New York Live Arts: B

By the eve of the merger in February 2011, the structure of New York Live Arts was in place. The new organization formed by the merger of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (BTJ) and Dance Theater Workshop (DTW) was moving forward.

Jean Davidson, former Executive Director of BTJ, was Executive Director of the new company. Bill T. Jones continued to lead his company as a choreographer and also served as Executive Artistic Director of the new organization. Carla Peterson served as Artistic Director and continued to curate the presentation performances from outside choreographers. Andrea Sholler, former Executive Director of DTW, had moved on to pursue other interests.

Assuming approval by New York's Attorney General, the merger was right on track. Perhaps more importantly, the staff and board were in agreement on new financial plans and programming decisions. BTJ had raised $3.25 million in cash and pledges to retire DTW's $2.9 million debt. The bond debt was overfunded, to provide for interest payments through fiscal year 2015 to meet the timing of donor pledge payments and to allow for the unlikely event of a donor not making payment on a pledge. Additionally, $1.8 million was needed to cover transition costs, including studio renovations and IT integration. By the merger, DTW had been down to one development employee, so the BTJ team took the lead in securing the vast majority of this supplemental funding.

Yet many challenges lay ahead in aligning the board to the new mission, ensuring financial stability, blending cultures, and integrating systems. Particularly for DTW, the organization had been in crisis for so long that the board had blurred the line between its governance role and various operational roles. As Davidson observed, some former DTW board members were "used to almost behaving like staff members."