Ngoma Center for Dance
2018 Annual Report
Dancer: Alexix Smith (c) Shawn Short
Ngoma Center for Dance (N-Go-mah) is a 501(c)3 arts organization whose mission is to provide a conduit between multicultural dance artists and their enthusiasts, across generations and social classes, with a deeper understanding of the art of dance through intense community integration, inspirational performance, competitive training, and artist development.
More From Ngoma
Year of Capacity - Letter Pg 1 Dissonance Dance Theatre Pg 2 APAP & IABD 2018 Pg 4 Education Pg 6 Community Pg 8 Finances Pg 11
Ngoma Center for Dance P.O. Box 2377 Washington, DC 20013 info@ngcfddt.org 202-540-8338 (o) 202-399-0174 (f) www.ngcfddt.org Dancers: Emma Button, Jaylon Givan (c) Shawn Short
Year of Capacity
2018 was a year of tremendous growth and increased capacity for Ngoma Center for Dance. More funding brought more opportunities for our artists, students, and communities. Ngoma Center for Dance had another remarkable year, humbly receiving funding from DC Commission on Arts and Humanities, Prince George’s Arts & Heritage Division, and Facebook, and Amazon, as well as an increase in individual donations and board giving. We also expanded our artistic and operational administration, community engagement and educational programs, including new developments in The Ngoma School and community engagement with legendary Dance Theatre of Harlem ballerina Karen Brown. Ngoma Center for Dance strengthens its positioning as a host institution for dance education, entertainment, and enlightenment. In addition, Ngoma’s resident contemporary ballet company, Dissonance Dance Theatre (DDT), successfully completed a five-production season and increased its artistic partnerships with several organizations outside Washington, D.C., including a successful return to New York City at APAP week 2018. It was a terrific year for us. I encourage you to read on and explore what we accomplished together on the pages to follow. Warm Regards,
Shawn Short, MFA Founding Producing Artistic Director Principal Choreographer
Annual Report ‘18 - Ngoma Center for Dance
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Dissonance Dance Theatre
Dissonance Dance Theatre (DDT) celebrates its 11th season. DDT presented a full season of five productions, and performed in New York City and in the Washington D.C. area. DDT continues to provide a home for contemporary exploration of classical ballet and modern dance styles. In addition, we continue to be a space for emerging dance artists locally, nationally and internationally. DDT presented the works of guest choreographers: 1. Kareem B. Goodwin (Grace Dance Theater) 2. Kameron N. Saunders (Jacob’s Pillow Choreographer Fellow 2018) 3. Jamie Thompson (Dallas Black Dance Theatre) 2018 Season Booking Dance/APAP - New York City, NY Jazz @ Lincoln Center Jan 13th, 2018 Lenny B: An Evening of Leonard Bernstein Lang Theater - Atlas PAC - Washington, D.C. Feb 25th, 2018 Me 2018 Kay Theater - The Clarice - College Park, MD March 3rd, 2018 Alloy Spenger Theater - Atlas PAC - Washington, D.C. April 28th, 2018 Fall Forward Dance Theater - The Clarice - College Park, MD Sept 29th - 30th, 2018
Image: Christine Motta (c) Shawn Short Pg 2 Ngoma Center for Dance - Annual Report ‘18
Christmas Playlist Dance Theatre - The Clarice - College Park, MD December 15th, 2018
14 World Premieres
16 Dancers
14 New Works Image: (L to R) M. Henry Jr., P. Fobbs, D. Artis, A. Spivey (c) Shawn Short Annual Report ‘18 - Ngoma Center for Dance
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Far Left: J. Potts & A. Spivey adjudicating. Right image: Male dancers at IABD Audition.
APAP 2018 On January 13, 2018, Dissonance Dance Theatre returned to New York City for its first performance in New York City since the Brooklyn Arts Exchange in 2009. National and international dance companies perform extraordinary showcases during Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) week in the most beautiful and elegant setting imaginable, the Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, which overlooks Central Park through 4,500 square feet of windows! The company took a small ensemble to perform the works of Principal Choreographer Shawn Short and Kareem B. Goodwin.
DDT performing at APAP (c) Darial Sneed
IABD 2018 Dissonance Dance Theatre joined over 20 major dance companies to audition eager young black male dancers at the International Association of Blacks in Dance’s Men of Color audition. More than 30 male dancers participated with DDT providing apprentice and trainee contracts. Additionally, The Ngoma School - the official school of DDT provided 60 partial scholarships to more than 200 summer programming auditionees.
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Ngoma Center for Dance - Annual Report ‘18
C. Motta & M. Sakai (c) Darial Sneed
DDT dancers with Director Shawn Short at Jazz @ Lincoln Center Annual Report ‘18 - Ngoma Center for Dance
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Education
Image: Ngoma Students M. Brown & K. King (c) Shawn Short
89% # of students receiving financial assistance.
