Fall for Dance!The Second Season
If you were attempting to hustle down West 55th Street in Manhattan during the last week of September and suddenly found yourself in a sweat trying to maneuver through the gridlock of people lining the street, you might wonder...what is going on at City Center? From Sept. 27 through Oct. 2, the second season of the Fall For Dance Festival, the unauthorized, but definitive, opening of New York's dance season, was filling the venerable old theater. For six straight nights every seat was sold for the improbable ticket price of ten dollars. The Festival, the brainchild of the current President and CEO of City Center Arlene Schuler, was an overwhelming success.
Sitting in her office on the ninth floor, surrounded by framed photos that told the story of her own dance background, the charming Ms. Schuler met with me to discuss the project she had created and why. "I wanted to come up with something that would entice young audiences - a new generation of dancegoers," she said, never dreaming that Fall For Dance would soar above and beyond her expectations. "And I wanted to increase the visibility of our theater by expanding the programming in dance. That was definitely one of my goals when I took this position."
The audience seemed to be an integral part of the "event" boisterous, appreciative, enthusiastic, and driving one standing ovation after the other. "The excitement was palpable," Ms. Schuler declared, rubbing her fingers together and smiling broadly as she continued to marvel at the fact that each night one-third of the audience was, indeed, under the age of thirty.
"I was determined to keep the fee lower than a movie ticket," Ms. Schuler said, thereby allowing dancers and choreographers on limited budgets an opportunity to see one another's work. "After all, New York City Ballet began here at City Center with low ticket prices," she recalled, "the Delacourt Festival in Central Park was free, and the Joyce Theater's Altogether Different Festival had an affordable ticket price. City Ballet has moved on, and the other two are gone. There seemed a need, and here was the possibility of including companies that may not ever have had an opportunity to dance on this grand stage."
City Center presents major companies like Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor, and American Ballet Theatre on a regular basis each year, but smaller companies and solo artists, perhaps not as well known, cannot afford the fees. "This was a departure for us, and I was skeptical," Ms. Schuler said, "because it was all dance and lots of it. But on the day we began ticket sales last year my marketing person called my office and insisted I come downstairs immediately. I saw people lined up to Sixth Avenue and around the block. Two of the programs were sold out in three hours. I simply could not have predicted this response."
The Festival showcased five companies each night. The programs were organized to reach an audience that ranged from a limo crowd to the downtown dance devotees who poured out of the subways. "The Festival committee worked diligently to structure balanced programs for each night," Ms. Schuler continued. It takes us about eight months to make our choices. We included our resident companies (Ailey, ABT, and Taylor) sort of as a lure, then built around them with tap, modern, ballet - something for everyone so that if you didn't like one, you might enjoy another." For example it was possible to watch dancer/mime/actor Bill Irwin juxtaposed with the vibrant Philadanco company: William Forsythe's technically demanding "Duo" for two female members of the Ballet de L'Opera National de Lyon on the same bill as the delicate solo artist Jody Sperling; and to open the program, the debut in New York of the athletic male dancers of New Zealand's "Black Grace" ensemble. And this was only the first night.
Ms. Schuler's committee watched endless amounts of tapes, researched the companies, and tried to coincide the company's travel plans with festival dates. Who will be on tour in the U.S. near the Festival time? Would the dancers be willing to travel for one performance? Will they look good on the City Center stage? And most importantly, would it be financially feasible, even with the small fee paid to them, for them to come?
The company from Mexico came just for this opportunity; the Houston Ballet had not been in New York for almost twenty years and was thrilled to be invited; and the South African dancer Vincent Mantsoe was making his first U.S. tour. Each situation was considered differently, and all of the above questions had to be deliberated and answered before finalizing a decision.
"It is not possible for us to subsidize this project on box office," Ms. Schuler said. Those returns will only cover about twelve per cent. Each company is responsible for its own expenses though City Center has its own house staff, which is helpful. But we must do productive fund raising in order to continue. Without the support of the New York dance community and its friends we could not make this work."
Closing the program on Sunday evening was a former beloved New York dance institution, the now Chicago-based Joffrey Ballet, led by Gerald Arpino, one of its founders. Among all the new and distinctive artists that had been presented during the week, perhaps the greatest ovation greeted Mr. Arpino as he took bows with his company. It seemed a fitting end to a week of discovery, nostalgia, and excitement - and for one of the Joffrey's former dancers, Arlene Schuler, a big thank-you tied with a bow for a job well done.