DID YOU KNOW ...that Dance/USA is offering a new membership package? Tell your colleagues that dance groups that have not been members for five years are eligible for a two-year membership package at 50% off! Help spread the word and connect dance companies with Dance/USA. Learn more here.
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2014 Annual Conference Keynote Speaker is Cecily Sommers
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Global trends analyst Cecily Sommers will be the Opening Plenary Speaker at the 2014 Dance/USA Annual Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sommers will speak at the Goodale Theater at The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts on Thursday, June 19, 2014, 9:00am – 10:45am. Learn more about the 2014 Annual Conference speakers, schedule, breakout sessions and more here.
Sommers speaks, writes, and consults on emerging trends, markets, and technologies shaping our future. An unorthodox background in medicine and dance, combined with her experience in brand strategy and product development brings unique vision and creativity to her work. She will explore themes of reinvention and change at the 2014 Opening Plenary, including trends affecting arts organizations, new modes and models for delivering the dance experience, finding new sources of revenue, business as a creative endeavor, and much more.
Sommers began studying dance at age five, attended Interlochen Arts Academy, and following graduation danced with Omaha Ballet and then Jan Erkert & Dancers. After earning a BFA she studied anatomy and later taught dance kinesiology at Columbia College and Indiana University. She is the author of Think Like a Futurist: Know What Changes, What Doesn't and What's Nextand is the founder of The Push Institute, a non-profit think tank that tracks significant global trends and their implications for business, governments, and non-profit sectors over the next 5-10-25-50 years. Learn more about Sommershere.
Not registered for the Conference Yet? The registration deadline is one month away!
To register as a Dance/USA member at the discounted rate, you must log in to the Dance/USA website using your personalized membership username and password, and get your unique conference invitation code. Non-members of Dance/USA are welcome at the Conference.
If you have any difficulty registering, please contact the Dance/USA office at 202-833-1717, M-F 9:30am – 5:30pm ET or at annualconference@danceusa.org.
Special thanks to American Harlequin Corporation, Title Sponsor, DeWitt Stern, Title Sponsor; Target, Gold Sponsor, Freed of London, Silver Sponsor; HGA, Bronze Sponsor; Patron Technology, Bronze Sponsor; & Host Partners The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts and Northrop of UMN for their support of the 2014 Annual Conference.
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Advocacy: Anywhere and Anytime
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By Michelle Lynch Reynolds
From the Green Room
April 9, 2014
Advocacy has long been one of those big, broad words whose definition I knew in theory, but I’d never experienced face-to-face advocacy firsthand to gain true insight into its meaning — and outcomes. In imagining what my first governmental advocacy meetings might be like, I wondered: How could I be the most effective voice in representing a diverse field of artists? Do I need to be an expert on the issues? Ultimately, what sort of impact can I make?
Each year, Americans for the Arts organizes, and Dance/USA serves as a National Co-Sponsor for, Arts Advocacy Day, which “brings together a broad cross section of America’s cultural and civic organizations ... to Washington, D.C., to meet with their members of Congress in support of issues like arts education policy, the charitable tax deduction, and funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.” And for many of those years, Dancers’ Group — the primary dance service organization in the San Francisco Bay Area — has sent our executive director Wayne Hazzard to Washington, D.C., to participate.
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Engaging Dance Audiences
Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre and Audience Architects
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Over the coming months Dance/USA will feature a number of profiles and stories from current Engaging Dance Audiences (EDA) grantees. This edition of SPIN will highlight projects from Audience Architects and Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre.
Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre
Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre has taken their EDA funding, via a site-specific dance, on the road. In From Time to Time...At the Oasis, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre's performers dance in, around, and on top of a 1961 vintage Oasis trailer, transforming the traveling house into an art-filled home. The moving production is bringing the Oasis trailer to four Cal State Universities and, simultaneously, broadcasting a live stream online, allowing anyone from anywhere to engage in the creation of the performance. Duckler invites the audience to peek inside their home as it comes alive with video projection, live music, and dance. These showings engage the audience in an interactive, non-traditional performance while, at the same time, allowing dance and art to be extremely accessible to all people from all communities. Performances were broadcast live and can be viewed here.
Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre produces site-specific multimedia performances and outreach programs, two types of work that inherently engage the public. Audiences leave each event with a shared memory of how the arts intersect with daily life.
Audience Architects: Dance is What YOU Make of It
With EDA funding, Audience Architects created 14-part video series that intends to show new dance audiences how to view dance, and demonstrate some of the ways that people, especially non-dance audiences, think and talk about the art form. The aim is to demystify dance and validate multiple points of view and to offer online audiences insights into how others view and experience dance. 15 volunteer audience members from all ages and walks of life, from a middle school student to an attorney, came together for an afternoon in a theater. With guidance from HMS Media, the audience members watched a variety of dance clips of Chicago artists, and responded to what they liked (and didn't like). These volunteers commented on how the movement and choreography made them feel, what they wish they knew or what would help them connect with the work. The resulting clips, which are being released weekly, provide an overview of their responses. By increasing viewers' comfort level with discussing dance, Audience Architects ultimately hopes to break down barriers to attendance.
View their Online Dance Toolkit here, with links to the videos.
Audience Architects (AA) is a dance service organization whose mission is to build and engage dance audiences in Chicago and advocate for Chicago dance. AA exists to provide Chicago dance companies with increased visibility, expansive resources, and additional forums to showcase and share their talents.
Engaging Dance Audiences is made possible by the generous funding of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
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Engaging Dance Audiences Webinar: Designing Participatory Programs, April 23, 2014
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Designing Participatory Programs
April 23, 2014 2:00-3:30 pm (ET)
Research suggests that audiences seek out experiences that are participatory and bring them closer to the art form. But what types of participation work best? And how much participation do audiences desire? Learn what has (and has not) worked. Wesleyan University’s Dine Dance Discover; Vermont Performance Lab’s Performance Club; Joyce Theater’s Going to the Dance; University Musical Society’s Night School for Dance; Audience Architect’s Moving Canvas; and Gibney Dance’s DancEntricity.Register for the webinar here.
Learn about the EDA speakers and their projects here.
Dance/USA is pleased to present a series of webinars on audience engagement, made possible by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Every two weeks over the next two months, join the current Engaging Dance Audiences (EDA) grantees to learn about the methods they are exploring. The interactive webinars begin with grantees live on camera and segue to live "call-in" discussions, where attendees can ask for help or offer suggestions, and contribute their ideas to a shared resource list for use by all following the talk. The goal is to leave all involved with fresh ideas, new resources, and guidance.
Webinars are appropriate for artists and administrators in the areas of marketing, education, fundraising, as well as teachers and even those working in other art forms who want fresh ideas.
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Advocacy Update: U.S. Department of Education, National Endowment for the Arts, IRA Charitable Rollover
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U.S. Department of Education
The U.S. Department of Education’s Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant program is currently soliciting peer reviewers for its 2014 grant program. The deadline to complete the peer reviewer application process is Friday, April 25. For eligibility and additional information, please visit here.
National Endowment for the Arts
- As part of its latest grant announcement, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) plans to award $1,375,000 through 66 grants in the area of dance. To find the full list of dance grants, please go to the NEA’s PDF of grants organized by artistic discipline. Congratulations to all Dance/USA members on the list!
- On Thursday, April 10, Dance/USA submitted written testimony the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies urging Congress to support the NEA at $155 million. Visit Dance/USA’s advocacy page to read the full testimony.
IRA Charitable Rollover
Dance/USA has joined Independent Sector on visits to Congressional offices urging them to reinstate the IRA Charitable Rollover, one of the 55 tax extenders that expired at the end of 2013. Nonprofits have benefited from this provision each year. The nonprofit community is urging Congress to retroactively reinstate the rollover and make it permanent. Has your organization benefited from this provision? Please share your story with Dance/USA’s government affairs office.
Questions about the Advocacy Update? Email Government Affairs Director, Brandon Gryde.
