After a two-month search, the board of Boston Dance Alliance is delighted to announce Aaron Myers as our new Interim Executive Director.  Aaron succeeds former BDA leader Debra Cash, who left the organization at the end of September.

With an impressive resume that includes regional and international non-profit leadership, and more than 20 years as a dance artist and educator, Aaron (pronounced “AY-ron”) comes to BDA after key management positions with United Way Worldwide, Next Level USA’s Cultural Diplomacy Project with whom he led dance academies in Abu Dhabi and Rio de Janeiro, and The Kaleidoscope Group, where he consulted on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs for global companies.

In the regional dance community, Aaron is Artistic Director of the Beantown Lockers dance crew, where he teaches, choreographs and produces group performances. He has danced with Boston’s iconic group The Floorlords and is a professor for Centro Esportivo de Capoeira Angola Boston.  Aaron is also a Board Member of The Flavor Continues, a non-profit that serves street and club dance communities, and a Co-Founder and Leader of the creative venture A Trike Called Funk, which orchestrates participatory dance experiences in community-based settings and creates paid gig opportunities for local artists. A Trike Called Funk is a member of BDA’s Fiscal Sponsorship program, which gives Aaron a unique perspective on the importance of that program and the needs it meets for growing dance artists and organizations.

Thank you to the many strong applicants whose resumes were eagerly received and reviewed in this process.  We welcome Aaron to this position at Boston Dance Alliance, and look forward to working with him. Reach Aaron at amyers@bostondancealliance.org.

John Michael Kennedy, Chair

Bates Dance Festival announces three summer training programs for dancers of all ages, backgrounds and levels.  Applications for the programs opens Wednesday, November 29. Internship applications are due January 29, scholarship applications for all training programs are due April 1; and general applications for all training programs are due May 6.

Dance/USA invites self-identifying early-career dance leaders to apply for the Dance/USA 2024 Institute for Leadership training, a national dance mentorship and leadership development program. Mentor/mentee pairs will be selected and matched for the 2024 program that launches in March 2024 and concludes six months later. The goal of the program is to build the leadership and resiliency skills of early-career dance leaders who represent the rich scope of the national, professional dance community. The deadline to apply is Friday, December 1.

The House of Representatives will soon bring to the floor the Department of Interior appropriations bill with two floor amendments introduced by Rep. Scott Perry (PA-10) that could eliminate all National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) FY 2024 funding. The House Appropriations Committee has already cut NEA and NEH funding by 10 percent to $186 million; further cuts threaten any possibility to negotiate to the Senate’s current funding level of $207 million. Americans for the Arts urges you to reach your Member of Congress today to remind them of the importance of NEA funding to their congressional district.