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Nine years ago choreographer Gina Gibney was on the verge of shutting down her struggling modern-dance company.
"I really felt like giving up," she recalled. "I got so close."
Since then, revenue at her business--simply called Gibney--has risen more than tenfold, to $6 million a year. Have audiences rediscovered their appreciation for the performing arts? Nope. But Gibney has definitely repositioned herself as New York dance's favorite landlord.
Gibney controlled a single studio a decade ago but now rents out about two dozen, covering more than 50,000 square feet in two prime Manhattan locations. Income from renting rehearsal space to Broadway shows and other ensembles accounts for a third of her revenue, enabling her to produce the sort of provocative works that have been her company's hallmark for nearly 30 years. The flow of cash also allows her to rent rehearsal studios to nonprofit organizations for a fraction of the market price--a godsend to dancers with a shoestring budget who struggle to find room to leap in the city.
"The story of dance in New York was one of retreat and losing spaces before Gina changed it," said Alejandra Duque Cifuentes, acting executive director at research and advocacy group Dance/NYC.
The economics of almost every performing arts organization are precarious at best, and in dance they're often worse, because the genre doesn't lend itself to long-running shows. The Nutcracker draws well every Christmas, and companies such as the New York City Ballet and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater have major benefactors. But most of the city's 170 dance organizations perform for small sums in front of small crowds.
"Developing a good work takes a year, and that cost, which comes out of the artist's pocket, is way more than the public will pay in tickets," said dance producer Lisa Niedermeyer.
What's more, those small audiences are steadily shrinking. A 2016 study by Dance/NYC revealed a 20% drop in attendance over the previous six years.
The result is...