Local Movement: Five Decades of Dance in Ann Arbor

Sat, 09/21/2024 - 4:34pm

When: 2024

"The national 'dance boom' of the late 1950's through the 1980's expanded audiences and support for dance. Federal grants supported the development of college dance programs and touring dance companies. The University Musical Society brought dance to the University of Michigan’s Power Center for the Performing Arts, built in Ann Arbor in 1971. Both at the University and in the community, Ann Arbor became a destination for dance. Low-cost performance and rehearsal spaces, community support, and grants helped create and nurture a vital dance scene, and Ann Arbor became home to numerous modern and jazz dance companies including Dance Theater 2, Hydra, Whitley Setrakian’s People Dancing, The J. Parker Copley Dance Company, Jazz Dance Theater, and The Peter Sparling Dance Company. Recurring community dance showcases, such as Spring Dances, Fall Dances, Dancing in Summer, and others took place throughout the year, allowing many choreographers to share their work. The film Local Movement, by Aimee McDonald and Terri Sarris, explores modern dance in Ann Arbor from the 1970's through today." - Terri Sarris

And for more stories from the film, check out the 46-minute directors' cut.

Transcript

• [00:00:03] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: It was just remarkable.
• [00:00:05] NOONIE ANDERSON: There was so much dance here.
• [00:00:06] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: It was the dance boom. The big boom of dance.
• [00:00:08] AIMEE MCDONALD: There was a regular dance scene, and there was an audience for it. People were used to going out and seeing dance.
• [00:00:14] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: It was largely modern dance. The local dance scene was so vibrant. It was exciting.
• [00:00:19] NOONIE ANDERSON: One of my most admired teachers said go to Ann Arbor, it's a cultural mecca.
• [00:00:24] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: We had really interesting people working. [OVERLAPPING]
• [00:00:51] NOONIE ANDERSON: It was really, really, really exciting. 1976, the very first day I came to Ann Arbor, I walked down State Street. I heard African drumming. I followed the sound, and there was a space called Canterbury Loft on State Street, and I walked up the stairs, and there was this wonderful African dance class going. I just walked up and entered the class. It was taught by Biza Sompa who also had a company here in Ann Arbor. He was from the Congo and had only been here about three weeks. He was the first dancer I met. That was my first introduction to dance in Ann Arbor. Then, actually, it was Peter Kentes who encouraged me to start dancing and teaching.
• [00:01:34] PETER KENTES: Lots was going on in the community. There was an active scene. Christopher Watson, started a modern dance group around that time. Actually, one of my first modern teachers was Liz Bergman. She was head of the Department at the University. She was bringing in a couple of guest choreographers. She really needed male dancers, and on the spot, she offered me a full-ride scholarship. At the time they called them male dancer grants. I was teaching jazz dance to the general population, so I was a graduate instructor at Michigan, and I'm going to 8 AM ballet classes, but I'm going to start my dance company at night.
• [00:02:06] NOONIE ANDERSON: I auditioned for his company called Hydra.
• [00:02:09] PETER KENTES: We didn't have an official board, but there was an unofficial board. I think what is important is community support, finding good people to help you that you can trust. My uncle, he owned the Capitol Market on Fourth Avenue, so I had a school, I could teach.
• [00:02:23] NOONIE ANDERSON: Fourth Avenue above Capitol Market.
• [00:02:25] PETER KENTES: That would support the company and also give me a rehearsal space. The first place my company performed was during Art Fair in '78. It was well received. While there were a couple of U of M dancers that didn't become regular company members of the group, it was a nucleus that we wanted to continue.
• [00:02:42] NOONIE ANDERSON: We performed for Art Fair quite a few times. Graceful Arch was a beautiful performance tent that was built by the engineering students. When they tore down the engineering building, that was lost.
