7 minute read
Dance For Life
Supporting the health and wellness of chicago dancers
It may be surprising to see an interview about dance in a publication focused on homelessness, but many dancers live on the edge while doing careers they love; they work multiple jobs, often without health insurance from their primary employer. Just the same, they help create a cultural landscape that makes Chicagoans proud.
Chicago Dancers United (CDU) is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization that provides financial relief for preventive health care and critical medical needs for Chicago dance industry professionals via The Dancers’ Fund and its signature fundraiser, Dance for Life. Begun in 1992 as a grassroots benefit performance for dancers battling HIV/AIDS, Dance for Life will be August 19 (see page 10). It is a loving, city-wide solution to providing wraparound support from other members of the dance community, from philanthropy, and from the general public. CDU Executive Director Nathaniel Ekman has a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Harvard University, a master’s in public policy from Northwestern, and was previously executive director of NAMI Cook County North Suburban. He spoke with StreetWise Editor Suzanne Hanney about dancers, health care, and his intentions to grow CDU to become the dance community’s go-to resource.
Suzanne Hanney: Please tell me more about the health concerns you see among dancers.
Nathaniel Ekman: Most dancers are young, or younger professionals, who hold multiple jobs. Fewer than 5% of them have health insurance though their employment as professional dancers. They are often just one catastrophic expense or even one moderately large expense away from insolvency.
There are plenty of people who have marketplace insurance, or spousal insurance, or something else. Some are covered through government programs. I spoke with an applicant [to the Dancers’ Fund] the other day who’s on Medicaid. Who would think that a dance professional is on Medicaid? But, you know, it’s a patchwork system – U.S. health insurance –and not a good one.
To have insurance through your spouse is nice, but what if your spouse loses a job or you get divorced? And, most 19-year-old dancers are not married.
You mentioned that many dancers hold multiple jobs.
You have to have health insurance, or you have to have a way to pay for your medical care. So, you get a second job, or a third or a fourth. I know a dance professional who holds five jobs: part-time administrative job, a second part-time administrative job, work as a professional dancer, work in the personal fitness realm and one other part-time job.
They’re one paycheck away from losing an apartment, losing a house, losing medical coverage, losing the ability to pay for things that they need, like food, like medicine.
So, The Dancers’ Fund can come to the rescue?
If a dancer gets injured and cannot dance, there is no art. Art is important to the human condition and to one’s overall mental health. And since I believe in the mind-body connection, there is no health without mental health. We award funds to dance professionals – not only dancers, but choreographers, dance educators, artistic directors, administrative staff, retired professional dancers and rehearsal accompanists.
We pay for medical bills that stem from critical health needs and from general health and wellness needs, including preventative and routine care, medications, psychotherapy, physical therapy and dental care.
A very large number of dancers are under age 30. If you’re 35, 40, and still dancing, that is a long time to have been a working professional dancer. Dance is hard on your body: the bending, the jumping, the falling, the flexibility required. It’s hard on the muscles, bones, ligaments, joints and tendons. I’ve spoken with applicants who need MRIs for injuries and breaks – all kinds of things.
How much did you give out in grants last year?
In 2022, we awarded $87,000 for critical health needs (grants up to $5,000), based on demonstrated need and documented expenses. These relate to events such as illness, injury, surgery; as well as grants up to $1,000 for general health and wellness, which includes preventative and routine care, and ongoing care. For 2023, The Dancers’ Fund is slated to give out $100,000.
Did you fund everyone who applied last year?
We were able to fund almost every applicant who applied, and in the small number of cases where we didn’t, there was usually something about the application that made it ineligible.
How are the grants determined?
By the fund committee. We are very HIPAA-compliant in the way that we receive and review applications. As Executive Director, I am intentionally not on the fund committee, so I don’t see anything [that has] to do with an applicant’s injury, illness, medications, diagnosis. That’s all handled by the committee, which is chaired by a physician who is herself a former professional dancer. The committee reviews the applications and also includes a hospital administrator, a dance educator and administrator, and experienced former dancers. Just like when you receive a check donation at a non-profit, you’re not supposed to have [just] one person process it. There’s a chain of custody and a separation of duties to protect the privacy of the applicant.
What’s next for The Dancers’ Fund?
I want to grow the fund, to grow the organization and the board, so we continue to mature as an organization. Ultimately, I would hope that we can award larger grants, because somebody who’s had major surgery with a bill of $100,000 –yes, it’s great that we can help with a $5,000 award, but that’s a drop in the bucket with a bill that large, so I would like us to increase the pool of funds so that we can significantly raise the maximum size of an award, to serve more dancers and be known as the go-to resource for the health and wellness needs of Chicago’s dance community.
Since I joined CDU, we have increased our messaging within the dance community: how to reach us, how to apply, and that if in doubt, please apply. In 2022, we lowered the eligibility age from 21 to 18.
How are you working to grow The Dancers’ Fund?
We have benefitted recently from a Recovery grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) that will increase the pool of available funds. We have also formed partnerships—the biggest one with Howard Brown Health, who is designated as the healthcare provider of choice for the professional dance community. They are a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), and we make a point of referring Fund applicants there. They’re exceedingly culturally competent and a wonderful place to call your medical home.
We have a cross-referral agreement that if Howard Brown has a patient who identifies as a dance professional and needs help paying for care, Howard Brown will direct the patient to CDU; and if a dance professional needs a medical home, CDU directs them to Howard Brown. It works both ways.
Dancers can go anywhere, but the clinic of choice for dance professionals is the 55th Street Clinic in Hyde Park. Howard Brown also has the Broadway Youth Center, which provides absolutely free care and services to anyone up to age 24. So if a dancer is 19 or 23 years old and needs testing, treatment, lab work, a doctor’s appointment or a specialty visit, they can go there.
How big a role does Dance for Life play?
Dance for Life has a revenue goal of $325,000. It is the primary fundraiser for the organization. It funds operations and staff and everything else you need to keep a non-profit going. And it also fuels The Dancers’ Fund. The bigger The Dancers’ Fund can become, the more good we can do in the professional dance community, for more people.
If we can say that there were 96 applicants and we just couldn’t serve them all, that inspires funders to give more generously to us, demonstrating that the need outstrips the available resources.
