Hometown: New York, NY
Current city: New York, NY
Age: 69
Attended an arts high school? Not really, it didn’t offer any arts training but accommodated a young professional's schedule, touring, engagements and training - the Professional Children’s School.
College and degree: No degree, attended two years at St John’s and American College in Paris.
Website: elisamontedance.org
How you pay the bills: I always have managed to survive through dance.
All of the dance hats you wear: Dancer at first, then choreographer and then later company Artistic Director.
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Describe your dance life in your….
20s: I made a full commitment to dance, went at it fully. Worked with several dance companies simultaneously (among them, Pearl Lang, Richard Kuch, Richard Gain, Eleo Pomare) plus part time work at Capezio. Finally got into Lar Lubovitch's company and when he disbanded, into Martha Graham’s.
30s: Continued to work with Graham and with Pilobolus as well. Began to choreograph and started my own company with husband David Brown, all of this while I had my daughter at age 37. I also continued as a dancer in my own company.
40s: Continued to choreograph for my own company, as well as guest for other companies. There was much touring during these two decades. Saw much of the world and loved it. My daughter, Elia, toured with the company as much as I could manage to pull her out of school. I stopped full time performing at age 47.
50s: More of the same.
60s: More of the same.
Tiffany Rea-Fisher and Elisa Monte
Can you talk about the process of transitioning the company and selecting Tiffany? What are your wishes and dreams for the future of the company? On passing the torch and the legacy…
Tiffany had been a dancer with the company for nearly a decade. She, at one point, decided to pull back from dancing and concentrate on AD of the company. She started with educational initiatives, and that continued to grow in responsibility as she gained experience. We worked on ensuring her respect from EMD’s board of directors, funders and presenters. There is a firm trust that was established in her abilities to both care for the works that exist and for growing the creative life of the company. I’ve given her reign to go artistically wherever she feels compelled to. Artistic vitality depends and is fed by daily mutable personnel choices.
I would like to see the work I’ve created continue as a living repertory as well as the company being a vibrant creative place, offering energy and vision to the art of performing dance.
Photo by Matthew Murphy
As you head into the next phase, what are you wanting to explore (traveling, reading, writing, family, etc)?
I will continue to choreograph. I have freed myself from the daily AD worries and return to the luxury and terror of just creating.
I’ve always loved traveling and will continue to. I’m not a writer, so don’t see that in the horizon. Always loved reading…and family forever!
On mentors and mentoring…..
Oh, the list is long; I’ll name a few. I’ve been very lucky with whom I’ve met and worked with.
Agnes DeMille - kind and generous - gave me my first job at the age of 10. Martha Graham - demanding and filled with joie de vivre - created works on me and entrusted me with dancing her roles. Great teachers trained me, among them Kathy Grant, Maggie Black and my first, Vladimir Dokoudovsky.
What does the phrase “teaching artist” mean to you?
This is what every artist is…no one escapes the inevitability of it. Simply presenting one's work is teaching. Then there is the obligation of passing the information on.
Photo by Roy Volkmann
Can you describe a few of the biggest changes in modern dance over the span of your career? What has really surprised you? Impressed you?
It’s all good. They are smarter.
Last performance you saw that really inspired you:
Mark Rylance in Richard 3rd
Would you be willing to share one composition assignment or choreographic exercise here for dancers? What is one of your favorites?
Create a unique vocabulary.
I create through improvisation that is learned and then codified into a vocabulary for one specific dance.
Three questions for choreographers to consider:
- How do I access what I want (need) to do?
- How do I share that information? That is, manifest it in mine and other bodies?
- Has what I’ve created touched others?
Photo by Matthew Murphy
To purchase tickets for the 35th anniversary season in March 2016, click here.
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Related posts:
Six Questions for Tiffany Rea-Fisher of Elisa Monte Dance
Becoming an Arts Administrator: 5 Questions for Caroline Yost of Elisa Monte Dance
Dancing and Reflecting: Dancers in Their 60s
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