The American Dance Guild (A.D.G.) was founded in 1956, as the Dance Teachers' Guild by twelve dance teachers in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to promote the art of

dance in the United States There is great variety in dance in the United States of America. It is the home of the hip hop dance, salsa, swing, tap dance and its derivative Rock and Roll, and modern square dance (associated with the United States of America due to its hi ...

by educating the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

public and by maintaining standards of teaching.

History

After and annual conference on teaching children creatively, 12 dance teachers felt the event should occur more than once a year. The conference had provided teachers with a way to share ideas, problems and resources. The group began meeting, and discussed the need to develop standards for teaching modern dance and ballet, and the need to educate the public about dance. The guild grew, as chapters were established in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, Long Island, and

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in New York, and soon moving on to

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. As the Guild grew it welcomed dance professionals other than teachers, including performers, choreographers, accompanists,

therapists A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many different ...

, writers, historians, and

critics A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governme ...

Dance Scope

In 1965, the magazine ''Dance Scope'' was first published. It contained news of activities, reviews, and other articles sharing ideas and resources. Marcia Siegel was the first editor. The magazine was published for 16 years, before being re-invented as a bi-annual newsletter in January 1999.

Today

Eventually the Guild was divided into three parts. One for

teachers A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. wh ...

, another for choreographers, and one for performers. The A.D.G. helped to found the American Dance Therapy Association, American College Dance Festival Association, Dance Critics Association, Committee on Research in Dance, Society of Dance History Scholars, National Dance Association, and participates jointly with them and the

Dance Notation Bureau The Dance Notation Bureau (DNB) is a non-profit organization founded to preserve choreographic works through notating dance scores in Labanotation and collaborating with dance companies to stage reconstructions of those works. Based in New York C ...

, Florida Dance Association and Sacred Dance Guild.

Awards and scholarships

*An annual award is given to honor a major contributor to dance. *The Fannie Weiss Student Scholarship is given to promising students for summer study.

Notes

External links

* {{URL, americandanceguild.org, the organization's official website 1956 establishments in New York City Arts organizations based in New York City Arts organizations established in 1956 Dance organizations Dance in New York City Dance education in the United States