NOVEMBER 21, 2008 iustout^/.v
45
Diane Young
BMW Client Advisor
Oregon Ballet Theatre founding artistic director
Canfield rehearses with dancer Alison Roper.
ing dances of his own, Canfield helped continue
the development of Portland’s audience for new
contemporary work.
Funding is an ever-present concern for U.S.
arts organizations, and Portland was not immune.
In 1990, Ballot Measure 5 limited the amount of
property taxes that could be dedicated to schtxtl
funding. By 1994, PSU’s dance program had
folded.
It was a blow to the dance community, but not
a fatal one.
“There was a bit of a feeling of gkxtm and
dixim, but there were enough of us that still had
enough energy in us to keep it up,” says Bielemei-
er, who taught at PSU during the dance program’s
final years.
In 1995, Linda K. Johnson and Oslund
formed Conduit, an organization aimed at sup
porting the work of six core artists. All of them
had their own aesthetic, but Oslund believes
rhe mix worked well: “I think it had a very
healthy way of encouraging us to be close to
each other as colleagues and also be very dif
ferent as artists.”
Also in 1995, Kristy Edmunds founded the
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. In ad
dition, the Dance Cartel had recently started
helping emerging choreographers develop and
produce work.
In 1997, Tran launched Minh Tran &
Company and BodyVox sprang into existence in
answer to a commission from Portland Opera.
That same year, Paul King and Walter Jaffe
started White Bird, a presenting organization that
filled the hole left by the discontinuation of PSU’s
program. The two founders acknowledge that the
loyal audience White Bird enjoys tixlay is due, in
part, to the programs that came before.
“This is a very rich city as far as instruction, as
far as inspiration for making work, as far as an ac
cepting, enthusiastic audience,” Oslund says.
Since 1996, no less than 20 dance groups have
emerged, most of which still exist. At least nine
companies have popped up in the past five years
alone. Jaffe and King call it a “dance explosion.”
Some of the groups (Skinner/Kirk Dance
Ensemble,
Ten
Tiny
Dances,
Bouand
DanceCompany)
were
founded by longtime Portland dance
professionals in pursuit of* new
projects and collaborations.
Others (POV Dance, Teeth,
KO&Co.) were started by relative
newcomers who see the city as a good
place to put down roots. And there
are more potential transplants where
those came from: Jaffe says White
Bird often receives inquiries from
dance artists considering relocating
to the Rose City.
Portland audiences’ appetite for
dance has continued to develop, as
well, until it exceeds or rivals that
of many other cities. For example,
when White Bird presented Finnish
James
choreographer Tero Saarinen here
in October, the performance drew a
crowd of 1,800. His other U.S. en-
gagement, in Albuquerque, N.M., had an audi
ence of 300.
Despite the abundance of choreographers,
dancers and a supportive audience, Portland’s
dance community still faces challenges—primar
ily economic ones.
Because funding is hard to come by, artists
have to “make a lot happen for very little,” says
Canfield, who continued to work in Portland
until becoming Nevada Ballet Theatre’s interim
artistic director this year.
Companies’ artistic directors wear so many
hats that they are left with little time to focus on
their creative sides. Bielemeier, who had a com-
pany for about four years, says, “You have to be
an artistic director, a creator, deal with the board
of directors, deal with fund raising—you have to
deal with every aspect.”
To ensure enough income to survive, many
movement artists hold full- or part-time jobs.
Some work in arts administration or teach
dance, whereas others take on jobs in com
pletely different fields. Choreographer/produc-
er Mike Barber is a public school teacher, Tran
manages the books for his partner’s property
management business, Bielemeier co-owns a
home organization service.
“The biggest challenge for movement artists
is how to keep your survival/basic income going
[while still] finding the time to make work,” says
Oslund.
The local dance community is under
standably nervous about the impact that the
nation’s economic woes will have on funding
for the arts. According to Oslund, most arts
organizations are just like consumers, in debt
over their heads.
Canfield, who is also familiar with the chal
lenges of running a company, cautions dance
artists to not “be excessive in your dreams and
your vision." He says, “If it’s not running suc
cessfully financially and artistically, where is
its longevity?”
Although it is a handicap, financial uncertain
ty is nothing new for professional artists. There is
hope in the fact that dancers are a resilient bunch,
as history has shown.
As Bielemeier puts it: “You cannot fund art
ists, but we’re not going to go away. We’re here,
like it or not.”
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with a buying and ownership
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,
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