$30K
65
# of students accepted into fourth year of Summer DanceLab.
Amount of funding provided in financial assistance to families.
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Ngoma Center for Dance - Annual Report ‘18
154
Children and young people served through education programs.
10%
of program participants are male.
Providing Opportunity
*
Creating Artistic Citizens In 2014, Ngoma began to offer its education programs with more consistently. At the time, most offerings were just Dissonance Dance Theatre’s Trainee program, master classes, and one-time workshops. In 2017, Ngoma Center for Dance launched its second phase of education program, The Ngoma School. Now serving 437 students annually through our fall, winter/spring, summer and community outreach efforts. The Ngoma School is emerging as P.G. County’s flagship dance school for students interested in a professional concert dance career. We provide pre-professional dance training that informs and encourages the pursuit of a post-secondary education, healthy living, mentorship, self-care, and life skill mastery. Currently serving students as young as 5 years old and as old as 24 years old, who received a late start to their professional dance training. Dance classes, workshops, masterclasses, and auditions are facilitated at Univ of Maryland College Park. We offer levels I - 3, a summer, men’s, and trainee program.
East of the River (EOR) Program Due to limited space to conduct dance programming at Ngoma’s EOR space in northeast Washington, DC, Ngoma Center for Dance launched a reduced-tuition program for students living in Ward 7 & 8. Currently, five percent of level I students participate in the program.
Right Image: Ngoma Students in classes All images (c) Shawn Short Annual Report ‘18 - Ngoma Center for Dance
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Community In 2018, Ngoma Center for Dance conducted community performances, workshops, community auditions and classes for community dancers. With assistance from Dissonance Dance Theatre dancers, Ngoma Center for Dance served 283 students through its outreach efforts. In addition, Ngoma Center for Dance participated in social empowerment discussions, as well as, health and wellness events throughout the DC area.
DTH Comes to the DC Area Oct 6th, 2018 Legendary Dance Theatre of Harlem Ballerina Karen Brown conducted a day of workshops for Ngoma School and community students. Image: Above: Karen Brown with students. Right: Brown helping Student.
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Ngoma Center for Dance - Annual Report ‘18
Muna Love Affair - Oct 14th, 2018 D.C.’s newest trade show comes to the Spy Museum! More than 50 African-American vendors embark on D.C. to network, share their business and have a great time. Dissonance Dance Theatre opened the event with more than 150 guests. Sponsored by Munaluchi Bridal Magazine, a multi-cultural periodical, the event included a cocktail hour, fashion show, DJ and food from local vendors. Dissonance Dance Theatre represented as the only performing arts organization.
Image: Above: DDT’s ladies posing for a photo. Right: DDT dancers taking a selfie prior to performance. Annual Report ‘18 - Ngoma Center for Dance
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Image: Above: Alexix Smith and Tony Sewer (c) Shawn Short
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Ngoma Center for Dance - Annual Report ‘18
Image: Momo Sakai (leaping), Samuel St Juste, Phillip Fobbs, Shannon Evans
Finances 2018 Expenses
Artistic Staffing Facilities Production General Operations: Total Expenses
Income
Individual Contributions: Funding - DC Gov Funding - PG Gov Ticket Sales Tuition - The Ngoma School Special Events/Workshops Board Contributions Total Income
$39,799.00 $84,593.00 $82,201.00 $70,364.00 $276,957.00 $10,228.00 $123,010.00 $8,350.00 $11,738.00 $118,900.00 $7,847.00 $3,190.00 $283,263.00
Ngoma invested in executive education to assist management with creating revenue streams and donor cultivation. These strategies improved financial results across the organization. Revenue from The Ngoma School increased, stabilizing operations and artistic programming. We increased artistic and educational staff to better streamline DDT rehearsals, productions, and the Ngoma School’s day-flow. Furthermore, dance artists increased income opportunities by partaking in Ngoma’s teacher trainings for gaining teaching artist positions - enriching Ngoma’s educational offerings to students in the school and community/outreach programs. Ngoma Center for Dance, again, humbly received over $200k in gift-in-kind services. We like to thank also DC Commission on Arts & Humanities, and P.G. County Arts & Cultural Heritage Division for their continuous, generous support. Annual Report ‘18 - Ngoma Center for Dance
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Founding Director/CEO Shawn Short, MFA Technical Director Chris Holland Finance Associate Fran Twyman Interns Hasani Allen Allison Eguchi Phillip Fobbs Moyston Henry Jr Christine Motta Jessica Potts Anthony Spivey Jeremiah Welch Feather Weldon
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Ngoma Center for Dance - Annual Report ‘18
Board of Trustees Chairman/Interim Treasurer Corey McDougle, MBA CISA Vice Chairman Tyler Lewis, BA President Shawn Short, MFA
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Ngoma Center for Dance - Annual Report ‘18 Center for Dance (c) 2018 Ngoma