National Dance Project's 2025 Dance/USA Trustees Award Acceptance Speech

On June 17, 2025, the National Dance Project (NDP) received the 2025 Dance/USA Trustees Award at its National Conference in Chicago, IL. The full NDP Team (Indira Goodwine-Josias, Cheri Opperman, and Kristin Gregory) accepted the award and provided remarks celebrating this recognition.

Dance/USA’s Trustees Award is given at the discretion of the Dance/USA Board of Trustees to recognize an outstanding professional whose work has special significance to the ecosystem.

On behalf of the New England Foundation for the Arts and the NDP Team, we say thank you to Dance/USA and its Board of Trustees for this distinguished honor.

This acknowledgment affirms the work that we (Indira, Cheri, and Kristin) do every single day, as well as the foundation laid by many of our predecessors. With almost 30 years under our belt, the NDP program remains widely recognized as one of the country’s major sources of funding and field building for dance.

Founded in response to the “culture wars” of the early 90’s, NDP’s growth and impact is a direct result of the program’s ability to prioritize the needs of dance makers, increase opportunities for presenters to share dance, and support live dance experiences in communities nationwide.

To date, NDP has invested more than $51.5 million dollars in funding that has supported over 820 dance projects that have toured to all 50 states, Washington, DC, Guam, and Puerto Rico reaching more than 3.7 million audience and community members. Our ongoing commitment to New England based artists via professional development and project support opportunities have also kept us rooted in the power of the hyperlocal.

Since we never claim to do this work alone, it is important to recognize our current Executive Director, Harold Steward, and esteemed colleagues at NEFA, as well as the many cohorts of NDP Advisors, dance makers, presenters, agents, producers, administrators, audiences and communities across the country. Whether you know it or not, your nuanced perspectives continue to simultaneously push and stretch us to be of better service to the dance ecology. 

We would also be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge the following funders, partners, and individuals who helped NDP become what it is today:

Past NEFA & NDP Leadership

• Sam Miller – Architect and original steward of National Dance Project; Executive Director
• Rebecca Blunk, Executive Director
• Cathy Edwards, Executive Director
• Jane Preston, Deputy Director of Programs
• Jennifer Calienes, NDP Program Manager
• Dana Whitco, NDP Program Director
• Jane Ford, NDP Program Manager
• Sara Nash, NDP Program Director

NDP Core Funding History

• National Endowment for the Arts
• Doris Duke Foundation
• Mellon Foundation
• Ford Foundation
• Boston Foundation
• Knight Foundation
• MetLife Foundation
• JPMorgan Chase Foundation
• Philip Morris Companies, Inc.
• Altria Corporate Services, Inc.
• Boeing Company Charitable Trust

Contemporary Arts Centers

• Andy Warhol Foudation for Visual Arts
• Altris Corporate Services, Inc.

Centers for Creative Research

• Mellon Foundation

New England Dance Fund

• The Aliad Fund at the Boston Foundation

Regional Dance Development Initiative – New England (2022)

• Barr Foundation
• Boston Foundation
• The Aliad Fund at the Boston Foundation

Regional Dance Development Initiative – Chicago (2016)

• John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
• Reva and David Logan Foundation
• Richard H. Driehaus Foundation

Regional Dance Development Initiative – Minnesota (2011)

• McKnight Foundation

Regional Dance Development Initiative – New England (2007)

• The Aliad Fund at the Boston Foundation

Regional Dance Development Initiative – San Francisco Bay Area (2006)

• San Francisco Foundation
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
• WESTAF (Western State Arts Federation) – Currently known as Creative West

Regional Dance Development Initiative – Pacific Northwest (2004 - Seattle & 2006 - Portland)

• Paul G. Allen Foundation

Past National Partnerships

American Masterpieces: Dance

• National Endowment for the Arts
• Dance/USA

Past International Partnerships

Early on, NDP engaged key international partners to support programming that stretched beyond its national scope 

• Australia Council for the Arts
• British Council
• Consulate General of the Netherlands
• FUSED: French US Exchange in Dance
• Theater Instituut Nederland

As we continue to contend with changes in philanthropy and our world, know that we remain just as passionate and committed to the humanity of artists, creative process, collaboration, and the true power of dance towards change and liberation. So, in the words of the Persian poet and Sufi master, Rumi: 

Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.”