Despite Woes, the Conference Must Go On : * Dance: The fifth International Black Dance Companies Conference begins today, thanks to the determination of Lula and Erwin Washington.

Just a few months ago, choreographer-teacher Lula Washington was ready to throw in her dancer’s towel. Washington was preparing to host an international black dance conference for 200-plus attendees, but the expected grant money wasn’t coming through, the budget was ballooning toward $120,000 and, as a last straw, her data base was burglarized--along with her computers, telephones and copy machine.

Daunted but unstoppable, she and husband Erwin rallied their volunteer support network and, with half the money in hand and expectations of the rest to come, the fifth annual International Black Dance Companies Conference meets today through Sunday at the downtown Hyatt Regency, exactly on schedule.

The ambitious agenda includes seminars, panels, master classes, workshops, an awards dinner, mini-showcases and two major performances spotlighting about 20 dance companies at Occidental College’s Thorne Hall on Friday and Saturday evenings.

But the major order of business will be the formal creation of a new service organization, the International Assn. for Blacks in Dance, which will assist in funding future conferences.

Lula Washington, artistic director of L.A. Contemporary Dance Theatre, says: “We’re here to solve our problems, and talk about the survival of black dance and black art in general.”

She say the conference “fills a need to address issues of the many black dance companies that aren’t assisted by other service organizations, because they’re too small or not yet well-established . . . and an opportunity to cause change and set policies that will carry on the work we do this weekend.

“Companies that present these conferences face great financial risk. We knew it would be a lot of work but we’d hoped to get more support from funding agencies.”

Erwin Washington notes that while they have raised about $65,000 so far, they expect conference costs to reach $110,000 to $120,000. He expects to make up the difference at the box office and with admission charges to the events.

“We’re the smallest group to take this on and we’re upset at the major funding community because they’ve turned down our requests,” he says.

Except for small grants from Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council and a handful of other organizations, “Everything else we have is earned income from master classes, performances, conference fees and other efforts,” he says.

Concurrent with the conference is the annual manager’s meeting of Dance/USA, a Washington, D.C.-based national service organization. General manager Diane Brace says the joint meeting “is a great way to interact and get to know each other.”

Neil Barclay, presenter of the third Black Choreographers Moving Toward the 21st Century Festival April 20-26 in Westwood, will also join the conference to moderate a panel of festival directors. Distinguishing the two events he says: “The conference is a practical way of sharing ideas and resources between black dance companies, while the festival celebrates the contributions of black choreographers to contemporary American dance and gives us a window into future dance possibilities.”

But the conference will have its share of showcase performances, which feature dancers from throughout the United States, including Lines Contemporary Ballet, Philadanco Dance Company, Dimensions Dance Theatre, Forces of Nature, Dianne McIntyre, Donald Byrd, Dayton Contemporary Dance Theatre and Garth Fagan Dance.

The fact that few young black avant-garde choreographers and no international companies are represented is a matter of timing and finances, Lula Washington says.

“Ishmael Houston-Jones and Bill T. Jones wanted to come but they have other commitments. People like Bebe Miller and Blondell Cummings have been invited to every conference and they’ve been unable to attend. We can’t afford to pay the performers, so while we have individuals coming from England, Australia and the Caribbean, they can’t afford to bring their companies.”

Conference topics include black aesthetics, marketing and fund raising, health, dance education and career options. There will be an all-day course in black dance history and an appearance by the embodiment of that history, dance pioneer Katherine Dunham, who will conduct two master classes. Another highlight will be a performance of the Dunham solo work “L’Ag’ya,” not seen here since Dunham herself performed it decades ago.