Hometown: If you mean where I went to high school - Berkeley, CA. (I lived there 4 years.)
Current city: Brooklyn
Age: 56
College and degree: The Juilliard School, BFA in Dance
Website: www.elsieman.org
How you pay the bills: Through my job at Elsie Management.
All of the dance hats you wear: Artsworker, artist representative, artist manager, manager, dance goer, I'll give you my feedback if you ask for it.
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Please describe your dance life/arts life in your.....
Teens: From age 6-16, I had nothing but ballet training. When I was told (at 16) by the San Francisco Ballet that I would never dance in the company, I left my ballet training and began my modern dance training. (Lucky me, I attended Berkeley High School where Marcia Sigman led a class titled "Dance Production" which encouraged dance practices of all kinds.) I also studied tap, musical theater, and jazz. After graduating from Berkeley High, I was a dance major at UC Irvine 1979 - 1981. Throughout high school and my two years at UCI, I cleaned houses and worked in retail shops for income.
20s: I was accepted to Juilliard and graduated in 1984 where I received classical training in modern dance (Graham & Limón) and ballet training (Cecchetti & Russian). I started waiting tables in NYC for income. After graduation, I performed for Mark Haim, a Juilliard classmate. In 1985, Mark was invited to present his first full night of performance - Mark Haim & Dancers was presented at Riverside Church. While dancing for Mark, I also helped him with the administration needed for this season. Neither of us knew what we were doing - we learned as we went using (then) Dance Theater Workshop's "how to write a press release" as a guide. This was the start of my arts admin life. We had a total of 3 seasons at Riverside Church. I continued to wait tables - working my way up in the NYC's restaurant hierarchy, with my last restaurant job at The Casual Quilted Giraffe. When I was 23, I got married. When I was 25, I gave birth to my son. In my last trimester, I returned to retail, working at a local coffee store.
When my son was 6 weeks old, I performed in Mark Haim & Dancers' final NYC season at Riverside Church. When my son was 6 months old, I auditioned for and was hired by the Limón Dance Company. My training then turned to strictly Limón technique and ballet with the Corvinos. (Alfredo Corvino had been my Cecchetti teacher at Juilliard.) During this time, Mark left NYC, and I started doing admin work for other choreographers who paid me by the hour. I auditioned for Nancy Duncan's CoDanceCo and performed (and did admin work) for this company for 6 years. At CoDanceCo, I worked with choreographer Ann Carlson - introducing me to a very different kind of dance than I had previously encountered.
30s: My husband, son and I moved out of Brooklyn to Westchester County. I was being paid by the hour to do primarily company manager work for a handful of downtown contemporary dance choreographers. I commuted into NYC to take class, rehearse, and perform. In 1995, I created Elsie Management specifically to attend the APAP (then the Association of Performing Arts Presenters) conference. I produced 2 showcases featuring 14 (mostly emerging and unknown) contemporary dance companies. By this time, I had discovered the system of annual (regional) booking conferences that exist. APAP is the annual national conference that convenes in NYC each year. In 1996 I left my marriage, returned to Brooklyn, and worked as Sean Curran's founding company manager while Elsie became a year-round business. I got an office across the street from my apartment and hired part-time, hourly employees to help with the growing roster of dance companies. I performed in Sean's company for 3 seasons and trained and performed with Sara Rudner during this time.
40s: The roster of Elsie Management developed to include world music and dance and then added contemporary theater and outdoor spectacle. I transitioned from being paid by the hour (or project) and started working on commission. I hired my first full-time employees. I stopped dancing and took up cycling. I trained for 600-mile fundraising rides for AIDS and found a new physical outlet. A cycling pal and a choreographer I represented led me to try Iyengar yoga - a perfect tonic for my aging dancer body and new cycling body. I trained in social dance for the first time, picking up Argentinian tango. I began attending milongas 3-4 times a week in NYC and wherever I could whenever I traveled. I had a torn labrum in my right hip surgically repaired. My orthopedist said the tear was from "screwing around my hips for 30 years."
50s: At a milongas, I met a swing dancer who I started dating. I began dancing swing and a lot less tango. I was hit by a car while commuting to work on my bike. I now have a permanent neck injury, with bulging of disks C6&7 in my cervical spine. I have stopped social dancing regularly. Now I try to take yoga 2 times a week, 3 if I can swing it. I ride laps and longer rides on my road bike when my neck is feeling okay. I tore my labrum in my right hip and had it surgically repaired - yes, again. I see a physical therapist once a week and have 20-30 minutes of daily exercises to keep my hips and neck functioning.
