Bates Dance Festival
Encyclopedia
The Bates Dance Festival is a dance
festival held annually at Bates College
in Lewiston, Maine
, United States
. The program runs during the summer months and includes workshops and performances.
It celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007.
The Bates Dance Festival consists of four interwoven programs: two professional training programs including the Young Dancers Workshop (YDW), a rigorous three-week program serving pre-professional dancers ages 14–18; the Professional Training Program (PTP) serving dancers ages 18 and up; a main-stage performance series featuring renowned contemporary dance artists from around the world; and community outreach activities including the Youth Arts Program serving local youth ages 6–17 with dance and music training, and the Community Dance Project that invites local residents to participate in an intensive creative collaboration with a choreographer and festival dancers which occurs on alternate years. Commissioning and residency projects support new works by established companies, emerging choreographers and international artists.
For twenty-eight years, the Bates Dance Festival has welcomed dancers from across the country and around the world to "Study with the best!" Its founders knew from the outset that inviting the field's most outstanding dance artists to come and teach would be key to the program's success.
In 1982, Marcy Plavin, Professor of Dance Emeritus at Bates College, was approached by Hedley Reynolds, then-president of Bates, about establishing a dance festival on campus as a way to use the gracious and largely vacant facilities during the summer months. With full college backing, she and Frank Wicks, a Maine resident and active member of the dance community, set about hiring the best teachers they could find. When the lineup was complete, notices were placed in Dance Magazine
and other publications.
Reflecting back on the festival's first season in 1983, Ms. Plavin recalls, "we had seventy eager students whose diversity in age equaled their diversity in ability. With five class periods a day for three weeks, plus evening events and gala concerts, the format was set. The teachers that first year were David Gordon (composition), Christine Sarry (ballet), Gary Chryst (jazz), Suzanne Levy Carbonneau (dance history), Monica Morris (former Paul Taylor dancer, modern) and guest artist Jacques d'Amboise. It was an auspicious beginning."
That feeling of safety, not being pressured, is what many people associate with the unique atmosphere at Bates. Dr. Suzanne Carbonneau, who returns to the festival year after year to teach, write, and lecture on contemporary dance, has said, "one thing that happens here that doesn't happen at some of the other places is a genuine sharing at all levels of the dance field, a real sense of community… [The Bates Dance Festival] is for me a utopian vision of what an artist's life should be like. It is extraordinary to be in a place where I don't ever feel like there's competition at any level."
Certain administrative policies have helped to preserve the noncompetitive, community spirit for which the Festival is known. No auditions are required to attend but applicants must have studied modern and one other dance discipline continuously for four or more years. Resident artists and students stay in college dormitories and eat together in the dining hall. As renowned choreographer Bebe Miller
, a long-time featured artist at Bates, says, "Any time you eat together over time, something else happens. It sounds simple, but I think community is simple."
From the beginning, the festival has attracted a number of mature dance educators who find an easy mix within the student population of multi-generational dancers and professionals. These educators, from Maine and other regions of the country, receive invaluable opportunities for professional development through the classes and structured events as well as informal sharing. One participant expressed a widely shared experience, "I came away from the festival with specific technical and creative process tools to use in the classes I teach. Additionally, the information exchanges with my colleagues were invaluable."
In 1988 the festival began commissioning works and providing creative time for artists. Residencies, arranged by invitation, include daily studio access, opportunities to work with festival dancers and musicians, and informal showings with critical feedback from peers. According to choreographer Mark Dendy, "[Bates is] an artistic community that is not contrived, not putting on a show of being a creative hub, but really quite busy being one. I get more work done here than anywhere else."
Projects originating at Bates have gone on to tour and receive national and international acclaim. New works by Doug Varone
, David Dorfman
, Rennie Harris, Tamango/Urban Tap, Liz Lerman
, Bebe Miller
, Jane Comfort
and many others have received festival commissioning support.
Over the years, specific residency programs have been introduced to serve international and emerging artists. Choreographers and performers have arrived in Lewiston from Africa
, Portugal
, Cuba
, Mexico
, Japan
, Indonesia
, Cambodia
, and a host of other countries. The festival served as a key host site for the Triangle Arts Project (1997), a collaborative program of the Asian Cultural Council
, the New England Foundation for the Arts
, and the Saison Foundation, dedicated to cultural exchange among Japan, the U.S. and Indonesia. More recently the festival, as a founding member of the Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium, has been hosting artists from across the African continent.
For the past decade, Community Dance Projects have enabled the local public, at-risk youth, people with disabilities, and others to work alongside choreographers to create and perform dance works. In 1999 John Jenkins, former Mayor of Lewiston, wrote "Through your creative projects you have built lasting bridges between very diverse segments of our community." Featured artists have included Martha Renzi, David Dorfman
, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Sara Pearson/Patrik Widrig
, and Judith Smith of AXIS
, a company at the forefront of integrated dance. Community projects often involve festival participants in the dance making and performance process.
In 2003 the Bates Dance Festival became a member of the National Performance Network, a partnership that connects artists with progressive presenters, arts organizations and communities across the country. Most recently, closer coordination with Bates College
is raising the program's profile on campus and nationally.
