Looking Ahead in 2023
In 2023, L.A. Contemporary Dance Company (LACDC) is taking a planned pause from outward-facing activities and producing in order to take the necessary time to consider our deeper purpose as an organization. This will allow us the space to chart the best ways in which we serve our audiences, students, contributing artists, and community at large.
Here is an update of where we are today: May 2023
We appreciate everyone's patience as we continue our work during our hiatus. It has been extremely valuable and important time to spend on this re-centering and discovery process as an organization.
At this point in time, we have a new draft mission for the company and detailed tenets on how we see our values activated in our services and programming. The mission and tenets will be put to vote at our upcoming quarterly Board Meeting in May, and will be published in June. Based on these tenets and the focus of our mission, we are redrafting role descriptions and expectations to best serve our mission and be shared by the people who work with us.
We are also modeling wage increases for all roles in the organization based on market data, impact of inflation / rising cost of travel and housing in L.A., and best practices in our field. We recognize that this shift is necessary, and will initially be actualized by programming less in the coming year while making wage increases until we can build the financial capability and solvency to support these increases along with a fully programmed season. The number one goal though is to make sure the contributions of our artists, staff, and leadership can be reflected in their pay, while maintaining affordable access points to our programs and services. This will require donations, foundations, and grant funding to subsidize and support this work, and understandably takes time to build up our capacity. Wage increases will be voted upon as well in the upcoming Board meeting, and will be part of our published materials in June.
We continue to discuss company culture and are partnering with consultants to provide important tools and techniques to dialogue and build trust in our group in order to best serve others and curate healthy creative environments. Part of the sessions we will engage in as a company will be Anti-racist learnings and affinity groups facilitated by Kai Hazelwood and Sarah Ashkin of Practice Progress. Definitely check out their work as they have many offerings for organizations and individuals to engage in. We are also considering how our programming choices will be impacted by our revised mission and creating new opportunities and inroads to our work as an organization both in live and digital spaces.
Certainly a lot has been revealed through our conversations, and the greatest "aha" throughout is how aligned our values are as a group, and the dedication we all have to making these values ring true throughout all we do and offer in service of the community. Resonant themes during this time have been: evolution, exploration, a sense of belonging, the power of the collective, and showcasing the artistry of L.A.
We greatly look forward to the next steps in this process and continuing to share with you so you can continue on this journey with us. We also cannot wait to engage with all our summer students, fellows, scholars, and teachers for our Summer Intensive programming in July. This will be an amazing way to step back into our programming and embody all that we have been discussing over the past 6 months.
Thank you for everyone's support and continued interest!
More to come soon :)
Take care and have a wonderful start to May,
Kate Hutter Mason
LACDC Board President and Co-Founder