In 2003, The Nonprofit Finance Fund of Greater Philadelphia (NFFGP), with grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the William Penn Foundation, conducted research on the Philadelphia dance community’s infrastructure needs and published its findings in its report Building from the Inside Out. In that same year, local practitioners and leaders in the field initiated discussions about the void in dance services that the closure of the Philadelphia Dance Alliance had created, about the NFFGP report, and about short- and long-term needs as voiced by the dance community. A group of local dance artists and administrators organized six well-attended community meetings in 2003 that resulted in the formation of a Dance Services Steering Committee, the mission of which was to further investigate the need for, and nature of, a new dance service organization.

The Dance Services Steering Committee completed a period of intensive research that identified specific program and service needs of the dance community and best practices nationally in meeting these needs. The Dance Services Steering Committee concluded that the greatest needs of the Philadelphia-area dance community were leadership and advocacy, an information hub including multi-use rehearsal/meeting space, capacity building, and audience development. From this emerged the Dance Coalition of Philadelphia, which undertook further research and planning to move forward on the initial goals.

Dance/USA Philadelphia was launched in March 2007, with start-up funding from the William Penn Foundation. A national search was conducted and Lois Welk was selected to be the first Director. Welk has over 30 years of experience in arts administration with a broad knowledge base that uniquely positions her to understand the needs of dancers, choreographers, presenters, producers, funders, company managers, facility managers and administrators. From March 2007-November 2007, Dance/USA Philadelphia was temporarily housed at the Live Arts/Philly Fringe offices at 32 North Front St., Philadelphia. In December 2007, the branch opened its current office at 1427 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA across from the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.