Campaign for the Future
Campaign for the Future
Celebrate a Legacy & Invest in DVP’s Next Chapter
After two decades of visionary leadership, Founder and Artistic Director Naomi Goldberg will be transitioning to an Emerita position, inaugurating a new and exciting chapter in our company’s history as we set about to identify a new artistic leader of Dances for A Variable Population.
At this critical moment of celebration and opportunity, DVP is embarking on a Campaign for the Future. DVP envisions deepening our work with a model for sustained investment in communities across New York City and beyond. To make this vision for the future possible, we need your help.
Campaign Overview
The Campaign aims to raise $400,000 in funds to support DVP’s next three years, ensuring a dynamic leadership transition and advancing the organization’s vision for expanded impact by:
Honoring our Founder and Securing the Legacy of Naomi Goldberg Haas
Hiring a new Artistic Director
Investing in Board Development, Partnership Expansion, and Staff Capacity
Establishing an Artistic Innovation Fund
Your gift will ensure that DVP has the resources to meet the moment and realize DVP’s full potential impact on the health, well-being, and creativity of the older adults of New York City.
Our Story
Twenty years ago, dancer and choreographer Naomi Goldberg Haas asked a critical question: how can we create a world in which everybody moves freely and expressively to the best of themselves? Naomi knew the power of dance, and wanted to expand the benefits of joyful, powerful movement to all. Informed by her decades of experience as a dance student at the School of American Ballet, performing with Pacific Northwest Ballet to the Flying Karamazov Brothers, and teaching across the country, Naomi set about answering that question, and founded Dances For A Variable Population in 2004. In doing so, she began to focus on the transformative power of dance for people in their 60s, 70s and 80s. She developed Movement Speaks®, a groundbreaking dance program for older adults in which dancers not only learn to dance, they learn to harness their lifetime of experience and creativity to invent their own dances. Soon after, she enlisted legendary dancers and choreographers – themselves in their 60s, 70s, and 80s – to collaborate with a multigenerational dance company and present free performances. This work has galvanized older adults across our city. It has improved their health, yes, but has also activated their brains, released their emotions, connected them to neighbors, brought them out of isolation and into the public eye, and activated new inspiration and joy across generations.
In doing this, Naomi didn’t just create an organization, she started a movement. As the baby boomer generation ages, new approaches to healthy aging have become more important than ever. Arts and health is a nationwide area of focus in both the artistic and medical communities. DVP’s Movement Speaks® is in over 30 sites citywide. Free out-door public performances reach close to a thousand audience members annually, and professional training courses and presentations share the methodology with more teachers every year. Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and other larger institutions have launched programs inspired by Naomi’s work. Naomi has catalyzed a vision that is flowering everywhere.
A Letter from Naomi Goldberg Haas
Dear Friends and Supporters,
After twenty life-altering years with Dances For A Variable Population, I have decided it is time to transition from Artistic Director to an Emeritus position and begin a search for a new artistic leader for our company.This was not an easy decision to make, but my current circumstances have convinced me that it is the right thing to do. As many of you may know, I have been struggling with Fahrs Syndrome, a rare degenerative disease that attacks the basal ganglia of the brain as possibly developed from longtime lupus erythematosus, which I have successfully managed since 1985. This is the part of the nervous-system that controls one’s movement and speech, the two essential things I need to dance and teach.
When I was first diagnosed with this syndrome, about ten or so years ago, the doctors looked at the x-rays of my brain and marveled at the fact that I was still able to walk. I, of course, attribute this to the work we do at DVP which helps keep our bodies, minds, and spirits alive and vibrant. But Fahrs is a patient nemesis, it is in it for the long game, and it has spent the past decade ever-so-slowly eroding my ability to move and communicate. It has finally reached a point where it feels like time for me to re-think my leadership of this company which has meant so much to me.
I founded Dances for a Variable Population with a dream to bring people together through movement. In my own search for mindfulness in movement I had found community and activated my own self expression, and I was determined to share this with others. I found my calling teaching older adults whose wisdom, commitment, and creativity inspired me daily.
I have witnessed dance transforming lives at all ages, and it has transformed mine. I could not be more proud of what we have built together, it has been a community of people from across NYC that has sustained this organization growing together, dancing together. I know that this mission will continue to flourish and I am very excited to see it grow.
I’m grateful for everyone’s belief in me and my work and for the ongoing support of DVP, and I know we can continue to do it in community and I cannot thank you enough.
With love and gratitude,
- Naomi Goldberg Hass
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Support the recruitment and onboarding of a new Artistic Director while honoring Naomi’s legacy.
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Build organizational strength through expert guidance, expanded board leadership, equitable staff compensation, and specialized training that supports the mental and physical well-being of our teaching artists.
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Establish a dedicated fund to support new creative projects, community partnerships, and artistic experimentation.
Giving Opportunities
Dances for a Variable Population has been built and sustained by a community of friends, dancers, and supporters who not only believe in our mission, but embody our vision. With an annual budget of under one million dollars, 75% of which comes from local and state government and foundation support, DVP serves over 1,000 older adults annually and has a proven record of impact. As we look to the future, the Campaign for the Future invites us all to carry this legacy forward, ensuring DVP’s stability and spirit for to carry this legacy forward for generations to come.
**Flexible Impact**
A portion of all gifts will provide vital salary support and flexible funding where it’s needed most and where it will have the most impact.
Ways to Give
Support the Campaign for the Future through:
One-time gifts
Multi-year pledges
Donor-advised funds
Corporate sponsorships
Legacy or planned gifts
Donors may choose to direct their support toward a specific campaign priority or allow their gift to provide flexible impact where it is needed most. Contact Executive Director, Navarra Novy-Williams, for more information: navarra@dvpnyc.org
Gift Recognition
Why Now:
After more than two decades of visionary leadership, Naomi Goldberg Haas is transitioning into the role of Artistic Director Emerita. This moment represents both a celebration of her extraordinary impact and an opportunity to strengthen DVP for the future.
With thoughtful planning and community investment, we can catalyze growth, innovation, and renewed impact.
The Campaign for the Future ensures that DVP’s next chapter is built on stability, artistic excellence, and expanded reach across New York City.
Transition Timeline
This structured transition ensures continuity while allowing for new artistic vision.
Impact & Reach
DVP serves thousands of older adults annually through Movement Speaks® classes and public performances.
Invest in DVP’s Future
Your support ensures that dance continues to transform lives across New York City for generations to come.
“I am very lucky to participate in your classes. I feel very special. I come out of each class Smiling from the Inside Out! I ALWAYS feel loved, cared for, and supported by each and every teaching artist”
— Roberta, Student