Elsie celebrated its 20th anniversary! We now represent 22 companies from around the globe in genres that include a lot of dance, world music and dance, contemporary theater, puppet theater, circus, and outdoor spectacle. We continue to produce our annual dance showcases during APAP.
Can you describe a typical week as Director of Elsie Management?
The granting process and booking process are cyclical. (I bring up grants as they are instrumental in the creation and often touring of new work.) So, a typical week at Elsie really depends on which part of the year it falls in - and what our immediate focus is that week. This is often based on where we are in the booking process. We are always managing tour dates - our companies that are out on the road that day - while we are also looking for the next opportunity for a new work to be created.
I travel to see our artists' new works, to be at specific performance engagements, as well as to our industry's convenings. So a lot of my typical week is in an airplane.
A typical week can include chasing marketing materials from our artists, anxiously following a visa petition, waiting on a grant award for a new project, and tracking our artists' payments from venues!
What do you love and enjoy most with your job?
I love working with my staff (Anna Amadei, Katie Diamond, and Jimena Alviar). As it happens, we are all dancers, so we speak the same language. We are organized, we can keep track of stuff, we're super disciplined, and we are not afraid of working hard. We are often accomplishing the impossible.
I love the artists I work with and the incredible worlds they bring us. I love the incredible people (presenters at venues and other managers) I work with throughout our country, and around the globe. And I do love to travel. Discovering different cultures is endless adventure...
You didn't ask, but I'll let you know that the thing I least like about my job is how risky it is. Our work is at the mercy of the market - the economy. And when you represent international artists, you increase your risk factor with all of the variables working against you: visa applications that can be readily declined; taxation obligations that many companies are unwilling to abide by or unable to pay for; venues cancelling out of a routed, contiguous tour; and the arrival of freight that can go all sorts of wrong.
Current movement practices and care of the body:
I am caring for my body primarily through Iyengar yoga, weekly physical therapy, massage, and decent rest. And lots of really good pillows.
Can you describe a few of the biggest changes in modern dance over the span of your career?
Socks - omg, those damn socks! I never want to see another dance with socks. They should be outlawed. Seriously.
What skills (attributes) do you think a modern dancer needs in 2017?
An open mind. The ability to listen. A body that can recover. The ability for that body to speak multiple languages.
Advice to dancers with new companies, in terms of long-term planning and goals:
If you mean dancers who have been hired by a dance company:
Know what you are getting into. Does the company have a company labor policy? Are the dancers organized? Were you given a contract? Does it spell out labor parameters at home versus on the road while on tour? Do you know what you are getting paid, when you will get paid, and how you will get paid (W2 vs 1099)? Did you give the company permission to use your photo or video images? If so, for how long? (Once you have left that company, do you really want them to be able to use your image - forever?)
If you mean a choreographer organizing their own company:
Honestly? Take a class in small business management, because that is what you will be running. If you are in NYC, join The Field, take as many of the classes in company management they offer as you can! (And if you are not in NYC, join your local arts service organization.*)
*Please check out the 16 city guides on the blog to find out more about regional service organizations throughout the United States.
Advice to dancers who want to get into arts administration:
Your highly disciplined work ethic will take you far! Your ability to memorize and repeat will serve you. You have a familiarity with the material, therefore you can speak from a place of knowledge. (And if you don't know it - as in haven't actually danced it - you can understand it from a place of deep knowledge of movement.)
For me, it's all about bodies in space. And more recently, it's about what story is being told (through the work of the contemporary theater artists we represent).
Final thoughts: Hope/belief/love of the profession:
If you want to continue your life in the performing arts, there are countless artists who are in need of support - be that through administration or production. I love the work I do. Shameless promotion here - if you are interested in taking a look at the kind of work we do at Elsie Management, considering applying for one of our internship positions: http://www.elsieman.org/internship-program/
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Related posts:
17 Awesome Examples: Arts Administrators Around the United States
Blog Series: Becoming an Arts Administrator
Blog Series: Building a Dance Company
Artist Profile: Kate Weare (Kate Weare Co is on the Elsie Management roster)
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