Dance Festival’s Fees to Choreographers

At issue is not whether LATC should wholly produce the dance festival--clearly, it can’t afford to--but why, of all the performing arts, dance is alone in continually having to rely on self-productions to “get the work out.”

Dance has unfortunately and unfairly been relegated a secondary-art status in Los Angeles. Unlike the theater and, to a lesser extent, music communities, there is no infrastructure (stages, funding opportunities) that can support the production and exhibition of work by local choreographers and dance companies.

I admire the conviction of people who, convinced of the social and artistic value of their vision, take it upon themselves to communicate that vision to the public, rather than wait for a fairy godmother to foot the bill. The artists who are performing in the LATC festival are people deserving of our respect and admiration.

Sadownick’s article could have been a paean to the tenacity and commitment of the dance community or an analysis of the peculiar problems facing the production of dance. Instead, it read as a forum for whining.

DAN MILLER

Los Angeles