Donate Today to Help Support
The Dance Data Project®
Deos Contemporary Ballet will present Ember Series ’25
Photo by Lynell Shooks
Donate Today to Help Support
Your gift helps to promote equity! We’ve come a long way, and your help can take us further. Now more than ever it is essential that we work together to raise awareness and fight for gender equality in the Arts.
When you donate to Dance Data Project®, you are helping to change the world of Dance. Your financial contribution helps to sustain DDP’s mission to raise awareness related to gender equality and provide much needed resources to our community of artists. Your gift supports our ongoing efforts in:
- Research
- Advocacy
- Resources
- Programming
Your gift, using the form, is a fast secure way to support equality!
We also accept checks and appreciated securities – electronic funds transfer through ACH.
DANCE DATA PROJECT®
790 Frontage Road
Suite 224
Northfield, IL 60093
dancedataproject@gmail.com
p: 847-441-2396
f: 847-441-4148
FEIN: 82-4819032
To view past 990s, please reach out to the email above.
Dance Data Project® is delighted to announce that our application for change in status to a public charity has been approved by the IRS as of April 17th, 2025. DDP applied for and was granted an extension on filing our 2024 990s.
DDP now accepts Zelle contributions through admin@dancedataproject.com.
DDP also accepts donations in the form of securities through our Fidelity Charitable account. If you are interested, please reach out to swilkins@dancedataproject.com.
Dance Data Project® was created to examine gender imbalance in artistic and administrative leadership in dance companies, venues, and organizations. By issuing data reports, advocacy, and programming, DDP raises awareness related to gender equality, primarily in areas of leadership and choreographic opportunities. We are the only organization doing this vital work to produce metrics-based research clearly outlining issues of equity and transparency in the dance industry.
Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy’s 2023 Women & Girls Index found that “Women’s and girls’ organizations received $8.8 billion in philanthropic support in 2020—or 1.8% of overall charitable giving.” This trend in data has remained consistent since 2012 as “philanthropic support for WGI organizations has consistently stayed between 1.5% and 1.9% of overall charitable giving.” This underscores the importance of philanthropic giving to initiatives, companies, and organizations that focus specifically on women.
In the dance industry specifically, DDP’s 2023 Season Overview Report shows that 14.9% of works commissioned by the Largest 10 companies were choreographed by women, despite those companies operating with 58% of the Largest 50’s expenditures during the 2022/2023 season. This indicates a consistent trend by which the largest companies with the most funding are consistently choosing to program less work by women than smaller companies with much smaller budgets. Our research creates the opportunity for a more informed donor base that is able to target giving towards smaller, more equitable organizations. This sort of transparency in the dance industry is vital and lies at the heart of DDP’s work. This accountability also contributes to gender equity by providing concrete means of fostering a more equitable, healthy, and safe workplace as well as ensuring integrity in procedures and policies. DDP specifically tailors our advocacy and programming to the needs of up-and-coming female talent in dance. At the bottom of this page, we’ve provided a snapshot of these initiatives, as well as the research and Listening Tours which inform all of the work that we do at Dance Data Project®.
Even in the time of Big Data, you might be surprised to hear how difficult it can be to get good statistical data on the arts. Like how many tickets were bought to symphony orchestra concerts last year. Or how are the music or theatre or museum sectors doing as businesses. Journalists have difficulty getting accurate recent statistical information they can use for comparisons. The Dance Data Project seeks to remedy that for dance. Over the past half-dozen years the DDP has been working on building and collecting data on what the dance field looks like. The brainchild of Elizabeth Yntema, the DDP now gives us a clearer idea of what the dance field looks like — and its reports get better every year as more comparisons are made. This week, the DDP is out with a statistical survey of large dance companies and chronicles the rebound in budgets and revenues from 2021 (Covid) and fiscal year 2022. It’s a daunting project, and a service to the field.
Data gathering, with good news or bad news, is the lifeblood of innovation. Dance Data Project probes deeply past all the hyperbolic foofaraw that substitutes for real research and then provides the whole community with access to it without fee (as it ought to be). I support the cause because this kind of third-party passion for the truth is staggeringly rare and deserves all the financial support anyone in the field can muster.
It takes courage and conviction to follow one’s moral compass, especially when embarking on a path no one has dared to go down before. Liza Yntema and her Dance Data Project® exemplify this spirit by shining a spotlight on the gender disparities that have persisted in the world of ballet for centuries. Today, DDP serves as a catalyst for change, not only revealing these inequities through rigorous research and data analysis, but also by providing the leadership and training necessary to nurture a new generation of women leaders in the world of dance.
