Dance Festival’s Fees to Choreographers

Had Sadownick gotten all the facts correct, perhaps there would be no “controversy” surrounding “Generator Eight,” the upcoming dance festival at Los Angeles Theatre Center.

Most important is the article’s blatant lack of balance. Sadownick reported that dance producer Deborah Oliver raised the issue of the amount of government money the theater center had received. What he did not explain adequately (which I did both when he interviewed me and in a letter I sent to him) is that the $19 million the Community Redevelopment Agency has invested in the theater center has gone to the construction and maintenance of the facilities. Not one penny has been spent on artistic programming. Had he fully questioned representatives of the Cultural Affairs Commission, the CRA and the City Council when he spoke with them, he would have heard this from them also.

LATC is doing all it can at this time to support dance in Los Angeles. We are in the midst of eliminating a substantial deficit acquired in the transition from the Los Angeles Actors’ Theatre to LATC in 1984-85 and have no funds to spend on producing dance ourselves.

However, because a strong dance community is important to the growth of all the arts in Los Angeles, we are providing what we can: space, equipment, personnel, advisory support and mailing lists--worth a total of more than $25,000.

The portion of the box office that LATC will receive, even if the festival sells out all performances, will at best enable us to only break even.

LATC is sorry some dancers cannot afford to participate. But Sadownick’s unfair emphasis on the complaints of a few rather than on a balanced, carefully researched story does unjustifiable damage to dance in Los Angeles, to the Los Angeles Theatre Center and to The Times.

BILL BUSHNELL

Artistic Director, LATC

On April 1, Calendar published an article by Douglas Sadownick on a June 7-17 dance festival at the Los Angeles Theatre Center that requires participating choreographers to cover costs by paying up-front fees. The article, “Proposed Dance Series at LATC Stirs Controversy Over Fees,” said seven companies and three soloists had signed up at that point but others in the dance community had refused to participate because of the fees, ranging from $500 to $3,300. Here are responses from Bill Bushnell, LATC artistic director, and others.