Dance on Location: Seattle
Even though Seattle can claim choreographers such as Mark Morris, Robert Joffrey and Trisha Brown, who all began their careers in the Pacific Northwest, these notables left the west coast for Manhattan before their world-renowned companies could receive their current levels of notoriety. This migration was typical 30 years ago, as it seemed impossible to thrive as a dancer and choreographer if one stayed in Seattle. In 1976, when Bill Evans came to the city and subsequently became the director of Dance Theatre Seattle, he helped to highlight the local dance scene and bring a level of professional quality that had previously been fleeting.
When Denise Bolstad, administrative director of Pacific Northwest Ballet School, began working at PNB in 1980, the company and the school were both very small, she recalls. “I remember the waiting area was also the smoking lounge and the reception area,” she says. “We only had three studios.”
Although Bolstad was only really familiar with the more classical companies in those days, she says Seattle was “Joffrey country” in the 1970s and 1980s. The Joffrey Ballet would come and do a residency and performance series once a year.
“That was really the only dance we saw back then,” she says.
Bolstad also remembers the First Chamber Dance Company being the “main” company in town, but it disbanded around the time Pacific Northwest Ballet became established as Seattle’s big dance company.
In the past 20 years, however, everything in Seattle has changed. The Pacific Northwest Ballet has become a world-class company, and that previously tiny school has become one of the top five ballet schools in the United States. The company and school moved into a new building 15 years ago and also perform in the newly renovated McCaw Hall on the University of Washington campus. Pacific Northwest Ballet has also established a satellite school – The Francia Russell Center – in Bellevue, WA.
Pat Graney, a modern choreographer who is credited with helping to establish the thriving modern dance scene that currently exists in Seattle, incorporated her company in 1990. Since then she’s received 11 consecutive choreography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, has been commissioned by Pacific Northwest Ballet to create work, has toured extensively nationally and internationally and has received a Golden Umbrella award to recognize a lifetime of achievement in dance.
For Molly Scott, artistic director and choreographer for Scott/Powell Performance, 1990 is also a notable year in dance for her. She moved to Seattle that year and began working as a solo dance artist. She met composer Jarrad Powell at Cornish College of the Arts, and the two began a life-long collaboration, which not only resulted in the establishment of Scott/Powell Performance but also established a performance series titled Composer/Choreographer to support collaborations between composers and choreographers.
“When I first came to Seattle choreographers such as Wade Madsen, Pat Graney, Lori Wilson and Jeff Bickford dominated the contemporary dance scene, and a new wave of choreographers, including KT Niehoff, Amii LeGendre, Crispin Spaeth and Peggy Piacenza were just beginning to get recognition,” Scott says. “When I first came to Seattle, Run/Remain was my favorite performance ensemble. Then, 33 Fainting Spells appeared and galvanized the dance scene.”
The flood of modern dance companies which began to call Seattle home has been one of the biggest changes over the past 20 years.
“I’ve seen it explode,” says Bolstad. “Now there are a lot of modern dance companies. Fifteen years ago there were maybe three ballet schools, and now there are 10 other quality places people can study.”
Scott has seen a similar eruption with modern dance companies and choreographers, however, much like the dance scene in New York, it ebbs and flows.
“Today many of the artists working when I first arrived have either moved away, dissolved their companies, or greatly altered the way in which they make work,” she says. “The roster of active Seattle choreographers continues to grow and change and now includes Amy O’Neal, Allison Van Dyck, Zoe Scofield, Maureen Whiting, Laura Curry, Mark Haim, Wade Madsen, Pat Graney, Donald Byrd, Stephanie Skura, Tonya Lockyer, John Dixon and many, many, many others, and includes artists working in improvisational forms, choreography, dance theater/physical theater, ballet, cultural and ethnic dance forms.”
The diversity in movement artists that exist within the Seattle dance community is truly an asset to the community and to dance enthusiasts who want to attend performances and take class. Velocity Dance Center has quickly established itself as the main place to study contemporary dance of all types. Established in 1996, Velocity not only offers a wide variety of classes, but also provides rehearsal space to a number of choreographers and companies and regularly presents performances in its MainSpace Theatre. All classes are drop-in based, and Velocity offers multiple levels of modern, ballet, hip-hop and more. Visiting dancers are also welcome to drop into class at the Pacific Northwest Ballet School, according to Bolstad.
“We offer two open classes a day in the morning and the evening,” she says. “They are taught by the same professional faculty who teach in the regular professional school.” Open classes are taught at an intermediate level, so dancers of all levels can benefit from the classes.
Instructors may also be interested in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s upcoming teacher seminar, the week of April 15-19, 2009. The course will include five days of ballet technique, a breakdown of Pacific Northwest’s syllabus, a class on how to teach boys, nutrition instruction and various lectures. Artistic director Peter Boal will also break down the teachings of ballet teacher Stanley Williams during the seminar.
The teacher seminar coincides with Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “spectacular” production of “Swan Lake,” which includes original choreography by former artistic director Kent Stowell. Additionally in 2009, Pacific Northwest Ballet will perform “Jewels” by George Balanchine and will present the annual “Broadway Festival,” including excerpts from “West Side Story,” “Carousel” and more.
Additionally, Scott/Powell will be presenting excerpts from “Geography,” the company’s newest evening-length work, at Velocity Dance Center in May of 2009. In February, Seattle will host the Chop Chop Contemporary Dance Festival, where some of the city’s best companies will be showcased, and the general public will be invited to participate in master classes, lectures and discussion panels.
The reality of Seattle’s current dance scene is that there are regularly so many performances occurring, it’s almost impossible to keep track.
“I can no longer keep up with who is doing what—I no longer know all the players, and truthfully, if I tried to see everything that takes place in my field I would never be home at night and I would not be able to pay for rehearsal space due to the price of tickets,” says Scott.
It’s perhaps the draw of the Pacific Northwest lifestyle that has led so many dancers and dance makers to call Seattle home over the past 20 years. Additionally, Seattle residents are known for their very high theatre attendance rates, making selling tickets easier for dance companies in this city than in some others.
“The life is easier for an artist,” says Bolstad. “It’s not Manhattan, and it’s very supportive. The community has been enormously supportive of all arts.”