We're on a mission to support professional dancers in their careers, from their first contract, to their final dance and beyond.
Etoile Dancewear (AllTheDancewear.com) will give $1 million to Grants for Dance to set up our new program to increase dancer wages and $2 million to set up an endowment to continue funding the organization as a whole.
Colin began dancing in 2001 at the age of 22. It wasn't until about 2 years later that he learned of the vastness of the dance world. He began looking for summer intensives and other programs that he could participate in to propel his training. Much to his dismay, most of the programs were closed to him because of his age. For any programs that were open to him, any grant or scholarship money was only available to children. There were no grants for adult dancers. It was also around this time that he was offered a paid position in the company where he was studying. Now he began to learn how little dancers get paid... This low salary coupled with the costs of living as an adult (not living at home with parents paying for everything) made it prohibitive to attend any programs anyway! Imagine having to take time off from the other jobs you have to have outside of dance, still having all your bills to pay and having to pay for the program. His search for grants for dance led him to this idea...
How about provide grants for dancers to pursue a career? This idea has evolved over the years, but still stays simple.
His original mission was: "To provide opportunity where it may have otherwise been limited."
His new mission is: "To support professional dancers in their careers, from their first contract, to their final dance and beyond."
Our Grants program will be able to help more dancers thanks to your donations. Every dollar donated to a specific grant will go directly to that grant.
Read on below to see all of our programs.