At the heart of all of these efforts lies a firm belief in the power of dance to change people's lives, and the power of fully engaged living to change the way people dance. One faculty member attests: "There's something about the people who come here. They have lives. I don't know how else to describe it. It's not just dancing. It's music, and living, and community. There are just so many aspects that make it human." With the help of its many participants, friends, and supporters, the festival looks forward to many years of continued growth in the same spirit.
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
festival held annually at Bates College
Bates College
Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...
in Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The program runs during the summer months and includes workshops and performances.
It celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007.
Festival Overview
The Bates Dance Festival brings together an international community of choreographers, performers, educators and students in a cooperative community to study, perform and create new work. The festival offers a supportive atmosphere aimed at fostering a creative exchange of ideas, encouraging exploration of new ground and providing opportunities to experience a wide spectrum of dance/movement disciplines. Artists, students and audiences share their knowledge and inspiration through workshops, jams, discussions, informal showings and performances.The Bates Dance Festival consists of four interwoven programs: two professional training programs including the Young Dancers Workshop (YDW), a rigorous three-week program serving pre-professional dancers ages 14–18; the Professional Training Program (PTP) serving dancers ages 18 and up; a main-stage performance series featuring renowned contemporary dance artists from around the world; and community outreach activities including the Youth Arts Program serving local youth ages 6–17 with dance and music training, and the Community Dance Project that invites local residents to participate in an intensive creative collaboration with a choreographer and festival dancers which occurs on alternate years. Commissioning and residency projects support new works by established companies, emerging choreographers and international artists.
Origins of the Bates Dance Festival
Phyllis Graber Jensen]]For twenty-eight years, the Bates Dance Festival has welcomed dancers from across the country and around the world to "Study with the best!" Its founders knew from the outset that inviting the field's most outstanding dance artists to come and teach would be key to the program's success.
In 1982, Marcy Plavin, Professor of Dance Emeritus at Bates College, was approached by Hedley Reynolds, then-president of Bates, about establishing a dance festival on campus as a way to use the gracious and largely vacant facilities during the summer months. With full college backing, she and Frank Wicks, a Maine resident and active member of the dance community, set about hiring the best teachers they could find. When the lineup was complete, notices were placed in Dance Magazine
Dance Magazine
Dance Magazine is an "influential" American trade publication for dance, currently published by the Macfadden Communications Group. It was first published in June 1927 as The American Dancer. William Como was its editor-in-chief from 1970 to his death in 1989. Wendy Perron became its editor-in...
and other publications.
Reflecting back on the festival's first season in 1983, Ms. Plavin recalls, "we had seventy eager students whose diversity in age equaled their diversity in ability. With five class periods a day for three weeks, plus evening events and gala concerts, the format was set. The teachers that first year were David Gordon (composition), Christine Sarry (ballet), Gary Chryst (jazz), Suzanne Levy Carbonneau (dance history), Monica Morris (former Paul Taylor dancer, modern) and guest artist Jacques d'Amboise. It was an auspicious beginning."
A Safe Place to Dance
Since 1983, the festival has offered a three-week summer program of dance training for adults. (In 1996 the Young Dancers Workshop was established to meet the demand for high-quality dance training for teens ages 14–18.) Choreographer Gabe Masson who has served on the BDF faculty, attended as a student in 1983. He remembers, "It was my first time out of the South. I came up here and spent three weeks in this place and it was amazing…For some reason it just felt safe."That feeling of safety, not being pressured, is what many people associate with the unique atmosphere at Bates. Dr. Suzanne Carbonneau, who returns to the festival year after year to teach, write, and lecture on contemporary dance, has said, "one thing that happens here that doesn't happen at some of the other places is a genuine sharing at all levels of the dance field, a real sense of community… [The Bates Dance Festival] is for me a utopian vision of what an artist's life should be like. It is extraordinary to be in a place where I don't ever feel like there's competition at any level."
Certain administrative policies have helped to preserve the noncompetitive, community spirit for which the Festival is known. No auditions are required to attend but applicants must have studied modern and one other dance discipline continuously for four or more years. Resident artists and students stay in college dormitories and eat together in the dining hall. As renowned choreographer Bebe Miller
Bebe Miller
Bebe Miller is an American choreographer, dancer and director.-Biography:Daughter of an elementary school teacher and a ship steward, Bebe Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1950. She was raised in a public housing project in the Red Hook Nieghborhood...
, a long-time featured artist at Bates, says, "Any time you eat together over time, something else happens. It sounds simple, but I think community is simple."
From the beginning, the festival has attracted a number of mature dance educators who find an easy mix within the student population of multi-generational dancers and professionals. These educators, from Maine and other regions of the country, receive invaluable opportunities for professional development through the classes and structured events as well as informal sharing. One participant expressed a widely shared experience, "I came away from the festival with specific technical and creative process tools to use in the classes I teach. Additionally, the information exchanges with my colleagues were invaluable."