Without women as leaders and creatives in our field, our art form is missing out on half of the experience reflecting on what it means to be human. DDP doesn’t just justify a “feeling” that women aren’t getting their fair share, the data speaks for itself and challenges us all to fight for more opportunities for women. The numbers don’t lie; it’s crystal clear that the road to future financial and artistic success in dance lies squarely through women. I look forward to seeing more of my male colleagues step up (or step aside) and allow women their full place at our creative table. By supporting DDP, we aren’t just wishing for a better future, we’re acting towards change in a meaningful way.
“We assess all dancers based on their ability, artistic quality, potential and suitability for positions rather than any other ‘tick-box’ categories. We want to impart that approach to the companies we end up working with,” says Haw. “I’m also seeking education and self-study from various resources. Dance Data Project has been a great one.”
Why is DDP important to me? Because of the authentic support and resources at the heart of this org.
I think the work you’re doing with Dance Data Project® is fantastic, it’s long overdue and I just hope that more people hear this conversation, they acknowledge the work that’s being done, and drive people to your place because its certainly a wealth of information just in one click.
The Dance Data Project® is the resource I go to for research on many subjects of the dance world, including gender inequality, choreographic guides, and inspired discussions with dynamic female leaders and innovators of today. Liza Yntema is a tour de force that has magnified women’s leadership and innovation in the dance world. I am a huge admirer and have much gratitude for Liza and her team’s work.
With the focus so strongly on the importance of diversifying leadership in the dance world, it is invaluable to have such a comprehensive service as you provide, with a ready-made database of suitable candidates for these roles. Here in the UK, we are seeking to support and develop more women into leadership positions in the arts and your in-depth knowledge of the market across the world for qualified women and women of colour in dance has helped me greatly in my current search for the new Artistic Director of Northern Ballet.
Dance Data Project® is one of the most important entities in terms of dance equity and accountability today. As a dance artist, journalist, and MFA candidate, I absolutely rely on the balanced and transparent information regarding representation, pay and equity in the ballet community. Elizabeth Yntema is a brilliant force. Her sparkling and insightful interviews with leaders in ballet are treasures and her tireless leadership and voice, speaking truth to power, continues to create transformation in the dance world. Forward thinking in terms of actionable items to promote pay and job equity, end abuse in studios and companies and create racial equity, diversity and inclusion creates actual movement in the industry and her personal support of both established and up and coming artists and leaders is commendable. Please contribute any amount to Dance Data Project in their first fundraising event. You can be assured that every dollar will be used wisely, creating transformation in both the present and future of the industry.
What I find the most important about DDP’s work will be the platform created to promote the works and achievements of women in the dance industry. Another element of importance would be all the research providing numbers of the lack of equality in the arts.
We all know that women are underrepresented and underpaid in every profession across the board. I thank Dance Data Project® for highlighting the dance world, showing women the stark truth, and empowering us to reach higher.
The work and information that Dance Data Project provides is immeasurable. This is something we needed long ago. Liza Yntema and her team are true supporters and advocates in the advancement of women in dance. It was a pleasure meeting and getting to know her and I was so grateful that she took the time to come out to Dayton, Ohio to and see what we are all about. I hope that many generations to come in the dance world will be able to utilize the data that they make easily available to everyone.
Liza Yntema and the Dance Data Project® team have masterfully championed organizational transparency, boldly dismantling decades of gatekeeping in the dance world through their comprehensive and strategic efforts. DDP’s commitment educates stakeholders, provides a clear, transformative roadmap for institutional growth, and represents a powerful model of positive systemic change.
Dance Data Project and the work that Liza and her team do to elevate women choreographers continues to shine a bright light on the numerous artists that often go unnoticed, under-commissioned and under supported. As a choreographer and Artistic Director, I often visit DDP’s page for resources, data points, and stories from my colleagues in the field. As a producer of new work, I’m thankful for the coverage that DDP has given to our emerging artists through the years. As a professor of Ballet, it’s great to have the statistics and data reports at my fingertips to share with my students and to give them an idea of the industry that they are heading into to hopefully make change. I am thankful!
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Lifetime Research
Reports
16
Lifetime Data
Bytes
2
Season of Entirely FREE Curriculum for Upcoming Leaders
5,800+
Followers on Instagram
31
Listening Tours
Here‘s a quick look at some of DDP’s biggest accomplishments:
Those who contribute specific amounts to Dance Data Project® will receive the following merchandise as thanks for their gift:
