Double Time

Head to toe: Group Motion's Emily Hubler (left) and PA Ballet's Martha Chamberlain are head over heels about their companies' anniversaries. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Two very different but vital companies, Pennsylvania Ballet and Group Motion, mark milestone anniversaries.

by Lew Whittington

Dance remains the orphan child of the performing arts -- often last on the list for corporate funding, media coverage and audience attendance. Yet companies thrive in a difficult cultural and commercial world. In the words of Joan Myers Brown, founder and artistic director of Philadanco, "itís the Liberty Bell syndrome -- people just expect us to always be there."

This fall, two Philadelphia dance companies are celebrating milestones: The Pennsylvania Ballet turns 40, looking more vitally classic than ever, and the perennially vanguard troupe, Group Motion, marks 35 years on this city's artistic landscape. At opposite ends in aesthetic styles, both are area institutions that have struggled, but are headed by men of artistic and organizational vision.

With a resigned sigh, PAB artistic director Roy Kaiser, about to launch the anniversary season, says, "It never stops, really, for all arts organizations. Problems are the same across the board, whether you are a $100,000-a-year company or a $45-million company. The cultural climate teaches you to continue to fight and find ways to make it work. There's no such thing as letting up."

PAB was founded in 1963 under the auspices of a grant by the Ford Foundation (and is only one of the two surviving companies that received the seed money) and was established by Barbara Weisberger, a protege of George Balanchine who modeled the company on his technique. Kaiser was hired by Weisberger as a corps dancer in 1979, quickly advancing to principal dancer and, eventually, ballet master. In 1994, after a period of turmoil that resulted in a shutdown for the company, he became artistic director.

In 1967 Manfred Fischbeck, along with original co-directors Helmut Gottschild and Brigitta Herrmann, formed Gruppe Motion in Berlin to great success there, only to daringly transplant the fledgling contemporary company to Philadelphia just a year later. After its triumphant reception at the groundbreaking Judson Dance Project in New York, and premiering work in the U.S. at the foremost dance laboratory, Jacob's Pillow, GM landed permanently in Philadelphia. Since then, Fischbeck has been a guiding force in contemporary and independent dance for two generations of artists in Philadelphia.

"I know we had a lot to do with the growth of the dance community," Fischbeck says. "We were cells that grew other cells, but I don't want to take all the credit. Now there is a synergy. But, surely, when we first came, there was hardly anything in place for independent contemporary dance."

The year before Kaiser took over PAB, the board of administrations had suspended operations for a second time. The company was indeed, going six-pack belly up and the short-tenured artistic director of the time, Christopher d'Amboise, launched a "save the ballet" fundraising campaign, which was bolstered by a committed group of dancers and balletomanes willing to do what was necessary to stay alive. The drive worked, symbolically, if not monetarily, but d'Amboise's volatile leadership ended abruptly, setting the stage for Kaiser, who took over as interim artistic director.

Ten years later, Kaiser, still looking princely, takes in the panoramic view of the city from his unfinished offices at the ballet's studios and calls financial problems "issues" to be resolved. Just back from the West Coast, he is anticipating the meaty programming for the 40th-year observance that will showcase the company of 40 dancers in every style, starting with their annual all-Balanchine program, their core syllabus, just a month away. "The climate, corporate shifts, obviously impact arts organizations. When major corporations leave cities, for instance, that affects our contributing income from those sources."

The always youthful Fischbeck, refreshed and tan returning from workshops in Arizona this summer, just premiered his new work Interspace, a choreographic collaboration with Japanese neoclassicist Kenshi Nohmi, at the Fringe Festival.

He says funding is always hard, but "we never really went into debt. And I'm proud of that. We never came to a point of financial disaster. We always found a way to sustain. Besides being flexible and not doing things we couldn't handle, we also built a community of supporters who kept coming to our workshops. Friday night for 35 years 20 people built quite a bit of support." Fischbeck says the lowest point for GM was actually a fire at their studio on Fourth Street after which they borrowed space to rehearse and toured as much as possible. Re-established in new studios in West Philadelphia at the Community Education Center, Fischbeck oversees a dance collective, Kumquat, that includes four resident companies and hosts many others.

In his long association with the company, Kaiser remembers times when dancers faced layoffs and performance stoppages and vowed they would never have to experience that again. "My main goal has always been to create an atmosphere that encourages artistic growth. Choreographically, from within, but also creating security for the dancers that we will, in fact, be here. Ballet companies are always evolving, so you have to deal with that."

Kaiser believed the ballet company needed complete artistic and fiscal integrity if they were to survive. He credits Executive Director Michael Scolamiero as an equal partner in rebuilding PAB from its near collapse in the early '90s. "We wanted a more evenly based structure so we weren't faced with the situation of being broke and not knowing what to do," he says. "When Michael began, we immediately worked at gaining stability for the company and building an infrastructure that was both a good business and that feeds all of our artistic goals."

Kaiser's focus was to strengthen the repertory of the company with both full-length classical ballets and the works of contemporary choreographers for ballet-trained companies. He also developed and nurtured choreographic talent within the company and allowed his dancers to pursue other creative goals as dancers. Under Kaiser, the real personality and character of the Pennsylvania Ballet has emerged.

Fischbeck recognized that there was a more developed audience in Europe and New York for his experimental forms of dance, "yet we stayed here because that there were people who appreciated and supported us here, but still, if you think 35 years in one place makes you an institution in contemporary dance, there are still so many people who haven't seen us."

The director is both a musician and choreographer and admits to being pulled in several directions, not being able to create as many dance works as he would like. "We need to work together with classical forms, modern and ethnic forms in this city. We feel that we are on the same wavelength. Dancers today are more diverse, no matter what their particular specialty.

"Obviously, for many reasons in our culture, small arts organizations are as vital as the big ones. And some people think if you have a small budget, you are not as good. But there is a certain kind of work that has to grow out of big concepts. I feel proud that we were able to work with so many artists and dancers. It was part of our philosophy in the beginning that collaborations in our field are vital also," Fischbeck says.

Pennsylvania Ballet begins its 40th anniversary season with A Fancy 40th, Oct. 8-12, $19-$96, Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad St., 215-551-7000. Group Motion will perform Interspace, its Fringe Festival work, Dec. 6, 8 p.m., $10-$16, Montgomery County Community College, Route 202 and Morris Rd., Blue Bell, and a program of new works, Dec. 20-21, $12-$20, Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Ave., 215-387-9895. A 35th anniversary program is planned for June 2004.