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Calvin Hunt and E.J. Corrigan of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
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By Gia Kourlas
Time Out New York
April, 8, 2014
It is with profound sadness that we report the deaths of two integral members of the production team at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. On Sunday afternoon, Calvin Hunt, Ailey’s beloved senior director of performance and production, passed out while on tour with the company in California. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate him; the cause of death is believed to be a heart attack. He was 59. It gets even more harrowing: On the previous Sunday, E.J. (Edward James) Corrigan, the company’s technical director and Hunt’s good friend, died suddenly of what an autopsy revealed to be a rare brain aneurysm. He was 54.
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The New York Times
April 8, 2014
HUNT--Calvin. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Ailey Board of Trustees, and staff mourn the passing of Calvin Hunt, our beloved Senior Director of Performance & Production. In 1982, at the invitation of Alvin Ailey, he joined the production staff and over the next three decades he became a pivotal leader within the organization, working closely with Artistic Directors Judith Jamison and Robert Battle. Calvin played an integral role managing Ailey's tours around the world, extending Ailey's role as a cultural ambassador. Calvin had an unparalleled love for Ailey and a passion for life. His sense of humor, wise counsel, and warm friendship will be deeply missed. He was an extraordinary man whose passing is a great loss to the Ailey family and the world of dance. Our hearts go out to his loving wife Margaret, their two children Eli and Brenna, and his entire family. A memorial celebration will be announced later in the spring. Joan H. Weill, Chairman; Robert Battle, Artistic Dir.; Masazumi Chaya, Associate Artistic Director; Bennett Rink, Executive Dir.; Judith Jamison, Artistic Director EmeritaBack to top
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Artistic Director Named for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet
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By Roslyn Sulcas
The New York Times
April 7, 2014
It has been almost a year since Benoit-Swan Pouffer left the position of artistic director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and rumors have swirled about potential candidates for the enviable task of running a well-funded, New York-based operation with an extensive repertory of work by big-name choreographers.
On Monday, Nancy Laurie, the Walmart heiress who founded the company in 2003, and who is its board president, announced that the new director will be Alexandra Damiani.Read the full article here.
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New York Public Library Puts Major Dance Video Archive Online
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By Allison Meier
Hyperalleric
April 1, 2014
The New York Public Library recently digitized thousands of hours of its videos in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division Moving Image Archive, from grainy historic footage to contemporary productions along with preservations of culture. One of these — Annabella — dates from 1897 and shows a dancer swirled in fabric that changes shades.
“Annabella” is Annabelle Whitford Moore, a captivating dancer known for her serpentine dances where she moved a flow of gauzy material like wings, as if caught in a colorful whirlwind. It was a dance that could be a bit shocking for 19th-century audiences, with the body of the performer quickly hidden and revealed, showing flashes of skin. Thomas Edison captured her dances as part of his early recording work, with the hand-coloring on the 16mm Ektachrome print dramatically and abruptly changing her dress from red, orange, and green.
This is the first time the New York Public Library’s dance archive of 24,000 films and tapes has been available to view online. Before, you had to ask for copies individually at the library. Not all of the thousands of videos are viewable off-site, as much of the archive does still require you to be present in the library. However, in terms of accessibility, it’s miles ahead from before.
Read the full article here.
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Perspectives on Dance in Public Places
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By Eleanor Goudie-Averill and Becca Weber
thINKingDANCE
March 2, 2014
Dance in Public Places (DiPP) is an initiative of Dance USA/Philadelphia that gave 37 Philadelphia area dance companies space to rehearse daily on the second level of the Gallery Mall for the entire month of February. As two dancer/choreographers who were offered the chance to rehearse in the space, we were curious about the experience of the event from the perspectives of everyone involved: dancers, choreographers, onlookers, and ambassadors. Everyone we spoke with was very grateful for the opportunity and the interchanges that DiPP offered.
When preparing to conduct interviews for this piece, we were most curious about the experience of being observed and how it does or does not change the process.