Nurturing The Field
Laura Faure began her tenure in 1987 as festival director - following Andrea Stark (1984–85) and Elizabeth Zimmer (1985–86) - and still holds the position today. Under Ms. Faure's leadership, the Bates Dance Festival has emerged as an important organization for contemporary dance nationally and internationally, providing the field with a strong curatorial eye for young talent and an incubator for new works.In 1988 the festival began commissioning works and providing creative time for artists. Residencies, arranged by invitation, include daily studio access, opportunities to work with festival dancers and musicians, and informal showings with critical feedback from peers. According to choreographer Mark Dendy, "[Bates is] an artistic community that is not contrived, not putting on a show of being a creative hub, but really quite busy being one. I get more work done here than anywhere else."
Projects originating at Bates have gone on to tour and receive national and international acclaim. New works by Doug Varone
Doug Varone
Choreographer and director Doug Varone works in dance, theater, opera, film, television and fashion. In 2007 he created three major pieces for his own Doug Varone and Dancers – the full-length multi-media Dense Terrain at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Victorious, commissioned by Bard’s SummerScape,...
, David Dorfman
David Dorfman (choreographer)
David Dorfman is a dancer, choreographer, musician, activist and teacher. A native of Chicago, IL, he received his bachelor of science in business administration degree in 1977 from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis...
, Rennie Harris, Tamango/Urban Tap, Liz Lerman
Liz Lerman
Liz Lerman is an American choreographer and founder of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange.They have appeared at the National Cathedral, Kennedy Center Opera House, and Millennium Stage, Lansburgh Theater, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center,and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.She plans to retire...
, Bebe Miller
Bebe Miller
Bebe Miller is an American choreographer, dancer and director.-Biography:Daughter of an elementary school teacher and a ship steward, Bebe Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1950. She was raised in a public housing project in the Red Hook Nieghborhood...
, Jane Comfort
Jane Comfort
Jane Comfort of Oak Ridge, Tennessee is an American choreographer, director, and dancer. She is the founder and artistic director of Jane Comfort and Company based in New York, NY.-Biography:...
and many others have received festival commissioning support.
Over the years, specific residency programs have been introduced to serve international and emerging artists. Choreographers and performers have arrived in Lewiston from Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, and a host of other countries. The festival served as a key host site for the Triangle Arts Project (1997), a collaborative program of the Asian Cultural Council
Asian Cultural Council
The Asian Cultural Council is an American non-profit organization dedicated to providing support to Asian-American cultural exchange in the areas of visual and performing arts.- History :...
, the New England Foundation for the Arts
New England Foundation for the Arts
The New England Foundation for the Arts , headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of six not-for-profit regional arts organizations funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and by private foundations, corporations and individuals...
, and the Saison Foundation, dedicated to cultural exchange among Japan, the U.S. and Indonesia. More recently the festival, as a founding member of the Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium, has been hosting artists from across the African continent.
For the past decade, Community Dance Projects have enabled the local public, at-risk youth, people with disabilities, and others to work alongside choreographers to create and perform dance works. In 1999 John Jenkins, former Mayor of Lewiston, wrote "Through your creative projects you have built lasting bridges between very diverse segments of our community." Featured artists have included Martha Renzi, David Dorfman
David Dorfman (choreographer)
David Dorfman is a dancer, choreographer, musician, activist and teacher. A native of Chicago, IL, he received his bachelor of science in business administration degree in 1977 from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis...
, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Sara Pearson/Patrik Widrig
PearsonWidrig DanceTheater
Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig's PearsonWidrig DanceTheater was formed in 1987 in New York City. Their work has been produced by the city's major dance venues including Lincoln Center, the Joyce Theater, the City Center Fall for Dance Festival, DTW, the Kitchen, Central Park SummerStage, P.S. 122,...
, and Judith Smith of AXIS
AXIS Dance Company
AXIS Dance Company is a professional physically integrated contemporary dance company and dance education organization founded in 1987 and based in Oakland, California. It is one of the first contemporary dance companies in the world to consciously develop choreography that integrates dancers with...
, a company at the forefront of integrated dance. Community projects often involve festival participants in the dance making and performance process.
Life in the Body
The Bates Dance Festival's ongoing evolution in accordance with its founding values has earned the program a distinguished and growing reputation. Over the years, annual traditions such as the Moving in the Moment and Musicians' Concert have held strong, as other innovative programs such as the Youth Arts Program begun in 1993 have celebrated their own milestones. The festival's public events, always well-attended, have expanded into a six-week series of concerts, lectures, and exhibits, bringing an unusual spectrum of contemporary and international works to Maine audiences.In 2003 the Bates Dance Festival became a member of the National Performance Network, a partnership that connects artists with progressive presenters, arts organizations and communities across the country. Most recently, closer coordination with Bates College
Bates College
Bates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...
is raising the program's profile on campus and nationally.
At the heart of all of these efforts lies a firm belief in the power of dance to change people's lives, and the power of fully engaged living to change the way people dance. One faculty member attests: "There's something about the people who come here. They have lives. I don't know how else to describe it. It's not just dancing. It's music, and living, and community. There are just so many aspects that make it human." With the help of its many participants, friends, and supporters, the festival looks forward to many years of continued growth in the same spirit.