American Dance Machine (ADM21)
New York City
Shocked by the rising number of famous musical theater dances being lost to time and neglect, a small group of Broadway’s top 21st century choreographers asked us to help them revive a 1970s-era nonprofit that was dedicated to preserving the work for future generations.
Singer-Actress Amra-Faye Wright performing Irving Berlin’s Mr. Monotony, from the 1948 musical film, Easter Parade, originally danced by Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, and performed more than 50 years later by Wright and ADM21 dancers at a pre-launch event
(PHOTO: Christopher Duggan)
How do you successfully relaunch an old cause into new world?
Far right:
The original ADM21 website we designed visually and editorially for the relaunch of the nonprofit (right), with the site page of the Save a Dance fundraising campaign we created (below) for the launch
American Dance Machine (ADM21)
New York City
Shocked by the rising number of famous musical theater dances being lost to time and neglect, a small group of Broadway’s top 21st century choreographers asked us to help them revive a 1970s-era nonprofit that was dedicated to preserving the work for future generations.
THE CHALLENGE
Former dancer Nikki Atkins and dancer/choreographer Margo Sappington (Oh! Calcutta!)—working with Nicole Fosse (whose late father, Bob, created Sweet Charity, Pippin, and Chicago)—wanted to revive the original American Dance Machine, a nonprofit that closed its doors upon the 1986 death of its founder. But Atkins and Sappington needed a start-up strategy, and asked us to guide them on creating one, along with a
new website and editorial strategy to supply a new brand face and voice.
The original ADM21 website we designed visually and editorially for the relaunch of the nonprofit (right), with the site page of the Save a Dance fundraising campaign we created (below) for the launch
OUR WORK
Once the new identity and website were designed, we created a comprehensive marketing and communications plan that helped them develop a performance strategy. ADM21 invited original dancers and choreographers of some of Broadway’s top hits of the 70s and 80s to faithfully reconstruct and record the choreography they made or learned—to pass it on, as designed, to younger dancers.
Our “Save a Dance” fundraising campaign strategy formed the centerpiece of the relaunch and inspired a number of New York City benefit performances featuring Susan Stroman’s choreography for “Simply Irresistible” from the Broadway hit Contact and Bob Fosse’s choreography for “Big Spender” from Sweet Charity.
OUR IMPACT
In its first years, the campaign raised close to $1 million from individual philanthropists, online donors, benefit performances and artistic foundations, enabling ADM21 to establish a dance company at the esteemed Joyce Theater and launch a dance school in New York. BrandStories’ pre-launch plan included special performances for donors and networking events for choreographers.
“BrandStories helped us to create a plan for launching ADM21, and created a terrific first website and fundraising strategy that enabled us to keep going.”
Nikki Fiert Atkins
Co-founder, ADM21
Our photo of ADM21 dancers performing “Simply Irresistible” from the 2000 musical, Contact, developed by choreographer-director Susan Stroman on Broadway
(PHOTO: Dan Demetriad)