Music has always been an integral part of dance presentations, but only the most established ballet companies have regularly performed to live orchestral music. The Live Music for Dance program, initiated in 1986, enables small and mid-sized dance companies in New York City to perform with musicians and ensembles, as well as to commission new music.
Grant recipients represent almost every style of music and dance, including ballet, modern, jazz, flamenco and tap. Dance companies committed to working with musicians and composers range from established troupes like the Mark Morris Dance Company to up and coming choreographers like John Jasperse, Donna Uchizono, and Nai-Ni Chen.
Reviews have reflected a growing recognition of the importance of live music in dance performances. Audiences, not to mention dancers and musicians, are delighted to experience the spontaneity and immediacy of live rather than recorded musical accompaniment.
In a February 2003 New Yorker review of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Joan Acocella wrote: “For a long time now, the Graham Company has been performing to taped music because it couldn’t afford live musicians. But this season it managed to bankroll a nineteen-member (music) ensemble. What a difference this made! And not just to the ears but to the eyes. Dancers perform differently about twice as interestingly to live music.”
Following early collaboration with the New York State Council on the Arts, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust provided funding for the program for many years through the American Music Center. In 2003, a consortium of foundations—including the Booth Ferris Foundation, the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, and the LuEsther T. Mertz Fund—joined the Cary Trust in support of Live Music for Dance. The program has since been extended to New Jersey dance companies with the support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is providing seed money for a national Live Music for Dance program.
As the Cary Trust made plans to terminate in 2009, it offered a matching $1 million endowment grant to the American Music Center. The Elebash, Mellon, and Delmas Foundations came forward with contributions that ultimately exceeded the matching requirement, securing the future of Live Music for Dance in New York City.