“According to Dance/USA, a Washington, D.C.-based national service organization, 60% of the large dance companies it surveyed finished 2002 with their budgets in the red — the most in at least a dozen years. Anecdotal evidence, the group said, suggests that 2003 wasn’t any better, and that 2004 looks grim too.” Dance has always been a tough sell to general audiences, and the hit that many troupes took in annual donations during the recession hasn’t abated with the current predictions of economic recovery. As more and more companies are forced to the precipice of insolvency, the dance world is realizing just how small its pool of supporters really is.