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Dance has long been a precarious industry in New York. It can be difficult for dance troupes to find rehearsal and performance space in one of the world\u2019s most expensive markets, and dancers often struggle to make a living.<\/p>\n
Lincoln Center is hoping to help change that. The center announced on Monday that it had secured a $50 million gift that will go toward performances and commissions, and to support young artists.<\/p>\n
The donation, from the philanthropists Lynne and Richard Pasculano, is the largest Lincoln Center has ever received for programming initiatives. Lincoln Center hopes the gift will help revive the city\u2019s dance industry after the coronavirus pandemic, which strained the finances of many arts groups, and hit the dance world<\/a> particularly hard.<\/p>\n \u201cThis gift will be catalytic, transformative,\u201d said Mariko Silver<\/a>, Lincoln Center\u2019s president and chief executive. \u201cIt will enable us to really bring forward contemporary dance as a long-term art form at Lincoln Center.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The center said in a statement that the initiative, called the Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance, would \u201cexpand the global dance community\u2019s home at Lincoln Center, collaborating with industry colleagues to complement the vibrant work happening across New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n The center is home to the renowned New York City Ballet as well as the Juilliard School, which has a dance division. But it lacks a signature modern dance program, though it presents troupes from around the city and the world.<\/p>\n The Pasculanos are longtime supporters of Lincoln Center. In 2021, as many arts organizations were grappling with the turmoil of the pandemic, the Pasculanos gave $20 million<\/a> to help bring back and revitalize opera, jazz, theater and dance on Lincoln Center\u2019s campus. That year, they also gave $15 million<\/a> to the New York Public Library.<\/p>\n Richard Pasculano said the couple was impressed by how Lincoln Center used the 2021 gift and with the leadership of Silver, who took on her job last fall.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to bring more people to Lincoln Center, which means more income,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully it will bring more diverse and younger people to the center, which it needs very much.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Lynne Pasculano said the gift would help contemporary dance become an integral part of Lincoln Center.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that there isn\u2019t contemporary dance in New York,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s that Lincoln Center was missing that small component.\u201d<\/p>\n Lincoln Center said it was too early to say how the initiative might be structured. In a statement, the organization said it was planning performances in both the winter and summer seasons; commissions; opportunities for young dancers, including those at Juilliard; and \u201cinvestments in audience engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n Lincoln Center has assembled an advisory committee to help shape the dance collaborative, which will work with Shanta Thake<\/a>, the center\u2019s chief artistic officer.<\/p>\n The committee includes the choreographer Kyle Abraham; the star ballerina Misty Copeland; the dance educator Jody Gottfried Arnhold; Alicia Graf Mack, the incoming artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; the choreographer and dancer Alice Sheppard, the artistic director of Kinetic Light, which promotes disabled artists; Lane Sugata, an arts leader; and Eduardo Vilaro, the artistic director and chief executive of Ballet Hisp\u00e1nico.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n