• [00:02:55] PRISCILLA (LOZON) WAGNER: Late '70s, I was teaching quite a bit. I mostly taught at the Ann Arbor Y. Then I elevated that program so that they had all idioms of dance. That was when I also was dancing with Hydra, with David Marshal and Peter Kentes. The two of them were directing it. Then that's where I also met two of my mentors, Deborah Sipos, and Noonie Anderson.
• [00:03:27] PETER KENTES: We would find dancers in going club dancing. That's where I ran into Deborah Sipos-Roe, at Rick's. As far as Deborah goes, she ended up teaching at Community High for many years. Actually, one year I taught for her, she took maternity leave, and so that year I took over and taught community high classes and dance body, and it was a great experience to work with local creative kids.
• [00:03:53] AIMEE MCDONALD: We learned all the elements that you need to know to make your own dance concert. A lot of us that went through that program actually went on to become dance teachers, dancers professionally. It was a really positive experience.
• [00:04:08] PETER KENTES: With my company, I was going for more commercial. I would look for opportunities, my group would do performances with Ayla Fashions. We'd do dancing fashion shows. We did a private party on a tennis court for a big party. I was offered a teaching position in New Mexico. That's why I left Hydra, and then Scott Read and Noonie, I think took Hydra too and kept on with it.
• [00:04:30] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: I was a student at State University College of New York at Brockport, from '75-'77. I loved it, but I could tell that it wasn't the professional track that I thought maybe I needed. I spoke to one of my most admired teachers, and he said, go to Ann Arbor. It's a cultural mecca. I didn't apply anywhere else. I got there in the fall of '77, and then entered the dance department there, which was fantastic. It was just wonderful, and I loved Ann Arbor. I graduated in '79, and I went back to New York, which is where I'm from. I just started taking class and going to auditions. The end of that year, I produced an evening of my own work. Then I got pregnant. Skipping a lot, I married David, and we moved back to Ann Arbor. I was working at Artworlds, which was upstairs on Main Street. When did Parker come to town? Because Parker's part of this, for me.
• [00:05:29] NOONIE ANDERSON: Parker was teaching in Jackson and just happened to come to Ann Arbor and do a workshop. I happened to take the workshop, and I met him, and I was just like [GASPS]. His movement was just phenomenal. I remember saying, would you ever think of Michigan? Sure enough, he did.
• [00:05:45] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: Parker came to town. I started taking his classes. The Dance Gallery people. No, what was it called then? The space above Drake's? Dance Theater Studio -- said they wanted to start a company. I think they knew they wanted Parker to be that person, but they couldn't really say that so they opened it up, and I applied. They did not hire me. They hired Parker. I'm not a competitive person, but I felt competitive at that moment. I thought, well, then I would start my own company. Then I did. That's why I started a company. Through this moment of pique and a little bit of competition, and also, I just wanted to. It just seemed possible. It was just so much fun to have that community.
• [00:06:32] PETER SPARLING: My high school years were at Interlochen Arts Academy where I discovered dancing. I got so enamored with movement and dancing that by my senior year, I was dancing full time. I went to the Juilliard School in New York, joined the companies of Jose Limon and Martha Graham, traveled the world, touring, had my own company in New York City for five years. I was living in New York City and decided to take a university position in 1984. That's what brought me to Ann Arbor. The dance scene at that time was somewhat separated between the university dance program and the local scene. I immediately felt the need to have a foot in both realms. In '85, I and other members of the University of Michigan Dance faculty formed Ann Arbor Dance Works. That was a resident collective. That was happening mostly within the university setting. In the local dance townie scene, I was struck by the determination and just the sheer presence of dancers, such as Whitley Setrakian, Parker Copley, whose company was thriving.
• [00:07:47] NOONIE ANDERSON: There was so much dance. It was so rich.
• [00:07:50] PRISCILLA (LOZON) WAGNER: We all supported one another. We went to each other's concerts. We went to each other's fundraisers.
• [00:07:57] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: Everybody was just in love with everybody else's work, and supportive. That's my memory of it.
