Changes at Dance Kaleidoscope Prompt Cutback

Los Angeles’ annual multi-week modern, classical and world dance festival, Dance Kaleidoscope, will be cut back and restructured this year. Don Hewitt, its longtime board president and artistic director, has decided to retire from producing the event, and the festival’s five-member board is seeking his replacement. In the meantime, the board is hoping to produce the festival this year, but with a less ambitious schedule.

Hewitt, who will continue to produce BalletFest, a smaller series focusing only on California classical dance, has been at the helm of Dance Kaleidoscope since 1988. “It’s been fun,” he said, “and the board is now working things out [for the future], and I’m going to assist them where I can.”

Last summer, Dance Kaleidoscope encompassed five performances in four locations over three weekends. It featured 29 artists or companies, with primary performances at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre and the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State L.A.

According to Kaleidoscope board member Jordan Peimer, at best this summer the event will involve only a program or two, “possibly at the Luckman, but more than likely at the Japan America Theatre or in the Watercourt [at California Plaza].” Peimer also said that this year’s lineup would be determined by invitation. Though a few companies and dancers have been invited to perform in the past, the series was put together largely from extensive auditions.

Other board members emphasized that the series’ plans were still being formulated. “Nothing’s been confirmed yet,” said board member Lee Werbel. “We’re still trying to figure out what we’re going to do.”

Sources at the Japan America Theatre confirm discussions with Kaleidoscope representatives about two possible dates in mid-July, and California Plaza is holding open a date in early August on what a spokesperson called a “just in case” basis. Clifford Harper, executive director of the Luckman complex, said that he won’t take the series off his schedule until Kaleidoscope representatives ask him to. “We want to give it every opportunity,” he said.

*

But the Ford’s schedule is now set without Kaleidoscope, although Laura Zucker, executive director of the L.A. County Arts Commission, which administers the Ford, spoke of the lapse as temporary, a consequence of what she described as “this period of reorganization that they’re going through and bringing on new leadership. Hopefully, when the new leadership is on board and things are sorted out, we’ll be seeing them at the Ford next year.”

Kaleidoscope dates to 1976, when the nonprofit Los Angeles Area Dance Alliance began the umbrella event. Performed annually at the Ford, the series lasted until 1985, largely through the efforts and advocacy of Betty Empey, formerly executive director of the now-defunct Los Angeles Ballet. But when Empey moved to the Bay Area, nobody emerged to replace her--until Hewitt four years later. A former dancer and a teacher at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and Cal State L.A., Hewitt is credited with not just reviving but upgrading the event.

“It is disappointing to see yet another L.A.-based dance organization at a crossroads,” said Denise Grande, president of the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles, a service organization and advocate for local companies. “Its possible loss creates a void in the Los Angeles dance community on many levels.

“Kaleidoscope has allowed many individual artists and companies to move beyond self-production and be presented in a large, professional venue, often for the first time. To have their work showcased and publicized at this level is frequently an important step in their growth.”