Conversations on Dance in Baltimore

As some of you know, I’ve been sitting down with small groups of dancers in the Baltimore region for many weeks now. I’ve tried to keep the conversations as open-ended as possible around the very generic questions “What makes dance work in Baltimore?” “What does Baltimore need to make dance work?” The answers usually spiral wonderfully (especially if there’s a nice diverse group of people around the table) into very specific, shared challenges.

This place (inthedancersstudio.com) is an extension of these conversations.

Finding available resources is a recurring challenge that comes up in these conversations. But, we have technology. To that end, if I can call this the “official launch” for this site, over on the side, you will find links to 38 places to perform (from 40 to 2500+ seats), 32 studios you can rent (to practice, rehearse, learn, or… dance), 10 organizations in the region that support dance to some degree, and 116 places to learn dance (6 of which will give you a degree, and several others that have multiple physical locations). I know these lists are incomplete (and they always will be), but if you know something I missed, down on the lower-right you’ll find a list of “tip” links to give me a clue. Please do. I need a lot of clues.

And there is movement (and potential movement) in the dance world for Baltimore. For now, to get a conversation going, I thought I’d mention a few huge (money) things that touch the dance world of Baltimore in some way. Maybe in ways you don’t expect. There’s a lot more, particularly down in the individual-dance-company level that I’d love to (and will) explore, but I don’t want to get too far into the weeds right off the bat.

About two years ago, the second phase of the Performing Arts and Humanities building at UMBC opened, with their Dance Cube (a 3500 square foot space made for dance), a Dance Technology Center (2400 square feet with fun technology), the Proscenium Theatre (250 seats), and a couple dance studio spaces.

Less than a year ago, Motor House opened, with a new performance space. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for all dance, since there’s relatively low steel beam situation in the ceiling and a dance-brutal concrete floor, so the vertically- and impact-oriented among you are kinda left out on this one.

Today, work progresses on City Arts 2 will include dance studio space but is mostly artist-oriented living space. That’s a huge deal for dancers that need to live on a dancer budget. City Arts 2 should open in a few months.

Also in that neighborhood, pay attention to OpenWorks, because this massive ($10 million) makerspace will give the dancers of Baltimore unprecedented access to tools and technologies for just the cost of a monthly membership, and they have a textile studio, so costuming (along with electronics, 3D printing, laser cutters, and wood and metal shops) is coming to Station North.

Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank as committed $5 million to renovate and expand the recreation center at 1100 East Fayette (what is now the Carmelo Anthony Youth Center), which will include a “dance and yoga space.” There’s also a good chance (but not a lot of detail) that dance can figure into the massive Port Covington project. And I do mean massive – this is one of the, if not the largest urban development projects in the country. There’s already a makerspace with a textile studio in that neighborhood (Foundery). Massive it is, and comes with drama. I haven’t even tried to navigate that drama, but there is a great opportunity to engage this project to serve the Baltimore dance community in some capacity. That does take some organization on the part of the dancers of Baltimore.

The city is also engaged, to some degree. In July 2015, we got a city-wide plan to upgrade and expand recreation centers (becoming “Fitness and Wellness Centers”). Particularly interesting in that general initiative is the planned expansion of the Cahill Performing Arts Center to 32,000 square feet. Unfortunately, information on the “recreation industry” tends to lump things like “folk dancing” and “jazzercise” into the same “fitness and wellness” category. Likewise, the scope of “arts and culture” ranges from dance performance to cooking lessons. With millions of dollars flowing into neighborhoods around the city, bending just a bit of that toward dance (your dance) is a real opportunity. What this means for dance in Baltimore is that these facilities will come on-line over the next several years (there are outstanding issues about funding), so there is time to influence some of the details. At the very least, some of you may want to teach in these new places. Again, organization matters. What does dance need?

I’ve said a lot, but ultimately what I want to say is that there is a very special moment happening in Baltimore right now that could change a lot of things for people that dance in this city.

I offer you this place to help make that happen.

If you’d like to contribute to this site, please get in touch. If you’d like to contribute off-line, please get in touch. There’s a general contact form available in the lower-right corner.

If you’d like to sit down and talk about some of these things, I’ll be doing that all summer. After that, I’m going to buckle down and get to work on the good stuff.

Welcome to this adventure.

Dance Graduates in Baltimore

I’ll come back to this eventually (there is a bigger picture in mind), but I did want to share this little bit while I was collecting information for the “learn something” links… Four-year dance degree programs in the Baltimore area:

  • Towson University, 21 Graduates
  • UMBC, 13 Graduates
  • Goucher College, 13 Graduates
  • UMCP, 11 Graduates, 4 Post-Graduates
  • Coppin State, 2 Graduates

    • ClancyWorks Dance Educators Training Institute

    A brief, but important plug for the ClancyWorks Dance Educators Training Institute, August 1 through 5, 2016 at UMBC:

    We believe that outstanding teaching takes place when educators are passionate and engaged in their own artistic growth! ClancyWorks Dance Company and Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Dance co-present intensive professional development programs for artists teaching dance, called the Dance Educators Training Institute (DETI). These week-long workshops are designed to enable participants to delve deeper into their artistic pursuits and to enhance their pedagogical techniques in a challenging and supportive environment.

