NEW DANCE SERVICE GROUP DISCUSSED

Members of the local dance community are taking preliminary steps toward forming a service group to at least partially fill the gap left by the recent dissolution of the Los Angeles Area Dance Alliance.

An ad hoc committee of arts administrators has been developing recommendations to present to the dance community for a new dance service organization, said committee organizer Brian Gormley, a marketing consultant and past member of the dance alliance’s artistic advisory board. The replacement organization would have no ties to the defunct dance alliance, which is currently in debt, he said.

Gormley said the committee will meet privately with dance company representatives soon, and that a larger meeting, open to the public, will be held Dec. 8 at the downtown Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.

The working title for the committee’s proposed service group is the Dance Resource Center, Gormley said.

“Our suggested purpose (for the center) would be to provide networking and information services for the dance community, where people could call and say I’m looking for a lighting or set designer, for a space to rehearse, or for funding. We want to run workshops and seminars in fund raising, bookkeeping and incorporation to help the independent dancer and dance company grow. We also want to hold technical workshops in set and lighting design.”

The committee will recommend that the center not present dance performances, Gormley said. “But the center could act as a catalyst for performances and a partnership-maker to combine dancers with presenters.”