As choreographers (Eleanor for Stone Depot Dance Lab, Becca for Somanaut Dance), both of us were initially worried about maintaining an authenticity in the process in public, and we wanted to hear from everyone who was involved how they perceived that phenomenon. During Becca’s rehearsal, she found herself absorbed in the making, but every so often, she would glance over and see someone smile or wave. She said that made it feel like a generous undertaking: a simple sharing of the process with the public, which was gratifying. Eleanor also participated as a dancer with Group Motion, Tori Lawrence + Co, and Chisena Danza. Though her experience varied with each group, she felt the rehearsals were made vibrant by a sense of situating the dance community within the larger cultural world of Philadelphia.
Read the full article here.
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ZviDance Names New Executive Director
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Broadwayworld.com
April 10, 2014
Nikki Chalas, a rising arts executive with over ten years of experience in the dance and theatre industries, has been named Executive Director of ZviDance.
Emerging from a background as a performer, with credits spanning from dancing with K.C. and the Sunshine Band, to creating movement for Nickelodeon's Dora la Exploradora, Broadway and off-Broadway shows, Nikki Chalas brings a new energy and a fresh perspective to performing arts management, with a unique understanding of artists needs. As a New York City-based arts executive and creative producer, Nikki has worked with many dance-based theatrical companies and productions both in the United States and around the world. Prior to her appointment to ZviDance, Nikki was the Executive Director of the U.S. Operation of The Aluminum Show, where she served as Production Manager and Creative Supervisor, leading the show on major tours throughout Spain, Russia, Italy, and France. Nikki also held the position of Creative Consultant on Breaking Surface - Flying Dance Theatre Over Water and has worked with KEIGWIN AND COMPANY in multiple capacities, including assisting choreographer, Larry Keigwin, on many independent projects. Nikki's international experience particularly drives her desire to work on new, innovative projects - and with companies who have the depth, experience and resources to support this kind of ambition. Nikki holds her BFA in Dance and minor in Theatre from The Ohio State University. Having known Zvi Gotheiner for many years, Nikki is thrilled to be joining ZviDance as Executive Director and is looking forward to leading the company in the upcoming years.
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No Tutus Please: The resurgence of ballet in opera
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By Joan Acocella
The New Yorker
April 7, 2014
On Friday, at the 92nd Street Y, Edward Henkel, the associate director of its Harkness Dance Center, will oversee a panel on the role of dance in opera—a tortured and exciting subject. Probably the most awaited show of the spring-summer dance season is Mark Morris’s production of Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” (1718), a short pastoral opera (nymphs, shepherds), which, reportedly, was the Handel piece most performed during his lifetime. Morris believes that a lot of Baroque music is perfect for dancing, partly because it was so often based on dance forms—minuet, gigue, passapied, etc. Though we don’t know whether the original “Acis and Galatea” had dancers, there will be sixteen of them in Morris’s version.
If not in “Acis,” dance figured heavily in opera from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth century. Often the composer just dropped a big dance act into the middle of the show. This gave people a rest from the noble afflictions of Rienzi and Aida. Because it was not expected to advance the plot, or have words set to it, or make sense in any way, except in the service of art and pleasure, the composer could get “juiced,” in the words of David Kneuss, the executive stage director of the Metropolitan Opera, who will appear on the panel. In recent years, some beautiful ballets have been created to music excised from famous operas, for example, Balanchine’s “Ballo della Regina,” to dance music discarded—rightly, I think—from Verdi’s “Don Carlo.”
Read the full article here.
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Tapping into the history of dance
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By Hermione Hoby
The Telegraph
April 3, 2014
Savion Glover lays unexpected stresses on words as he speaks, as though feeling his way through thoughts, beat by beat, surprising himself as he goes. This inquisitive rhythmic sense feels like a clue to his claim to fame: 40-year-old Glover is regarded by many as the greatest tap dancer in the world.
But he doesn’t let the appellation hang heavy on him.“That’s the showbiz stuff,” he says, dismissively. “Yeah, OK, good, that’s what you think, great – but I don’t tap dance for the sake of applause. I don’t tap dance for the sake of spectacle. I tap dance for equality, I tap dance for the recognition of the man in this country, what we had to go through as a people in order to claim existence in this country.”
