Between The Acts
A live series bridging conversation and performance to build support around young dancers.
ROLE:
Artistic Director, New York Theatre Ballet
PARTNERS:
- Ford Foundation
- 50+ across the United States
LOCATION:
New York City and national touring locations
PROGRAM TYPE:
Community Engagement Series
The Friction
The New York Theatre Ballet LIFT program provided access to high-level dance training for homeless and housing-insecure youth, but struggled with long-term retention. For over 30 years, institutional thinking held that the instability of the children’s home environments made this impossible to address.
Meanwhile, classical ballet remained culturally and socially unfamiliar within many of the communities the program served. Students were often excited by the opportunity, but the adults in their lives did not invest in its long-term value, limiting outcomes and the children’s sustained participation.
The Method
Between The Acts events were designed to mirror the conversational culture of a barber shop or nail salon, while delivering the content of a TED-style talk. Events were held in third spaces that were geographically and culturally accessible to the communities being served, and were led by artists who reflected those communities. Each event introduced core ideas about classical ballet and dance through informal conversation, giving community members a sense of insider access. This approach reduced the intellectual barrier to engaging with classical dance and built familiarity and trust among adults in the community.
THE INFRASTRUCTURE
- Modular event framework
A flexible format that allows speakers to adapt content, tone, and flow to different audiences and settings. - Codified training and script
A written guide that defines the content and structure of each event, enabling staff to independently lead conversations with consistency across locations and scale the program across communities. - Shift in institutional thinking
Introducing a first-principles approach that can be applied to other challenges previously understood as fixed or unchangeable.
Legacy
Although Between The Acts helped New York Theatre Ballet build a more diverse audience base in New York City, it created a much larger impact when adapted for use on tour.
For years, NYTB struggled to sustain its national touring business model as audiences declined and presenter fees followed. This was widely understood as an industry-wide trend that could not be reversed. By adapting the Between The Acts event framework for touring locations, NYTB was able to increase revenue from presenters by providing audience cultivation programming that helped grow attendance for theaters in the cities where the company performed.