By Josie Fauerso
Everybody loves to dance. You see it in the streets, clubs and dance halls, the urge to dance asserting itself to liberate the dancers from the constraints of their environments. When does dance become art? How do we recognize it when it does? Who is creating art in the world of dance these days?
Dance as expression begins with the personal and penetrates to the universal. It knits together the deeper inner values of life with the surface, obvious levels. It expands life in the sense that it gives a bigger context to ordinary (or extra ordinary ) events and a deeper value to sensual, emotional and intellectual experience.
Dance becomes art when it uplifts the spectator and expands his awareness. It also has the power to unite people. Last spring the San Francisco Ballet, one of America's best, sponsored a gala event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. "United We Dance' used the universal language of dance to communicate the values of human fellowship. Dance companies from all over the world participated and celebrated their art in an atmosphere which enlivened everyone who participated.
This fall Arts Midwest, the areas largest arts organization is sponsoring a festival and conference for performing artists, managers, presenters, and administrators in Chicago, Ills. September 14-17. Many national and regional performing arts organizations will showcase their company's best performances.
Dance Theatre of Iowa is one of the organizations that will attend the conference and is one of the new really exciting groups that is coming out of the Midwest. Emma lamoureux, its artistic director founded the company in 1994 after moving to Iowa from Rhode Island where she had successfully run several dance companies, "The Island Moving Co. and The Children's Dance Theatre.
What makes Dance Theatre of Iowa special is its commitment to providing uplifting performances of original repertoire, educational outreach programs and dynamic children's dance theater. DTI `s first season premiered a stunning contemporary ballet, "Seeds of Light:" about the the growth of enlightenment that accompanies motherhood and also produced "The Snow Queen" a full length children's ballet based on a Hans Chrisrian Anderson fairy tale. The 1995-96 season promises to be innovative and spectacular with a full length musical theatre production set in the future in a techno-centric world which is redeemed by the power of imagination, courage and love.
Dance Theatre of Iowa, along with many other contemporary dance companies. will play a major role in our communities in the next year, uplifting, transforming, and entertaining people of all ages, classes and cultures.
Keep your eyes open for the best your area has to offer.
-Josie Fauerso
"We look to the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator with keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety and the wonder of life."
..Martha Graham
© Josie Fauerso 1995