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Telling Stories Not Told Elsewhere
What We Cover, Why We Cover it, and How You Can Help Us Cover More

By Paul Ben-Itzak
Dance Insider Editor & Publisher
E-mail:

The Dance Insider was founded five-and-a-half years ago to give a voice to dancers, tell stories not told elsewhere, and build the dance audience. To the extent we've succeeded in these missions, it's been because of the commitment of our sponsors and advertisers and, even more, the commitment of our staff of seasoned dance and journalism professionals to generously donate their time and their unique perspectives to tell stories not told elsewhere. But there's a limit to how much sweat equity workers can invest in an enterprise, even one they believe to be essential, before they need to be compensated in order to be able to continue. I believe our current staff has reached this limit, and we'll need your involvement to be able to continue to fulfill our mission with the scope that Dance deserves. So today we're introducing a new, affordable way for dancers and others who appreciate the value of the Dance Insider to support what we deliver.

You -- yes, you, dance insider! -- can now sponsor a Flash Review, Flash News, Flash View, Buzz, Advice for Grown-Up Dancers or other DI article for just $15 -- and get the valuable exposure that comes with sponsorship. Your name (or the name of your company or school or a company or school of your choice) will appear on top of the article to which your sponsorship is applied, similar to the acknowledgement given to sponsors of our Spring 2002 Martha Graham coverage, which you can see an example of here. For $75, your name (or company's name, etc.) can link to a web site or web page of your choice. (Your dance company's, for example, or your favorite dance company's or theater's web site.) You can sponsor as many articles as you'd like. If you would like to sponsor ten or more articles, we'll throw in a valuable e-mail ad on the Dance Insider's e-mail list.

In addition to these individual story sponsorships, four unique "Site Sponsorships" are available. These sponsorships include a sponsorship notice on EVERY SINGLE PAGE of the Dance Insider, will cost $500 each for a one-month placement, will be similar to the Body Wrappers sponsorship notice currently on top of our Flash Reviews, and can link to a web site or page. Proceeds from these sponsorships will go towards paying for basic site maintenance and editing. (To see an example of of the Body Wrappers sponsorship notice, see the top of this page.)

We've recently been asked to explain why some companies get reviewed on the Dance Insider and some don't. Essentially, there are two ways that Flash Review assignments get made for the Dance Insider: I pitch a performance to the writers, and one says yes; or a writer pitches a show to me, and I give it the nod. But because we cannot pay our writers, they cannot say yes as often as they would like to; writers need to make a living too. Thanks to our principal Flash Review sponsor Body Wrappers, we are able to pay a nominal annual stipend to our busiest writers, but it's more an honorarium than a salary. Body Wrappers supports the Dance Insider because it believes in our work, and because of the exposure we offer to a significant share of its market -- dancers who buy dancewear. Luna supports us because of our work and because dancers buy health products. Presenter sponsors like Danspace Project, Dance Theater Workshop, the Joyce, the New Victory, Lincoln Center, the Kitchen, and BAM like to support our work but also know that three out of four DI readers attend at least one dance concert every week. By sponsoring a Flash Review or other article, you can a) join these citizens of our community in supporting this work and b) take advantage of the exposure to our audience that sponsorship recognition offers you. (Our audience, which produces nearly 400,000 hits per month, also includes dance educators, students, artistic directors, presenters, media, and other 'decision-makers' in the dance world.)

Sponsorship money will go directly to the Dance Insider writers, who currently include (in order of tenure) Veronica Dittman, Aimee Ts'ao, Edward Ellison, Rebecca Stenn, Tara Zahra, Tom Patrick, Susan Yung, Chris Dohse, Peggy Cheng, Maura Nguyen Donohue, Darrah Carr, Anne Wennerstrand, Christine Chen, Rosa Mei, Josephine Leask, Gus Solomons jr, Douglas Frank, Jill Cirasella, Julia Ritter, Chloe Smethurst, Suzanne Davidson, Corinne Imberski, Anna Arias Rubio, Stephan Laurent, Richard Philp, and myself. It will also go to others who contribute to the Dance Insider, such as photographers like Julie Lemberger and Marty Sohl. We would also like to bring in guest columnists like David Parker and Alicia Mosier. A percentage will go to our webmistress and art director, Robin Hoffman. We'll decide on which story your sponsorship is placed.

For more information, please e-mail me at .


PS: No flow? No problem. We're also looking for exceptionally gifted writers to add to our talented team. If you've got a dance background and can write, please drop me a line and we'll tawk.

PPS: Thanks to all the Dance Insider staff and colleagues who participated in formulating this document.

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