Most dance artists in New York City know certain things to be true: that wages are often unfairly low, for instance, and that it’s usually necessary to do some work outside of dance to survive. But in a vast field consisting of thousands of mostly gig workers performing many jobs throughout the course of one year, concrete data about what it’s like to be a dance worker has been challenging, if not impossible, to come by.

The honorees for the 65th annual Dance Magazine Awards are Kyle Abraham, Lucinda Childs, Herman Cornejo, Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Phd, and Dianne McIntyre.

What do artists need right now? It’s a question that’s been asked often in the past several years, and one that has become the guiding ethos of two pandemic-inspired programs in New York that reimagine the artist-residency model: Chelsea Factory and LaunchPAD.