"The Heartland of America" Project
Funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Within the last five years, Dance Affiliates has become a more entrepreneurial organization, initiating new programming incentives through less traditional collaborative partnerships, new sources of funding, and with the high regard of regional, national and even international leaders in the field. Dance Affiliates is currently partnering with DANCECleveland and Dance St. Louis to serve as a consortium offering mentoring and technical assistance to a new base of presenters in our respective regions to introduce dance to their cultural programs, while strengthening the infrastructure for dance presenting to dramatically change the current dance presenting model within the U.S. The format is modeled after Dance Affiliates' statewide "Dance Matters" initiative conceived and developed to provide technical assistance, expertise and hands-on mentoring to smaller community venues. Providing these resources gives them access to world-class dance companies and effective arts education programs that may be otherwise unavailable to these communities.

The project has engaged River North Chicago Dance Company for performances and dance education programs in each of the three presenters' areas. The site selected for the 2010-11 season which will be working with Dance Affiliates under this program is the Strand-Capital Performing Arts Center in York, PA.