Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theater
Dance Theater of Nevada, a professional company due to make its debut in September of 2007, is surely one to watch. It will add a new dimension and a tantalizing diversity to Las Vegas' dance scene - a dimension envisioned by two multi-talented directors: Bernard Gaddis and Charmaine Hunter.
Charmaine studied with Arthur Mitchell, Alvin Ailey, Suzanne Farrell and Tanaquil Le Clerq. She was a principal dancer and Ballet Mistress for the Dance Theater of Harlem and then went on to be Production Dance Supervisor for "Lion King." Hired by Cirque du Soleil to conduct auditions in Las Vegas, Charmaine liked the climate and settled in. She said, "Weather, temperature, climate drives me."
Bernard spent six years as a principal dancer in Philadanco, ending up as the founder and Artistic Director of Philadanco's second company. He then spent seven years as a principal dancer in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He crossed paths again with Charmaine in Las Vegas. He said, "We sort of lost contact with each other...and the next time I'd seen her, she was actually giving my audition for 'Zumanity.' Cirque had hired her to do the auditions and I came in and she was like, 'OK. Audition over.'"
The two quickly began toying with the idea of their own company. Bernard said, "First of all, I've always wanted to be an artistic director of a company and now that I'm thirty-six years old, and I'm proud to say that I'm thirty-six with a twenty-five year career behind me, I felt as though I needed to look towards the future and that I've always wanted to walk in the footsteps of my mentors such as Alvin Ailey and Arthur Mitchell and other choreographers as well - Talley Beatty and Katherine Dunham."
"I just didn't dance when I was at the companies. I was the co-founder and artistic director for the second company of Philadanco. So Joan Myers Brown taught me everything. She taught me how to write grants. She taught me how to write proposals. She told me the ins and outs. She told me who I should be speaking to, what type of people should be on the board. I attended board meetings with her. And then when I got in the Ailey organization, and Judy may not know this, I watched Ms. Jameson very closely and how she ran the company. And I was immersed in being the company representative for AGMA and so I learned about contracts. I negotiated contracts for three years for the Ailey company. So I was preparing myself already for this because I knew this was something I would eventually want to do. Plus I love choreographing. I've been choreographing for quite some time and it seems that whenever I do a ballet, it's received well."
But where Bernard covets choreography, Charmaine sees her role as developing the company at a good pace (not too fast), making sure they have (or get) the right contacts and doing things methodically and systematically. She said, "I'm constantly on the phone with Arthur Mitchell and asking him, 'OK, this is what I want to do. What did you do when you were trying to do this?'"
Bernard added, "So we're not trying to compete with any company in Nevada or New York or we're not trying to be another Alvin Ailey. We're not trying to be another Dance Theater of Harlem. We're trying to find our own niche but in keeping with the integrity and history of dance. So we're not forgetting about the American masters or the choreographers such as Balanchine and Forsyth. We want those works in our company as well, but we are a company that is so diversified that we could put up a classical ballet or we could put up a totally modern ballet or an African ballet."
And the September premiere is ambitious. It includes a piece called "Brethren," an all-male piece dedicated to male dancers who've died from AID's. Then there's "Core," a modern piece set to Steve Wright's music and exploring energy as moving outward from the core. "Standard Love" is set to standards by Nancy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald and other great jazz and vocal artists. "Ave Maria," the fourth piece, is a ballet by Dwight Rhoden. A fifth untitled piece will be choreographed by Christopher Huggins and they hope to entice David Dawson, a European choreographer, to stage a pas de deux from his ballet.
Bernard and Charmaine are starting with 18 amazing artists from San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York. Bernard said, "We do not close the doors to anyone - any class, any race. It's a total multi-cultural company. The only thing that is required of you is that you can dance."
For more information, see "Dance Theater of Nevada" on My Space.