Proposed Dance Series at LATC Stirs Controversy Over Fees : Choreographers criticize producers for poor planning, passing costs along to artists

Choreographer Karen Goodman called it “insulting” and said it “could set up dangerous precedents.”

Choreographer Rudy Perez said it “takes advantage of dancers desperate to perform.”

“Too expensive,” said Erwin Washington, manager of Lula Washington’s L.A. Contemporary Dance Theatre.

“Everyone’s heart is in the right place,” but it “should be reworked,” said Barry Glass, Aman Folk Ensemble artistic director.

All were talking about the June 7-17 dance series at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, which ran into controversy because its organizers planned to pass many of its costs on to participating choreographers by requiring up-front fees and the sharing of box-office receipts with the LATC.

The series, the first concert dance presented at the downtown facility in five years, now has seven companies and three soloists signed up. But others have flatly refused to participate because of the fees, which range from $500 to $3,300, two-thirds of which must be paid up front.

Explaining the funding of her dance series, unpaid producer Danielle Shapiro said the fees have been assessed to offset out-of-pocket costs that must be passed on by LATC.

Shapiro, artistic producing director of the locally based Pacific Dance Ensemble, which is scheduled to perform in the series, said that programming is about completed and the series was not in jeopardy.

The last LATC dance series ran a deficit, reported artistic producing director Bill Bushnell, who said he does not want to go into the red again. “We have no funds to spend on producing dance ourselves,” Bushnell explained. “However, we are contributing what we can.”

Bushnell said LATC’s contribution includes the use of the 498-seat Tom Bradley Theatre, lighting equipment, dance flooring, box-office personnel and ticket stock, mailing lists, house management and security personnel.

But what the LATC is not able to cover, Bushnell said, are “all out-of-pocket costs associated with the production.” These expenses include advertising, programs, publicity, insurance and wages for technicians.

Shapiro further explained that the fees charged the artists will be spent on a union technical crew, which charges as much as $1,050 a day, and for other costs, including hiring a publicist, Allen Wallace, and a production designer, Eileen Cooley.

Shapiro, planning for the festival last September, said that she encouraged her initial list of participants (her own company, plus those of Loretta Livingston, Tina Gerstler, Rose Polsky and Ferne Ackerman) to apply for grants from the L.A. City Department of Cultural Affairs. In October, Ackerman dropped out of the series for reasons she declines to discuss.

In January, grants of $2,000 to $5,000 were awarded to the four remaining companies for the series.

Shapiro said that in January the LATC saw the lineup of companies and that “they were upset. . . . Part of their vision is to be as multi-ethnic as Los Angeles.” Shapiro said that as a relative newcomer from New York, she did not know of LATC’s multicultural mission.

Lisa Mount, executive assistant to the LATC artistic director, confirmed Shapiro’s statement that LATC officials did not make clear their multicultural requirements until after she (Shapiro) made her selections. “It wasn’t until I saw her lineup in December or January that I said it is imperative you make every effort to program in multi-ethnic companies,” said Mount.

Shapiro proceeded to invite other companies to participate in the festival. Accepting invitations were Naomi Goldberg’s L.A. Modern Dance and Ballet Dance Company, Sarah Elgart, and Rene Olivas Gubernick with Martha Kalman. Soloists include Fred Strickler, Young-Ae Park and Shel Wagner. Elgart had gotten her own L.A city grant earlier, but the others are performing without city grant assistance.

But others flatly refused offers to participate.

“We turned the offer down because it was too expensive and it was not a time that we self-produce,” said Erwin Washington, who manages Lula Washington’s L.A. Contemporary Dance Theater, a black modern dance ensemble.

“If the LATC wants to have blacks and Latinos on this series, they are not being realistic,” he said. “I don’t know of too many black companies who can afford those fees.”

Rudy Perez also was asked to participate but said he found the fees “insulting. . . . I know of no venue in New York or L.A. that says it is co-producing dance and has the audacity to ask artists to put money up-front and then takes money from the box office.”

The only artists of color now in Shapiro’s series are Park and Gubernick.

Local dance producer Deborah Oliver said: “It is disturbing that LATC has received $19 million in (city) taxpayers’ money and cannot find the wherewithal to produce a dance series that is planned with the best interests of the dance community at heart.”

But Bushnell said there have been “no pressures or requests” from city funders to “program dance or music at LATC.”

Officials at the L.A. City Cultural Affairs Department, the Community Redevelopment Agency or the Los Angeles City Council confirmed that there wasn’t a push for concert dance at LATC. “There has been no mandate from us,” said Al Nodal, general manager of the Cultural Affairs Department.

Indeed, funding agencies said they have avoided involvement in LATC programming decisions. Said Gayle Anderson, assistant public information coordinator for the CRA, “We have always supported the idea of a cultural center in the heart of a historical core. But we have never intruded on programming.”

Gerry Hertzberg, chief legislative deputy to Councilwoman Gloria Molina, said that the City Council “makes no programming recommendations” to the LATC.

Bushnell explained that the funds the LATC receives from the Community Redevelopment Agency cover only facilities-related expenses, not any production costs. “Not a penny of the fees decided on by Shapiro is going to LATC,” he said.

The out-of-pocket costs in the series, Shapiro said, require choreographers and companies presenting full-evening works to pay fees ranging from $3,100 to $3,300. Two companies sharing an evening must pay between $1,800 and $2,100; soloists between $500 and $600. One-third of the fees can be paid after the performance.

According to Bushnell, the LATC and the dance companies will split the gross box-office receipts up to a maximum of $5,000 per evening; of anything above $5,000, 75% will go to the artists and 25% to LATC.

Shapiro estimated that, at ticket prices of $15 and $10, the total gross for a sold-out house would be $6,250. The most a company could earn from a full-evening program (after LATC’s portion is deducted) is $3,437. Companies splitting an evening could earn a maximum of $1,718 from it. The best a solo artist could expect would be $680. The up-front fees are not figured in these amounts.

Shapiro acknowledged that “given the fees companies have to pay, the most they could walk away with is a couple of hundred dollars. If they have to pay dancers, then they lose money.”

David Plettner, an arts administrator and managing director of Loretta Livingston and Dancers, said that performing at LATC under these circumstances is only slightly less expensive than self-producing at the 878-seat Japan America Theatre.

Plettner said that Livingston’s company rented the Japan America Theatre last year for $4,800, which covered rental as well as all additional costs associated with staging the program. The company budgeted another $1,500 for advertising.

The company kept all the box-office receipts and also had the luxury of having the entire theater to itself. “The main difference is that at the Theatre Center we (Loretta Livingston and Dancers) will have the opportunity of expanding our audience,” Plettner said.