    Video from 2014 … and 2013

    2016 DETI Pamphlet

    A Data Grind

    In the Dancer’s Studio is a brand-new adventure to advance the Baltimore regional dance-art economy.

    One must, generally, know their current situation in order to make meaningful progress. To that end, I’ve started collecting dance-relevant, local resources over there on the right ->. These things will forever be out-of-date and incomplete, but I hope to get enough material together here in one place to provide a resource for dancers and choreographers (and dance educators, and dance audiences).

    In conversation with dance people over the past several weeks, it has become obvious that even those people deep into their own dance don’t realize just how broad and varied the business of dance is in and around Baltimore. In the “Learn Something” list, you’ll find well over 100 different organizations teaching dance in the area, and I know I’ve missed several. I’ve also started collecting information on work opportunities, places to dance (and recommend you check out the newly-launched Baltimore SpaceFinder), performers available to work, organizations, and, in the near future, I’ll be adding performances. For now, most of these things on the right are not much more than links, but if you think aggregating some level of information here is useful, we can certainly do that. This is all very rough, so please pardon the dust and noise while I pull things together.

    Once the data grind is mostly settled, I’ll start focusing more on commentary, analysis and prose.

    If you notice something I’ve missed, please do let me know. If you’d like to contribute to this space, I’m very interested.

    A Declaration of Elevation

    It’s a holiday weekend, so someone should have some fun. There is no King or Evil Empire to pick on, and I am certainly no Thomas Jefferson, but the time is ripe, for many reasons, to step up a notch (or five, six, seven, eight…)

    When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one art form to assume a higher station to which the Laws of Nature entitle it, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that it should declare the causes which impel it to the elevation.

    We hold these truths to be self-evident…

    • That people Dance, have always danced, and that dance is a positive experience for Performer and Audience alike.
    • That to secure this experience in the modern era, Facilities are constructed by People.
    • That whenever facilities are inadequate, it is the Right of the Dancers to institute new facilities, laying their foundation on such principles and organizing their powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Success, Safety and Happiness.

    Such has been the patient sufferance of these performers; and such is now the necessity which compels them to create new facilities. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

    They engage in the most ephemeral of art forms, physically manifesting for only moments before being left as a memory in the minds of their audience. That even the most elaborate of notation, photographic and highest definition videographic capture fail to preserve the experience of the performer and their audience.

    They have rehearsed in facilities inadequate to their profession and skill. That in some of these facilities, they dance on concrete, damaging joints, or on floors of splintering plywood, risking bloodshed.

    That the temperature has been unregulated, in some cases lacking both heating and cooling. That cold rooms lead to injury, and warm ones lead to exhaustion.

    That they always have, and will continue to perform through injury and exhaustion, but that when they do seek medical attention, their access to competent medical care is limited, and that the special concerns of the performer are not always fully or promptly addressed.

    They have performed under low ceilings, also on concrete and splintering floors, with inadequate sound, and inadequate, sometimes fluorescent, lighting. Their audiences have been crowded into rooms too small and spread out in rooms too large, so they appear nearly empty.

    That the presentation of dance is expensive, requiring the collaboration and equipment of many professional disciplines to execute fully. That when they can find safe and appropriate facilities to perform, the cost often exceeds even the most optimistic budgets of their companies. That dancers often perform for little to no wage, and, in some cases, pay to perform.

    That their performances are often one-time or one-week-only, and that there is no time for an audience to develop. They have performed without critics or reviewers, and only rarely reprise a piece often enough to build an audience. That without the external perspectives of a well-engaged audience, their art form languishes, often drifting aimlessly.

    That performers invest both time and money in their training, and that their career is often inherently short. That this training itself is expensive and time-consuming, and often requires extended travel. After years of training, in some cases, through University, they must move to find work, or give up their prime performance years to teach, or, in many cases, leave the dance entirely.

    That small groups of performers, constrained by a tradition of genre or interpersonal politics, effectively limit access to engaged audiences.

    That the bureaucratic and reporting requirements of grandwriting and fundraising often intimidate or overwhelm small organizations, and so many funding opportunities are ignored.

    That millions of dollars have been spent to construct facilities for performance, with no regard for Dance.

    In every stage of these Oppressions they have Petitioned for Audience in the most humble terms: Their repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

    We, therefore, the Representatives of Dance in this fair City, do solemnly publish and declare, that these united Dancers are, and of Right ought to be Building the Facilities they Need.

    Happy 4th, you crazy diamonds.