BalletX is Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet company. Philadelphia dance companies are living in precarious times thanks to a brutal funding cut from the William Penn Foundation. Penn abruptly cut off funding for Dance/UP, an umbrella organization that serves many local dance companies and supported it with $950,000 in 2011.
This funding cut underscores the inherent risks of relying on a single funder, and as related news out of New York suggests, the problem isn’t confined to Philadelphia. Fortuantely, BalletX seems to have a well-rounded revenue base. It’s institutional funders include the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Shubert Foundation, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and—gulp!—the William Penn Foundation.
This bodes well for the future of the troupe and can explain why BalletX recently issued a call for applications for its 2016 choreographic fellowship.