Last week, the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company gave a two-week workshop to college-age dancers in a converted brewery in downtown Los Angeles.
This week, the dancers cross the continent to teach more than 30 middle- and high school-age dance students in Vero Beach, at Riverside Theatre’s summer ballet and modern dance intensive, the Riverside Dance Festival.
Like its L.A. counterpart, the two-week intensive offers all-day classes in a range of technique and focus. In Vero, the California dancers, led by artistic director Kate Hutter, offer mostly modern dance and contemporary ballet training, while Riverside’s Adam Schnell and Camilo Rodriguez teach classical ballet.
The summer intensive will culminate Saturday Aug. 16 at 2 p.m. in a joint performance of students and faculty. In addition, the company will perform a concert of its own Friday and Saturday, Aug. 15 and 16, at 8 p.m. on the Stark Main Stage.
Both performances constitute the 2014-15 season opener of Ballet Vero Beach, a new company launched last spring, founded by Schnell, its artistic director, with Rodriguez as ballet master. Next weekend’s performances are staged in partnership with Riverside Theatre, though Ballet Vero Beach is a separate entity.
The shrinking world that allows young dancers here to tap into L.A. talent is further narrowed by the fact that the artistic directors of both programs were trained at the same place, Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Massachusetts.
“The beautiful thing is that we both ended up creating companies and discovering we were also leaders and arts administrators on the inside,” says Hutter.
At Walnut Hill, both Hutter and Schnell studied choreography under the late Samuel Kurkjian, the one-time resident choreographer of the Boston Ballet.
“I was extremely interested in choreography, and I knew that I would have a leadership role at some point in dance. I felt myself wanting to be behind the scenes, either directing or choreographing,” Hutter says.
Schnell, too, was utterly inspired by Kurkjian and calls him his mentor. After dancing with professional companies for several years, Schnell retreated from an on-stage role; last spring, he created a dance for Ballet Vero Beach’s debut performance that weighed in on the bittersweet reality of putting his own performance in the past.
Hutter still manages to take to the stage now and then, mostly with other companies. “I sometimes dance with the company but it’s difficult when I’m also choreographing.”
And she will take the opportunity to dance in the Saturday night Vero performance.
“To not have to be in charge of everything, to be supported and presented in this way, bringing my company to the festival, has afforded me the opportunity. Usually I’m producing, I’m working in all different ways behind the scenes.”
L.A. Contemporary Dance received an enthusiastic ovation from the Vero audience last spring, particularly from a number of student dancers, some of whom stayed afterwards to talk to the dancers in person. “They’re always so hungry and excited for the work and what we’re doing in Vero, and they asks lots of questions about what we’re doing in L.A,” says Hutter.
“I had some great feedback from the post-show meet-and-greet. I can’t wait to get back there. That warmth, and that ability to see something new and embrace it. That says something about the community.”
Six of the company’s 20 or so members will teach at the Riverside camp. Morning classes include contemporary, modern and improvisational dance, with each teacher working with all the students.
“What’s exciting about our company is we each have our own style. You won’t see any two pieces in that showcase that will look the same. It will be exciting for the students.”
Then in the afternoon, the instructors will choreograph pieces for the Friday night showcase at the end of two-week session. The public is invited to watch. Like the Ballet Vero Beach performance Saturday night, the performance begins at 8 p.m.
Hutter intends to bring back “Unravel,” the duet the company performed in Vero in April, as well as “Catch and Release.” The centerpiece of the show will be a 30-minute section of a 50-minute piece that premiered in 2010. It is set to electronic music by Denver-based composer Philip Zachary.
Other dances include “Identity Theft,” “Blank” and “Unravel,” which the company performed for Ballet Vero Beach in April
Hutter founded the company in 2005 with her business partner Michelle Mierz. Her ten-year reign as artistic director, written into the company’s charter, comes to a close next year, but she will continue as president. She will also continue to choreograph.
LACDC gives two self-produced repertory concerts a year. Dancers work on a six-to-eight week contract of paid rehearsals and performances; there are no salaried positions.
Ballet Vero Beach, which just earned its 501(c)3 status, uses dancers from other established companies, chiefly Ballet Nebraska, for classical and contemporary ballet offerings. As for modern dance, it presented dancers with Prometheus Dance Company of Boston at its first fund-raiser last summer. The founder of that company, Diane Arvanites, was Adam Schnell’s teacher at Walnut Hill. She also teaches at the Boston Conservatory.
Auditions are held annually for the small company. “That’s our way of inviting in new talent who are interested in our work, and to let us see what’s out there,” Hutter says.
“Primarily people move to L.A. to be part of the commercial dance scene – TV, film, commercials. A lot of them have their start in dance in live performances and in concert work. So they often seek us out to be a part of the collaborative process, and to be back in the studio where it’s not the rigor of a commercial set, where you learn things in three minutes and perform it. Here they get to spend time with us, and have more time to perform it.”
Just as Schnell is having to develop Vero Beach’s audience for serious dance, Hutter faces a related challenge in L.A., which for such a large metropolitan area has comparatively little dance performed in concerts.
“L.A. has always had dance as a presence in its culture. But it’s been overshadowed for a number of years when the music video industry blew up and eclipsed some of the work that was being done in theaters and smaller venues. Still, talent was being cultivated and being shared. People were still producing – just not on the same level as TV and film.”
She points to established L.A. modern dance companies including Diavolo, coming to West Palm’s Kravis Center in November, and Bodytraffic, slated to perform next March in Lake Worth’s Duncan Theatre.
Currently, LACDC performs in Diavolo’s rehearsal space in the Ford Amphitheater in Hollywood.
“When you think of size, in the eyes of our world it often gets very focused on New York. That’s an unfortunate stigma. Dance exists in so many places.”
Riverside Dance Festival’s showcase performance is Saturday, August 16 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for students.
L.A. Contemporary Dance Company will perform Friday, Aug. 15 and Saturday, August 16 at 8 p.m. on Riverside’s Main Stage.
Tickets range from $10 to $50 and are available at www.balletverobeach.og and through the Riverside Box Office at 772-231-6990.