• [00:08:04] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: I don't think that there was one aesthetic that dominated.
• [00:08:08] NOONIE ANDERSON: Generally speaking, modern dance was the main vocabulary, but all very different.
• [00:08:14] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: There was commonalities because a lot of people trained together.
• [00:08:17] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: Parker's company, he certainly had a style, which was really lovely and swoopy and does a lot of curves and flowing groups that would merge together and separate.
• [00:08:30] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: Whitley liked telling a lot of intimate stories.
• [00:08:33] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: I used a lot of words. I had people talking in pieces.
• [00:08:44] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: Rachel eats rice.
• [00:08:44] JEREMY STEWARD: Wild rice.
• [00:08:44] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: At night.
• [00:08:44] JEREMY STEWARD: In the moonlight.
• [00:08:44] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: On her porch.
• [00:08:44] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: I was a little bit more, this word it is so widely used it's lost its meaning, but maybe a little quirkier and weirder.
• [00:08:53] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: The movement was very intimate, too. I often thought when I would try Whitley's movement out on myself, it was turned in. It would turn in on itself.
• [00:09:02] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: A woman came to one of our shows named Diane Rosenblatt and she approached me about really doing this as a nonprofit. She took it over. We formed a board, and she just took over a lot of the administrative work and was endlessly supportive. But she was amazing. She made that company happen. I didn't know how to apply for grants. I don't think it had even occurred to me.
• [00:09:26] PRISCILLA (LOZON) WAGNER: I had the opportunity to be a part of Dance Theatre 2 the modern company. I loved my time there. I saw that what was referred to at the time as concert jazz or modern jazz was my niche after J Parker Copley left Dance Theatre. I was approached by Judith Khan. Thank goodness for Judith, who was a co-owner with John Durbin at Dance Theatre. She said we would like to have a company and residence. Without Judith Khan, there would be no Jazz Dance Theatre. Judith became our company manager. We received free rehearsal space, and she could have booked classes. We settled on "Jazz Dance Theatre" because that was what Dance Theatre Studio's forte was becoming. I think people at first expected it to be "jazz hands." It wasn't. We were doing a concert version of jazz.
• [00:10:35] NOONIE ANDERSON: Parker and Dance Gallery, probably one of the richest times of my life, spiritually, physically, emotionally. So much of what we built into dance gallery was donated or given in-kind. Funding state grants, local grants, a wonderful board of directors. Our Board of Directors, president for many years was Linda Greene. Linda Greene was tireless in recruiting funding. She was a major person that built a community around the dancers and the studio. I was lucky enough to continue to work with him. I think back on what he built in a very short amount of time. It's at the core of who I am. I knew in my heart, this was a huge gift.
• [00:11:29] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: People Dancing would have a showcase with everybody, spring dances or winter dances, which could be anyone joining in. One show at Performance Network and one show in a bigger venue and that was our schedule for a while.
• [00:11:44] AIMEE MCDONALD: When I was first perceiving the dance scene in the Ann Arbor area, whether it was these showcases or studio performances, there was always something happening. There was always the autumn dances showcase. That is what became dancing in summer when Terpsichore's Kitchen took it over and so there was always that option to present choreography. You always knew there was a project that you could be working towards because there was an outlet. There was a place to do it.
• [00:12:15] PETER SPARLING: The local dance scene at the time gravitated around the old Technology Center, which is now the YMCA.
• [00:12:23] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: Technology Center in which the Performance Network had their theater. But that became our home for People Dancing for quite a long time. It was affordable. It was a really rundown rickety fire trap of a space. It was a warren of hallways, clearly a large factory space that had been subdivided into lots and lots of spaces.
• [00:12:47] NOONIE ANDERSON: The Performance Network was a gold mine for dancers. Even though it was a small space, it was hard to work in. We had to lay a sub floor, and then we had to lay the floor, and then you got to do your concert.
• [00:12:57] PETER SPARLING: It was a relatively small space really funky, that had, of course, that central downstage column.
• [00:13:04] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: That was painful, the sight lines, oh my God.
• [00:13:07] NOONIE ANDERSON: But it gave us this opportunity to have a performance venue that was theateresque enough, but not prohibitive financially and they were very open to having dance. For most of the companies in town, they did a lot of performance. We had a tremendous amount of coverage for the arts in general in Ann Arbor. It was one of the bigger sections in the paper. One of the things Ann Arbor prided itself on was having that rich arts community, so consequently, that was something that was advertised, reviewed, and discussed.
• [00:13:45] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: There was an arts reporter. There was an arts beat. They had a logo for arts. What a resource that was and people read the paper.
• [00:13:53] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: It was good to have different voices.
• [00:13:55] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: Vicki Engel.
• [00:13:56] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: Marianne Rudnicki.
• [00:13:57] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: Joann McNamara.
• [00:13:58] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: Susan Nisbett, stellar writer with a really deep understanding of dance.
• [00:14:04] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: I started writing for the Ann Arbor News in 1975. I was at the paper in what I think was a golden age for arts and feature writing. It was really a pleasure to be a part of that. We started doing previews, as well as reviews, and that was wonderful because it gave me a chance to let Ann Arbor audiences share what I could find out about different choreographers and the works they were performing. I loved doing that.
• [00:14:33] NOONIE ANDERSON: Previews were an incredible help to draw audiences because most everybody got the paper. They'd interview the choreographers, they'd talk about the pieces. You'd find out who the costume designer was. There was a set designer. Where was it going to be? How many nights?
• [00:14:48] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: You would get many inches of preview followed by a review, often by the same person that did the preview.
• [00:14:56] NOONIE ANDERSON: There was always a review, it wasn't always positive. Which was fine because then you knew it was honest, but it was always very thoughtful.
• [00:15:03] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: The great thing and this affected us in Ann Arbor in lots of different ways. It was the dance boom. The big boom of dance, which affected people's abilities to get grants in Ann Arbor. Dance is always the poor sister, but people could get some grant money, and people were coming out and there were donors. The paper was committed to covering local dance. It was a vital thing to cover.
• [00:15:22] NOONIE ANDERSON: Now, unless you're tuned into that, on social media, you're not going to see that big broadcast.
• [00:15:29] WHITLEY (SETRAKIAN) HILL: It elevated to the point where People Dancing would have full evenings in the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, which was fantastic. It was just really exciting to be in a space that big. There was a lot of collaboration with other artists. We moved on into the '90s, and Engler took over and the whole feeling that we would have support from the state changed very quickly. Two or three years prior to Engler, there was an opportunity for us to reach a really robust level of funding. It was a big deal. Once Engler came in and gutted the council, it just ended. I moved from choreography to songwriting. When I moved to Nashville, I handed over the reins of People Dancing, including the 501 C3 status, to Christina Sears-Etter, and she ran it for a number of years afterwards, which was fantastic.
• [00:16:29] NOONIE ANDERSON: I've always wondered if Parker knew that his time was limited and that's why he was so prolific that it was almost overwhelming as a dancer. That huge flame that he had, I just wonder if he knew his time was limited. I'm just glad that I got to bask in that flame and that I got to dance with the people that I did.
• [00:16:53] PETER SPARLING: At about 1993, there was a major shift happening within the community. Parker no longer had his company. I was becoming so prolific and wanting to make so many dances that Ann Arbor Dance Works would not allow me that luxury. There were dancers at Dance Gallery, so I suggested to Linda Greene who was one of the major supporters of Parker's company. That perhaps I come and assume the directorship of the existing company and that we kind of retool it, rebrand it. In 1993 I held an audition, I hired some dancers who were with Parker, Lisa Johnson. Other dancers, Julianne O'Brien Pederson. So that I formed a company of seven dancers plus myself, and we immediately began creating a full evening work for the 1994 Ann Arbor Summer Festival. The summer festival then became a regular summer venue. My company had been essentially booted out of the Technology Center. It was condemned and eventually burned down.