In other words, the style we see now has its roots in a faithful and meticulous study of tap greats. Glover has assimilated the footwork and sensibilities of dancers such as Jimmy Slyde, Sammy Davis Jr. and Gregory Hines and combined them to make something distinctively his own. That includes hitting the floor harder and louder than most in an especially forceful style he’s named, “free style hard core”.Read the full article here.
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EmcArts is Now Accepting Proposals for the Innovation Lab
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Are you a performing arts or arts service organization seeking a new, strategic response to a complex challenge? Apply to the Innovation Lab by May 30.
EmcArts is pleased to accept proposals for two final rounds of the Innovation Lab, our 16-month-long immersion programs for United States-based arts and arts service organizations seeking to uncover adaptive strategies and responses to their most complex challenges. These programs are designed and managed by EmcArts, and made possible with the generous support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF).
Four organizations from across the country will be selected for each of these two rounds (eight participating organizations in total).
Eligible organizations for Round 9 of the Innovation Lab for the Performing Arts are United States-based nonprofit producing and presenting organizations in theater, modern or contemporary dance, and jazz (including multidisciplinary college-based presenters).
Eligible organizations for Round 2 of the Innovation Lab for Arts Development Agencies include those that provide services in support of the ongoing development of an arts discipline, a particular area of arts activities, and/or its organizations and practitioners, and that are based in the United States. These agencies must serve individuals or organizations in the disciplines of theater, modern and contemporary dance, jazz, or multidisciplinary arts.Read the full announcement here.
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A Transformed Theater in a Transformed Land
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By Alastair Macaulay
The New York Times
April 7, 2014
MOSCOW — Thirty years ago, during my first trip to Russia, I bought a ticket for the Bolshoi Ballet. Though I paid an excessive amount by 1984 Soviet standards for a restricted-view seat all the way on the side of the sixth, uppermost ring, I didn’t care: I was in the Bolshoi Theater for the first time. It was the world premiere of Yuri Grigorovich’s new production of the three-act ballet “Raymonda” (1898). To see better, I switched to a slightly more central place. To steady myself, I sometimes placed my hand on the ceiling.
It’s strange to return to any theater for the first time in 30 years, but none more than the Bolshoi. The Russian nation and its capital city have greatly changed; Russia’s dealings with the West — and its presentation of its own history — have been transformed; and the Bolshoi Theater itself has been completely renovated and partly rebuilt. By 2005, structural problems within the opera house had caused several vertical cracks to open in the building’s outer walls. It was closed for six years for extensive top-to-bottom renovations.Read the full article here.
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Nonprofit Finance Fund 2014 State of the Sector Survey Results
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Nonprofit Finance Fund’s Annual Survey chronicles the challenges facing the nonprofit sector and calls out some of the targeted investments we can start to agree on as a society to salvage the investment we have collectively made in our social infrastructure. We believe that a coordinated intervention now will not only better prepare us for inevitable future economic crises; it can lead to a happier, healthier community for us all.
KEY FINDINGS
The economic recovery is leaving behind many nonprofits and communities in need:
- 80% of respondents reported an increase in demand for services, the 6th straight year of increased demand.
- 56% were unable to meet demand in 2013—the highest reported in the survey’s history.
- Only 11% expect 2014 to be easier than 2013 for the people they serve.
Nonprofits are working to bring in new money; in the next 12 months:
- 31% will change the main ways in which they raise and spend money.
- 26% will pursue an earned income venture.
- 20% will seek funding other than grants & contracts, such as loans or other investments.
Join a live webinar broadcast on
April 24th @ 2pm EST exploring key survey trends. Register here.
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By Laura Cappelle, Zachary Whittenburg
Dance Magazine
April, 2014
What goes into a choreographer’s decision to use nudity onstage?
Seeing dancers perform naked can be shocking, exciting and uncomfortable. Yet onstage nudity can also showcase the body beautifully, revealing the mechanics of movement in a whole new way. Dance Magazine writers Laura Cappelle and Zachary Whittenburg spoke to several top dancemakers about why and how they use the naked body in their work. While for some it requires serious deliberation and justification, others see nudity as just another tool in their artistic arsenal.
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