28 replies to this topic

[thdpr]

Moving Together- A Cause for Dance benefit performance will raise funds to help reduce the financial shortfall of the company’s current operating budget. World-class dance companies and artists from all over the country are sending leading dancers and artists to perform in support of BNC. Participants include: Oregon Ballet Theatre, Colorado Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Ballet Memphis, Smuin Ballet, Trey McIntyre Project and Lighthouse Writers Workshop.

Moving Together- A Cause for Dance will take place at the Performing Arts Center at Pinnacle Charter School, located at 1001 W. 84th Avenue Denver, CO 80260 – 10 minutes north of Downtown at 84th and Huron.

One performance only: Thursday, July 29th at 7:00 p.m.

Individual Tickets range from, $50- $500 Student/Artist/Non-Profit Employee Tickets $20 (No Ticket Limit)

The top 2 ticket level prices include VIP post-performance reception with the artists

Tickets now on sale

Online: www.bncdance.com

By Phone: 303-466-5685

In Person: 3001 Industrial Lane #12 Broomfield, CO 80020

[YouOverThere]

The comments by the guy from the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships seem rather strong.

BNC is staging a fund-raising dance program on Thursday (7/29). It is supposed to include dancers from 8 companies, only 3 of which are local. This program was announced on the the 17th, only 9 days after their announcement about their financial situation.

[Helene]

There was a quickly organized gala that included guests from other companies, not all local, when Oregon Ballet Theatre was facing a possible shutdown.

[California]

They are holding the benefit in a theater that holds only 600 people. With a shortfall of $150,000, according to the most recent Wenzel article in the Post, they'll have to sell a lot of $500 tickets to meet their goal.

http://www.pcsarts.com/rentals/

Of course, they might be hoping to inspire some big donors to come up with more. But even assuming all the guest performers are donating their services, there are still out-of-pocket expenses to cover at the theater, travel, hotel, etc. for the guests.

[YouOverThere]

I went to the fund-raiser, and it was a pretty enjoyable show. Sona Kharatian and Jonathan Jordan from the Washington Ballet stood out with a performance of a piece titled Cor Perdut by Nacho Duato. Another highlight from my perspective was a performance of an excerpt from Nine Ninas: What More Can I Say? by Cecelia Jones of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Company, presumably performed in honor of the recently departed Afro-American dancer Marceline Freeman for whom that segment was created. The Colorado Ballet contributed the 2nd "movement" from Feast of the Gods, danced by principals Chandra Kuykendall (back from her maternity leave) and Alexei Tyukov. This performance got a noticibly less enthusiastic reception than the other performances. I don't know if some in the audience didn't want to acknowledge the other ballet company in town or if it just was the wrong environment. The 2nd "movement" is subtle rather than flashy, like the 2nd movement of a traditional three-movement concerto, and it's easy to miss how physical that segment is.

I'd guess that the theatre was about 40 percent full, meaning 225-250 people in attendance. I wouldn't have expected more than that.

[Helene]

Thank you for reviewing the performance.   to the dancers.

[YouOverThere]

The other guests at the fund-raiser were Stayce Campero and Marcus Oatis from the Kansas City Ballet performing Jessica Lang's Splendid Isolation III (also one of my favorites from the show - I love everything that I've seen from Jessica Lang), Jessica Touchet and Darren Anderson from the Smuin Ballet performing an excerpt from Fly Me to the Moon: I've Got You Under My Skin (a ballet take on ballroom dancing - crisply danced but for me not very interesting choreography), Anne Mueller and Christian Squires from the Oregon Ballet Theatre performing Twyla Tharp's Known by Heart Duet (the longest of the guest performances, and I didn't care for the very repititious minimalist music that made the piece seem longer than it actually was), and Jane Hope Rehm and Jonathan Powell from Ballet Memphis performing an excerpt from Fingers of Your Thoughts (too short to form an opinion). In addition, there was a video of a performance of Trey McIntyre's Grass by Dylan G. Bowley from the Trey McIntyre Project, which mainly served to make all the other performances seem better.

I got there about 10 minutes late, which means that I missed most of the pre-performance speech so I don't know whether they said anything about how the show was put together.

[YouOverThere]

lovemydancers, on 14 July 2010 - 06:52 AM, said:

YouOverThere, on 14 July 2010 - 06:44 AM, said:

Colorado isn't a great place for the arts in general.

Is that true of all arts, YouOverThere?  I have a friend who is a visual artist in Denver and her business is thriving with new commissions and opportunities for exhibits.  My understanding from her and another person is that visual artists do very well in Denver.  Is she an exception?  

It certainly is true of music as well as dance. Both the Colorado Symphony and Colorado Springs Philharmonic were created from the ashes of earlier orchestras that went bankrupt. The musicians in the Colorado Symphony took a double digit pay cut last year, and the base salary was only in the mid-30's to begin with. Chamber orchestras have struggled mightily. The Colorado Chamber Orchestra barely managed to scrape together 2 programs this past season and Pro Musica Colorado managed but 3.

Well-known touring plays do very well, but locally-produced plays often end up selling tickets at a discount.

[Helene]

Does the new Liebeskind art museum building in Denver have a lecture/performance space theater?  If I were a chamber group, I think I'd want to perform there, since the building itself is such a draw.

[YouOverThere]

Helene, on 30 July 2010 - 09:49 AM, said:

Does the new Liebeskind art museum building in Denver have a lecture/performance space theater?  If I were a chamber group, I think I'd want to perform there, since the building itself is such a draw.

Interesting idea. I can't say that there's never been a chamber music performance there, though I'm not aware of any. Looking at their website, I don't see any room that would have room for more than a few hundred seats if they need to accomadate 20-30 musicians and my impression is that the rent is several times what churches typically charge (and churches might not charge much to hold a rehersal while they would have to pay full rental to rehearse at the museum).

[YouOverThere]

They came up $62,000 short, but they say that they raised enough money to keep going. In their words (from their website, http://www.bncdance.com):

Quote

We are happy to report that we have ended the 2009-10 fiscal year in a position that allows us to move into this next season with our programs fully intact. 2010-11 will be a lean and challenging year, but BNC is up for this challenge. We are determined to be standing here a year from now a stronger organization than we have ever been.

[California]

This local newspaper reports that $90,500 was raised. They still have a debt, but the report says they'll continue next season. It's not clear what they will cut to make up for the remaining deficit or whether they'll just carry the debt.

http://www.broomfiel...com/ci_15660988

[YouOverThere]

YouOverThere, on 30 July 2010 - 09:21 AM, said:

It certainly is true of music as well as dance. Both the Colorado Symphony and Colorado Springs Philharmonic were created from the ashes of earlier orchestras that went bankrupt. The musicians in the Colorado Symphony took a double digit pay cut last year, and the base salary was only in the mid-30's to begin with. Chamber orchestras have struggled mightily. The Colorado Chamber Orchestra barely managed to scrape together 2 programs this past season and Pro Musica Colorado managed but 3.

Well-known touring plays do very well, but locally-produced plays often end up selling tickets at a discount.

The Denver Post had an article today about the lack of private funding for the arts in Denver, the main inspiration for the article being the failure of the Colorado Symphony to raise their share ($30,000,000) of the funding needed to overhaul their home concert hall.

http://www.denverpos...ent/ci_16035329

[California]

Ballet Nouveau just announced a new executive director, Christin Crampton Day -- their third in little over a year:

http://www.denverpos...ent/ci_17088568