This July, Dance/USA will hold its yearly conference here in Chicago, the largest annual get-together of dance professionals in the U.S. Though modest by convention standards and here for a variety of reasons, some of them logistic, the coming of the all-important confab is cause enough for civic chest-pounding by a community long thought slack when it comes to dance. For years, the Second City struggled to make it onto the list of Top 5 American dance cities. Milwaukee boasted a bigger ballet company.
But no more. Andrea Snyder, who’s stepping down this month after 10 years as executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Dance/USA, now puts Chicago in a tie with the Twin Cities for third place in American dance, after New York and San Francisco.
“We would only pick a city where there’s enough activity going on to make the conference exciting,” Snyder says. “There has to be art to show, or it won’t be worthwhile.”
While the arts in general still contend with the recession, it has been a good year in a good decade here for dance.
“Chicago was probably the first city that systematically took a look at building audiences and moved on it,” Snyder says, referring to the Chicago Community Trust’s multiyear research and funding initiative in the middle of the last decade. “It was a broad effort to move dance to a new playing field and raised national eyebrows that Chicago was doing something other cities haven’t even considered.”
Across the spectrum, local dance professionals, with companies large and small, enthuse over the city’s vibrant scene.
“When I came here in 1999, Chicago was a food destination, an architectural destination, a theater destination,” Bonnie Brooks, chair of the Dance Center of Columbia College, recalls. “My dream was to see it become a dance destination, and, you know what? I think it’s happening.”
“I think this scene is fantastic, thanks to all the companies who are putting out terrific work,” Glenn Edgerton, artistic director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, says. He spent time in the Netherlands and in LA before coming here, but finds Chicago “a rich environment, a well for creativity and new work.” Ashley Wheater, artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, hails the expanding accessibility for dance and the arts.
“With the opening of Millennium Park, a mandate developed that so much would be free, and it became a kind of honey pot for the arts,” he says. “A lot of dancing, singing, music became available, so that anybody from any economic background could come and hear and see something beautiful. The Chicago Dancing Festival (with free admission each summer) has had a big impact.”
Big names, with solid funding support, are one thing. But Chicago now boasts a much healthier smaller scene, fertile for innovation and experiment.
“Is it harder now? Easier? I think in terms of visibility, in terms of the overall landscape and the way dance is perceived in this city, it has gotten better,” says Margi Cole, whose Dance COLEctive is celebrating its 15th year. “Dance was broken off into little chunks when I moved here. I think one of the things that changed is that people in my peer group mobilized and recognized we have to work together as a community.”
To wit, nine Chicago troupes put together a special showcase in September, a kind of dance variety program, showing off various city wares, and took it to a convention of dance presenters in Indianapolis, signaling a unified front and producing a showy concert as a way to get more bookings for everybody. “As far as I know,” Snyder says, “that’s the first time something like that’s been done by one city.”
Dance companies have shared systems now for everything from selling tickets to funding choreographers — the Chicago Dancemakers Forum unites the Dance Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Links Hall in financing grants for new work.
“When I first came here in 1999, there was a trough in activity because of a lot of transitions,” the Dance Center’s Brooks remembers. “The Joffrey was still new. Lou Conte was leaving Hubbard Street. Gus Giordano was still running his troupe.
“But so much has happened since,” Brooks adds. “We’ve seen a growth in the middle ground, people like Julia Rhoads and her Lucky Plush Productions, Carrie Hanson and the Seldoms, Peter Taub curating programming at the Museum of Contemporary Art. They’ve all had such impact. I don’t think the term renaissance is overstating it.”
Even Chicago’s large dance institutions explored bold frontiers in 2010, a banner year for gutsy and original work. After 2009 boasted its triumphant Chicago premiere of “Othello” by native son Lar Lubovitch, the Joffrey unveiled sterling commissions by younger talent (Jessica Lang) and a somewhat neglected giant (James Kudelka).
Hubbard last year featured premieres by hotshot Aszure Barton, hip-hop innovator Victor Quijada and a trio of works from Alejandro Cerrudo, one of the most gifted choreographers to emerge from the Chicago dance scene. His “Malditos” won kudos last fall at the Kennedy Center during the troupe’s first visit there in decades. River North Chicago Dance Company premiered “Three,” by Robert Battle, a critical association with a major choreographer that considerably predates his recent designation as future head of the Alvin Ailey troupe.
Wheater notes, “People have fewer dollars to spend, but the quality of Chicago dance is really good, or they wouldn’t be coming.”
Weathering the economic downturn has been tricky, but dance is accustomed to threadbare survival. Hubbard cut back to an ensemble of 16 dancers for the last few seasons but fresh work and ticket discounting have worked — the troupe plans to add a 17th dancer in January. In December, Hubbard was up in revenue by 30 percent over a year earlier, enjoying a robust touring schedule and the growth of a 3-year-old summer intensive that attracts 100 aspiring dancers from all over the country.
The role of the Harris Theater as a reliable home for dance year-round can’t be overstated. Local troupes have a 7-year-old showcase with a larger seating capacity (around 1,500) than New York’s celebrated Joyce Theater.
“I also think it has meant a whole new era to have another major presenter of dance,” says Michael Tiknis, Harris president and managing director. The theater has hosted Lubovitch, Mark Morris, Mikhail Baryshnikov, the San Francisco and New York City ballets.
“The key word is ‘we,'” he says. “This has been synergistic, the dance audience built by a conglomerate. The Harris helped, but we didn’t do it alone.”
Skies aren’t cloud free. “Last summer, our festival experienced a 33 percent increase in registration for classes, but our Global Rhythms presentations saw a 40 percent decline in ticket sales from 2007 to 2009,” says Lane Alexander, co-founder and head of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project. “I think Chicago experienced our own bubble that hasn’t completely burst. There may be attrition in coming years.”
Andreas Bottcher, co-founder of DanceWorks Chicago, an organization he runs with Julie Nakagawa, says, “We’ve gone from a budget of $200,000 to $360,000 in 2011. Then again, we’re only as good as each fiscal year.”
Chicago boasts more companies, venues and opportunities than ever. There’s always some amateurism, too, but a growing ethos of civic investment.
“Not for nothing is Chicago the only city to put a Picasso in front of its City Hall,” Christopher Clinton Conway, executive director of the Joffrey, notes. “If we don’t work to keep what we have, the loss would be enormous.”
“Being a one-man administrator and artistic head is tough,” says Cole, whose COLEctive after 15 years consists of nine dancers. “Does that mean I want to do it less? No. Chicago has given me the chance to be an artist. I love being here.”
