Terry Wilson
Terry Wilson was a dancer when she met San Diego Dance Theater founder Jean Isaacs in the 1980s. She worked alongside Isaacs as associate artistic director and is currently in her fourth year as SDDT’s executive artistic director. Wilson, who earned a MFA in dance from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UC San Diego, is also a dance professor at City College of San Diego and a UCSD dance lecturer.
Q: How important is grant funding to dance organizations?
Cat Corral, TranscenDance: We are concerned. The executive orders happening at the federal level have a ripple impact, and we are looking at funding cuts from many government sources, from the federal, state and city levels. We really need the local foundations and individual philanthropists to help us close those gaps.
Terry Wilson, SDDT: There are a lot of hands in the pie right now. You’re competing with everyone in the state of California. Everyone wants to uplift voices that have never been heard. But there are very few operating support grants that are undesignated, so you have to create your fiscal year a year ahead and you have to design your funding to support what you design.
Molly Puryear, Malashock: It is almost impossible to find general operating support that is unrestricted, funds we can use to pay the rent and to pay salaries. When we get grants, foundation or state grants or federal contracts, those are project-based. We may be able to self-produce two or three productions per year, but ticket sales may cover about 30% of what it costs to put on a production. In between that time, we are still running a business. That’s where public support comes in.
Q: A company of skilled dancers who can consistently perform specific roles are integral to a successful season. The ballet season lasts around 8 months, yet dance professionals must be available for rehearsals and performances in addition to attending classes that maintain optimum physicality. What staffing challenges do professional companies face?
Matt Carney, San Diego Ballet: Even though all of our dancers are employees making more than the minimum wage, we find that there are dancers who accept contracts with other companies in other cities for less money because it’s more affordable to live there.
Wilson: There’s a lot of mystery around what we do. Some people think Trolley Dances should be free, but it’s not practical. We hire 35 dancers for Trolley Dances and we pay them hourly. We pay taxes and do all the administrative work to keep the payroll going for the four months that we are working on that project.
Puryear: Dancers have to prioritize the job that offers health care or a higher rate. In order to ask for that on and off dedication, it means they have to be negotiating with all their employers to keep everyone happy. It’s a really tough job for a dancer, even though they are employees. It is hustling and leading a gig lifestyle in a city that is too expensive to do that.
Q: Rents for studio space at Dance Place, where San Diego Ballet, The Rosin Box Project, San Diego Dance Theater and other dance companies are stationed, can cost between $5,000 and $10,000 per month. The cost of renting a professional theater for performances, which can include additional charges that cover staffing by union theater workers, can cost from $20,000 to $35,000 per day. How does that impact decision-making?
Carney: Dance is particularly affected by this. We’re not doing a one-person play — we need square footage to rehearse and we work with about 25 dancers on any particular show. We’ve had to adjust. We could have fewer dancers or pay them less, but we didn’t go that route. For example, on May 17, we have two “Romeo et Juliet” shows at the Balboa Theatre in one day, rather than a show on Saturday and Sunday. But that means that Romeo and Juliet have to die twice in one day. Physically, it’s hard to do.
Puryear: Prices for renting theaters have gone way up and you have to take whatever may be available. It might not be an ideal time in the season and it creates a lot of logistical challenges. There are some gorgeous middle and high school theaters out there, but I think there is a misconception about their affordability for a small nonprofit organization like ours.
Corral: We try to get sponsors to offset the cost of the rental and all the production costs. It’s about going to individual donors and local foundations and relying on ticket income and doing a raffle at intermission. It’s a real hodgepodge of bringing in funds in a variety of ways to make it all happen.
Q: What are your hopes going forward?
Corral: You don’t just have to care about dance, you do have to care about the voices of youth in San Diego and how the arts can be so transformative in their lives, whether they become professionals or not. Dance allows our youth to have an embodied experience.
Puryear: I love an intimate studio performance. But it’s not the same as sitting in a theater and experiencing something with 400 or 500 other people and getting the lighting and the production capacity a theater has. Financial support for space is really critical right now. I also think that general operating support that allows the organizations that are on the front lines to decide how to spend funding, as opposed to dictating that monies be spent on a specific type of project, will help to create a healthier and more sustainable ecosystem. We need those things up front.
Carney: We are working hard to maintain concert dance. The audience goes in, the lights go up on the stage and it’s a transcendental experience where you can get a break from the chaos of the world. The best thing we can do to get people to support dance is to get them to see dance, to get them to experience an art form that has historically been connected to social change and to enlivening the culture.
Wilson: San Diego Dance Theater has been a cornerstone of presenting modern dance for more than 50 years. We are going to reframe the Emerging Choreographer Showcase, reprise Live Arts Fest and continue to support local artists with the support of my team. We’ll do the best we can to uphold the reputation we have.
Originally Published: