Hometown: Born in Paris, France, lived many places.

Current city: Portland, ME

Age: 66

College and degree: Various, BA Keene State College

Graduate school and degree: MALS Wesleyan University

Website: www.batesdancefestival.org

How you pay the bills: My job as Director of the Bates Dance Festival

All of the dance hats you wear: Curator, producer, director, administrator, encourager

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Please describe your dance life/arts life in your…..

20s: Studied and danced in college, at ADF and in Boston

30s: Danced, taught, created in New Hampshire, was invited to direct the Bates Dance Festival (BDF)  in 1988

40s: Served as BDF Director – developing a multitude of collective ideas that weave through the fabric of BDF

50s: Served as BDF Director – continued developing and refining programs and initiatives

60s: Served as BDF Director  – keeping it on a positive note, as the external environment became increasingly challenging.

Can you describe a typical week as Director of Bates?

September: A typical week for me in the Fall is working simultaneously to close up the past year and to get the new year going, so writing grant reports, reconciling the budget, setting up fundraising prospects for coming year, designing the next year’s programs, confirming the performance series, hiring faculty, and setting up my calendar of travel for the year.

July, on the other hand, is the middle of the Festival, so I am captaining the ship in collaboration with my wonderful staff, keeping things moving on a daily basis, problem solving, guiding the work of the interns, hosting artists, MCing all the public events, and enjoying the amazing community of artists gathered at Bates.

What do you love and enjoy most with your job?

Bringing a community of artists together to play, experiment, create, learn and share.

Current movement practices and care of the body:

Walking my dog many times a day, some yoga, Pilates and social dancing.

Can you describe a few of the biggest changes in modern dance over the span of your career?

The individualization of vocabulary from the classics to an endless variety of approaches that have been influences by contact, hip hop, somatics, circus, and more. 

The decline in support that has forced innovation but also made the company construct more and more impossible.

A decline in appreciation for craft. The proliferation of choreographers….everyone who dances now thinks he/she is a choreographer.

The impact of technology that allows audience to watch screens instead of live performance.

What skills (attributes) do you think a modern dancer needs in 2016?

Everything. Not only must dancers be well-versed in many movement vocabularies, but if they wish to "make it," they must be skilled self marketers, good networkers, be effective administrators and fundraisers and have something authentic and meaningful to say. 

How is arts administration a creative endeavor?

Often arts administrators are the liaisons between the artists and their audiences.  They can help support the making of work, build audiences for the work, connect artists to a network of resources and provide context. Being on the admin side of the arts is demanding and challenging work but when done well with insight and good intention it can be very creative and rewarding.  It  can be a great way to supplement one’s own dance career or help others realize their creative potential.

Advice to dancers who want to get into arts administration:

Get hands-on experience by doing internships in different kinds of organizations, developing your skills sets and building a network.

Final thoughts: Hope/belief/love of the profession:

Dance is the mother of the arts, the most intimate and primal form of creative expression and the most honest — the body never lies. I hope our country will one day embrace the value of all the arts as the most important and valid vehicle for human creativity, expression and growth. Without the arts we lose our humanity.

In times like these we need it more than ever. 

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Related posts:

Blog Series: Becoming an Arts Administrator

Leah Cox, Dean of ADF

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