• [00:18:03] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: I remember watching that building burn, that was terrible. I lived up the block from it, it's like, wait, we used to dance there.
• [00:18:12] PETER SPARLING: We found another space that we thought we would be able to purchase within five years. Of course, because of what was happening in the economy in '07 we ran out of money. We could not raise the money to purchase the building, so I had to close the doors of Dance Gallery, Peter Sparling Dance Company. It was a major disappointment. I had assumed, or thought, that I had rallied enough support within the community. Such that I would have some kind of help to sustain the company through the hard times, but that did not happen.
• [00:18:44] AIMEE MCDONALD: I started the original version of the company back in about 1999. It was at that time, Terpsichore's Kitchen and we were focused at that time more on doing independent choreographer showcases and we did some informal showings, works in progress showings. I did that mostly doing our performances at Performance Network and the area studios like Dance Gallery.
• [00:19:13] AIMEE MCDONALD: In about 2000, Performance Network moved from its funky old space into a beautiful new space on Huron and Fourth Avenue. It was a nice proscenium space where you could present dance in a very polished looking way.
• [00:19:31] AIMEE MCDONALD: I did that until about 2009 is when we lost our performance space, and I was left scrambling and that was the last of that incarnation.
• [00:19:43] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: I'm pretty sure it was 2015 or 2016 when the News had closed. I mean the Ann Arbor News was closed for business and then reopened, like, the next day as MLive. We were still doing previews and reviews -- that pattern, do the preview, write the review continued. Toward the end, there was much less interest in using freelancers or in covering the arts and that's true now as well. The paper just ignores it.
• [00:20:13] AIMEE MCDONALD: Unfortunately, because we don't have those reviews, a lot of times when you're trying to find funding. They want to see reviews of your work, and if no one's reviewing your work that's really a big stumbling block for us. Publicity is pretty much entirely on social media and it's a cool tool because we can do a lot more interaction with the audiences, little snippets of the process, profiles on the dancers and I think people enjoy that, people engage with that, but what we don't have is the legitimate dance reviews.
• [00:20:51] SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT: Dance is ephemeral, and it really, when you're there you witness it and a second later it's gone. Being present for that is the only way to capture it. Many people make dances for the screen, but there's an energy to being in the theater and seeing for real. There is a way that you are moved emotionally in the theater that is hard to do on a screen. Movement really affects you emotionally, this reaching out that happens, really happens in the theater in a way that it doesn't elsewhere. One of the things that is probably concerning is a diminution in the number of spaces that are amenable to small scale performances. These spaces don't exist anymore. Ann Arbor has gotten awfully gentrified and a lot of these spaces are gone.
• [00:21:46] AIMEE MCDONALD: Finding a space is a big challenge. We did our last big performance at Riverside Art Center in Ypsilanti and that's a wonderful, cool space, lots of potential here, lots of just good energy around this space.
• [00:22:02] PETER SPARLING: Envisioning a future for dance in Ann Arbor involves the perception of our community, do they value local artists? At present I say no, they don't. That said, I'm seeing glimmers of promise in terms of younger dancers who are taking it upon themselves to rebuild the community to present choreographer showcases and I'm hoping that with younger people moving to the community, there will be new audiences developed.
• [00:22:47] NOONIE ANDERSON: Ann Arbor is a community that's rich in the arts. It's rich in a level of sophistication that allows dance to thrive. It has its ebbs and flows. There's a readjustment in interest I think, and that's what I'm hoping for.
• [00:23:12] AIMEE MCDONALD: It really feels like we're at a point of growth and I'm hoping that as this resurgence happens that we get the support from the community. That we get audiences to come back, and that we build new audiences and we expand our reach because I think dance is something that can touch everybody.