S.D. Dance Scene on Its Feet Despite Major Blow : Performing: Even with gloomy financial picture, a great deal of enthusiasm exists about community’s artistic health.

The biggest story in dance in San Diego in 1992 was the financial failure in October of the San Diego Foundation for Performing Arts. There’s no denying the closure was a severe blow to the local scene, but it doesn’t mean dance is dead in the city.

True, the financial picture remains far from rosy, but a great deal of enthusiasm exists about the dance community’s artistic health.

The foundation’s main role of sponsoring the larger touring companies is being partly filled by UCSD, which is picking up the Paul Taylor Company for Feb. 26 and 28; and the American Resident Theatre Stage with the Dennis Letzer Organization, which are bringing the Kodo Drummers to the Spreckels Theatre on Jan. 30-31.

UCSD is considering the feasibility of doing more next year, including presenting some events downtown, said Lynne Peterson, director of university events. “Right now, we’re being very cautious because we don’t know the health of the university or the health of the state.”

“There’s so much positive starting to happen right now that I feel encouraged,” said John Malashock, whose Malashock Dance & Company made its debut performance in New York in September. “At the same time, we have to figure out how to get through the short term. There are doors closing left and right as far as money is concerned.”

Vicki Wolf, managing director of Sushi Performance and Visual Art, reflects Malashock’s mood.

“In the context of the history of dance in San Diego, which is very young compared to theater, it’s very exciting,” Wolf said. “Three or four years ago, I’d have to beat the bushes for San Diego artists to present, at least artists whose work was compatible with Sushi’s format . . . that is, work that pushes boundaries in terms of content or redefining its own structure.”

Now, said Wolf, “we have two major modern dance companies (Malashock and Isaacs) and we have a plethora of independent choreographers starting to put together pickup companies.”

Four local choreographers are included in Sushi’s upcoming Danse Fraiche series, five weekends of performances from Jan. 7 through Feb. 20. Al Germani’s Lynx Performance Theater and Mary Reich will appear Jan. 7-9, and Katie Stevinson and Terry Sprague Feb. 18-20.

Wolf admits that the choice of local talent is due in part to Sushi’s own budget constraints, but she said it also reflects the sophistication of the new San Diego choreographers.

Jean Isaacs, a founder and artistic director of Isaacs, McCaleb & Dancers who also teaches at UC San Diego, said: “There’s a new generation of kids that might kick some butt. I have some students at UCSD starting to make their own work that’s quite fresh and original.”

Sushi, which continues to be the largest presenter of smaller, often more experimental touring dance companies, had 75% to 85% capacity for last winter’s Danse Fraiche and for Black Choreographers Moving in the spring, said Wolf. Both series are being repeated (with a new roster of dance companies) next year.

But the money crunch continues to shadow the companies.

“My ongoing concern is there’s very little corporate support,” Isaacs said. “Many people who donate to other arts haven’t found their way to dance.”

Isaacs, McCaleb & Dancers has already had to trim its budget for this fiscal year (which started July 1) three times, to $209,000, Isaacs said. To economize, the three staff members--Isaacs, Nancy McCaleb and executive director Nanci Ann Hill--are each working a month without pay; production and costuming have been cut; and the troupe no longer uses live music in its shows.

“We don’t have any heat in our studio,” added Isaacs, “and the kids have three layers of clothes on.”

Other dance leaders interviewed during the past week mirror Malashock’s and Isaacs’ concern about dance failing to attract the bigger donors in town.

“Rich people are not giving to our company; they’re giving to the symphony or the opera,” said Lolita Carter, founder and executive director of the Samahan Philippine Dance Company.

Carter, who operated the 16-dancer troupe on $77,000 in 1992, pointed out that none of the dancers depend on the company for their livelihood.

“If we have money, we give it to our performers,” she said. “If we don’t (have money), we’re all volunteers.”

Even the California Ballet does not consistently receive funding from major corporations, according to Maxine Mahon, the company’s director. “We’ve had corporate gifts, but not on an annual basis,” she said.

The California Ballet, which has an annual budget of $850,000, entered 1992 with a $70,000 to $80,000 deficit, after disappointing ticket sales for “The Nutcracker” last December, Mahon said. However, most of the deficit has been recouped.

One way troupes have eased the dearth of donations is through grants. Malashock Dance & Company had a $9,400 grant for the 1992 calendar year, and Isaacs, McCaleb & Dancers recently received $10,000. Both were from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Locally, the most significant single funding source is the city of San Diego, through its Commission for Arts and Culture.

“There’s been a lot of growth in the numbers of dance organizations funded since the inception of the arts commission,” said Victoria Hamilton, the commission’s executive director. Previously, she said, the city only funded four groups--Isaacs, McCaleb & Dancers, Samahan, the California Ballet and Jazz Unlimited. The pool of grantees has now grown to 11.

“The grant has been a help, it gets us on the books,” said Yaelisa, artistic director of the Solera Flamenco Dance Company, which received its first city funding this year. She said the award not only helped financially, but also established credibility for the 2-year-old flamenco troupe.

The downside of city funding, however, was a recent 7.5% reduction for all arts groups, which hit a number of dance organizations hard.

“At one point, our city funding was up to $27,000 a year,” Malashock said. “Next year, it will be down around $21,000 to $22,000.” His annual budget is $125,000 to $150,000.

Some groups rely on the city coffer for an even larger share of their budgets, according to Alison Cutri, managing director of the San Diego Area Dance Alliance, which represents 15 local dance troupes. Companies with budgets under $100,000 were eligible to apply to the city for as much as 25% of their total budgets.

“We’re talking about a real heavy dependency on the city for funding,” Cutri said, adding that she is enthusiastic about the high quality of emerging ethnic artists she has seen, including Yaelisa and an African dance and drum group, Teye Sa Thiosanne, directed by Bernard Thomas.

Sushi’s Wolf hopes that the audience developed and educated through the San Diego Foundation for Performing Arts will come see local troupes.

“If they still crave seeing dance, there are obvious choices to turn to what’s being presented by our own artists,” she said. “I don’t mean non-professional but viable, important work.”

Malashock seemed to speak for the whole dance community when he said:

“In terms of keeping this a place where dance has a life, the closing was a tragedy. But in terms of those of us who are here, continuing to work, it’s not going to stop us from doing our work.”