Scholarships and grants are provided to hundreds of current and former professional dancers who need critical financial assistance. Scholarships enable dancers to embark on an educational path, while grants provide seed money for entrepreneurial ventures.

Our educational scholarship and entrepreneurial granting program was created to provide a bridge toward the acquisition of a required degree, an important new skill, or to provide seed money to help start a fledging business. The organization has two funds that are geared to help dancers in this process.

The Caroline H. Newhouse Scholarship Fund
Provides $2,000 scholarships or grants to initiate an academic or retraining process or to help professional dancers with start-up money for a new business. Eligibility for financial assistance is based on work history as a professional dancer. Dancers who are eligible must complete an application form and provide documentation of a performing work history.

In addition to the Newhouse fund, other named scholarship programs have been created by dance artists and patrons to enhance this program, they include:

Joan Taub Ades
Carmen Diana Barth
Violet Blumenfeld
Marge Champion
Arlene C. Cooper
Agnes de Mille
Bonnie Franklin
Mikala Freitas
Barry Friedberg & Charlotte Moss
Mignon Ganne
Brian Heidtke
Mary Theresa Khawly
Neil Lipton
Vivian Milstein
Rudolf Nureyev
Clarence Y. Palitz, Jr.
Michele Riggi
Leslie Roy
Lillian Sayers
Karin Schwalb
Malcolm Thomson
Sanford I. Wolff

The Newhouse fund was established in 2002 by the organization's Director Emerita Caroline H. Newhouse (1910-2003), whose passion and support for dancers was a driving force behind the organization's growth for many years.

The Sono Osato Scholarship Program for Graduate Studies
Provides $5,000 scholarships toward graduate degrees in fields other than performance dance. The Osato scholarship program was created to help dancers meet the substantial financial commitments that come with the pursuit of a graduate-level degree. Areas of graduate study supported by the scholarship include professional degrees (law and medicine), the medical arts (nursing, physician's assistant, physical therapy, etc.), the helping professions (social work, counseling, psychology, creative arts therapies, etc.), physical and social sciences, education, business and the humanities.

The program was established in 2005 by a generous endowment gift of $1,000,000 from renowned dancer and actress, Sono Osato.

Eligibility guidelines: For financial assistance >
Review our eligibility guidelines to see if you are eligible to receive funds from this program.