The First Dance
How Can You Reduce Your Wedding Expenses, Receive a Tax Deduction and Promote the Arts at the Same Time?
Commission a Dance
Karen and Michael have been commissioned by Building Bridges to create a limited number of original choreographies that feature couples partner dancing. You can commission one of these choreographies to be created for your first dance. Then later the choreography can be made available to student performers who will perform it in the Share the Love Ballroom Dance Student Show. Your donation will cover the cost of choreography and the time it takes to teach the model dancers how to perform it. By allowing Karen and Michael to work with model dancers, you are giving them the opportunity to make sure the choreography can be performed by other students in the future who have never danced before. You are also allowing dance choreographies to be created for future student dancers who would not otherwise be able to afford to commission a dance for themselves.
How does your donation become a tax-deduction for you and still accomplish Building Bridges non-profit objectives?
You are helping contribute to the arts, by sponsoring the creation of a new dance choreography through the Share the Love Project established by Building Bridges, featuring one of the artists they have selected to receive these commissions. Donations you make to Building Bridges to commission a dance are 100% tax deductable for you and they allow Building Bridges to pay the choreographer to create the choreography and for the instruction Karen and Michael give to the model dancers while it is being created. You can be the model dancers for this choreography. Once the choreography is completed and you have learned it, you can perform it at your wedding and/or for any other occassion.
An Example Of How This Works
1. You decide to Commission a Dance
You decide that you would like to Commission a Dance for the Share the Love Ballroom Dance Student Show. Building Bridges accepts you as a sponsor for the commission. Karen and Michael Partnership accepts you as the model dancers for the choreography. The total cost is $1,400. You write two checks. One check to Karen and Michael Partnership for $140. The other is to Building Bridges for $1,260. The $1,260 written to Building Bridges is 100% tax-deductible.2. Building Bridges then commissions the dance from Karen and Michael.
As Share the Love Project Artists, Karen and Michael will be commissioned by Building Bridges to create a dance. They will be paid by Building Bridges and contracted to complete the commission per the terms specified.
3. Karen and Michael contact you and work with you as model dancers.
Karen and Michael contact you and work with you as model dancers. They meet with you for the first 50 minute session to help determine your skill level and get your suggestions and artistic input. Since you are the model dancers, Karen and Kendall are shaping this dance taking into consideration your unique situation and partnership, as inspiration for their choreography.
4. You select the song that the choreography is created to.
Karen and Michael will be there to give you suggestions and guide you as to which songs are the most appropriate for partner dancing. You can choose the song the choreography is created to from the songs that are approved by Karen and Michael.
- If the song is pre-recorded: You purchase the song online or in a CD format and give a copy to Karen and Michael to use for the choreography.
- If the song is going to be performed live, you have two choices:
- 1. You make your own arrangements with the live musicians to give you a demo of their song for the purposes of the choreography. This demo does not need to be a professional recording, it just needs to be an audio record of the arrangement at the tempo that will be used for the song in the live performance.
- 2. Commission and sponsor the live musicians as part of the Karen and Michael First Dance Radio Show through the Building Bridges Share the Love Project. Go here for more information.
- If you want to commission an original song by Kendall Ross Bean, this can also be part of the Share The Love Project. Go here for more information.
5. Karen and Michael Create the Choreography.
Karen and Michael create the choreography. Creating an original choreography that is designed around the music from beginning to end takes 10 or more hours, most of which is not done with the model dancers present. Then there is a minimum of 10 hours where Karen and Michael work with you as the model dancers, as the choreography progresses, teaching you the various movements and sequences, to be sure that it is something that a student of your level of experience can learn and perform. When Karen and Michael are finished with this Building Bridges Commission for a dance, you as model dancers will be ready to perform this choreography and Karen and Michael will make a permanent record of the choreography in either writing or on video at their studio for the students who later learn it and perform it as part of the Share the Love Ballroom Dance Student Show.
6. You can invite a videographer to record your First dance
Now that you have learned choreography you can use for your First Dance, you may want to have a professional quality video of the dance done on your special occasion. If you are a sponsor of the Share the Love Project, then you will receive permission to use the video that is filmed for your personal purposes by a videographer selected by Building Bridges. Sponsorship of one of the following projects:
- If you sponsor the Share the Love Music Video
- Building Bridges pays the cost of the videographer. You pay for the sponsorship. The copyright will belong to the producer of the Music Video, but you will have permission to use the video footage for your own personal purposes. Here is an example of how this might work. If the cost of the sponsorship is $618, you would pay $62 to Karen and Michael Partnership and $556 to Building Bridges. The $556 to Building Bridges is 100% tax deductable. Building Bridges would then pay the videographer to film film your First Dance. This amount covers the videographe's 2 hour minimum for one camera, so while the photographer is there, he can film other parts of the wedding reception as well within that budget. Images from your wedding would be selected from the raw footage for the music video at a later time. For more information about this But, immediately after your wedding, you would receive a copy of the raw footage which you could have edited by a videographer of your choice into any type of personal momento that you desire. Your cost for editing the footage into a personal momento would not be tax deductible. SeeHiring a Videographer for more info.
- If you sponsor the First Dance with Karen and Michael TV Show
- This works in a similar way to the Share the Love Music video above, except that the cost of editing a 1-3 minute video for the show is included in the sponsorship. SeeHiring a Videographer for more info.
For More Information About Other Tax Deductions Available to You
For more information about all the tax deductions and sponsorships available to you, Click Here
