Dance/NYC's Board Of Directors to Present New Yorkers For Dance Honoring Duke Dang And Linda Murray

On November 16, Dance/NYC will honor leading artists and patrons of the dance field to commemorate Dance/NYC's eleventh year of service and advocacy at New Yorkers for Dance. The evening will celebrate the unsung leaders and advocates of NYC dance who support the art form and shape a more equitable ecosystem where dance and dance workers can thrive. The night will recognize Duke Dang as the recipient of the second Dance Advocate Award and Linda Murray for the inaugural Dance Catalyst Award and will include a special performance by Dance/NYC's Dance Advancement Fund grantee, the J Chen Project.

Born at a UN refugee camp, Duke Dang (Executive Director, Works & Process) immigrated to California growing up with Section 8 vouchers, food stamps, welfare, and attending Head Start. An inaugural Gates Millennium Scholar, he earned his bachelor's degree in art history at Boston University and master's degree in performing arts administration at NYU. He started at Works & Process as a paid intern in 2003 and has served as General Manager and now Executive Director. During his tenure, the organization's budget has tripled, and a board designated endowment fund and cash reserve were created. Championing creative process from studio-to-stage, Works & Process LaunchPAD, with a network of residency partners spanning eight counties in New York and Massachusetts, provides sequenced and made-to-measure residencies with industry leading fees, transportation, health insurance enrollment access, 24/7 studio availability, and on-site housing, that culminate in public sharings with local communities. LaunchPAD projects are regularly presented as part of Works & Process programs at the Guggenheim, Lincoln Center, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, SummerStage, and Manhattan West. Works & Process commissions have been selected "Best of" by The New York Times and honored with a Bessie Award. Works & Process was nominated in 2021 and 2022 with the APAP William Dawson Award for Programmatic Excellence and Sustained Achievement in Programming and honored with the 2021 Dance Magazine Chairman's Award. Early in the pandemic Works & Process pioneered and produced the field's first bubble residencies, where artists could safely gather to create and perform together paving the way to reopening indoor and outdoor performances.

Linda Murray is the Associate Director of Collections and Research for the Library for the Performing Arts and is the Curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library, the world's largest dance archive. She has a wide range of experience in the international arts and dance communities. Her work as Executive and Artistic Director of Solas Nua in Washington, DC earned the company multiple Helen Hayes nominations and the DC Mayor's Art Award for Innovation in the Arts in 2011. In 2010 The Irish Voice named her one of the 50 most influential Irish women working in the U.S. and she received an award from the Irish government for her contributions to Irish culture.

About the Dance Advocate Award

The Dance Advocate Award honors individuals who have demonstrated unwavering commitment to the advancement of an equitable and thriving dance industry by advocating for investment, recognition, and visibility for the artform.

About the Dance Catalyst Award

The Dance Catalyst Award recognizes individuals who have played a pivotal role in driving change in the field of dance through generative ideas, practices, or technologies within institutions that will continue to transform and bolster the impact of the art form.

About Dance/NYC

Dance/NYC's mission is to promote and encourage the knowledge, appreciation, practice, and performance of dance in the metropolitan New York City area. It embeds core values of justice, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of its programs and operations. Dance/NYC remains committed to delivering programs that address disparities in the dance field by continuing to fill gaps in the availability of resources where they are most needed. It believes the dance ecology must itself be just, equitable, and inclusive to meaningfully contribute to social progress and envisions a dance ecology wherein power, funding, opportunities, conduct, and impacts are fair for all artists, cultural workers, and audiences. Instagram @dance.nyc Twitter @DanceNYC Facebook @DanceNYCorg

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