About NC Dance Festival

The NC Dance Festival is an activity of the NC Dance Project, a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Contributions are tax deductible and are most gratefully accepted [donation form].

BOARD OF DIRECTORS (2007-2008)

• Tracie Foster - President
• Julie Mulvihill - Secretary
• Peggy Markham - Treasurer
• Jan Van Dyke
• Mark Gabriel
• Sarah Vincent
• Tina Yarborough-Liggins

The Festival is an annual showcase of North Carolina dance artists that travels to six communities. Unique in the country and now a North Carolina institution, the event began in 1991 as a weekend of concerts in the UNC/Greensboro Dance Theater showcasing dance artists from across the state. The 2007-08 Festival will stop in Boone, Asheville, Greensboro, Raleigh, Wilmington, and Charlotte. Eight different companies will tour, performing alongside artists local to the host communities, making the actual concerts a mix of local and statewide artists.

In 1991, we started at the UNC/Greensboro Dance Theater with a one weekend showcase for some of the state's dance artists. The idea developed as the UNCG dance faculty puzzled out a number of questions: how to expose students to the region's dance artists, how to develop an active dance community in the area, and how to convince more students to stay and work in North Carolina upon graduation.

This state is noted for its outstanding training programs at the NC School of the Arts and at a number of our state universities including UNCG. In addition, the American Dance Festival draws hundreds of students to Durham each summer. It would be a boon to North Carolina if we could begin keeping more of these young artists after graduation. Producing a showcase concert was an easy way to bring together the various choreographers making careers in the state. Our new Departmental Dance Theater, using North Carolina's dance artists, seemed like a good place to get started. That first weekend of shows was such a success, we decided to invite a different group of companies for the following year. The next year we added a concert for Greensboro artists. And so it has gone, year after year, gradually growing and expanding into this season's six-site tour.

HOW IT WORKS
Festival coordinators share the vision of a statewide arts network which enlivens and enriches local communities, expanding the possibilities for both audiences and dance artists. We have built a network of presenters through cooperation with both university dance departments and community-based dance organizations across the state, with all venues handicap accessible, offering special prices for students and seniors. Coordinators at all six sites are experienced presenters, and all are committed to producing the Festival on a long-term basis.

Jan Van Dyke is overall Festival coordinator and coordinator for the Greensboro concerts at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the center of the state.

Susan Lutz coordinates performances at Appalachian State University in Boone, a mountain community in northwest NC.

Carol Finley manages the Festival at Meredith College in Raleigh, the state's capitol.

Susan and Giles Collard of Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater produce shows at the Diana Wortham Theater in Asheville, a resort city in the western mountains.

Sue Meier and the Dance Cooperative produce shows at Kenan Theater in Wilmington, in the state's coastal region.

Delia Neil and the UNC Charlotte Department of Theatre and Dance present the show in Charlotte in south central NC.

Festival concerts are always curated. Every year, through a process of consultation among the coordinators and other interested observers, eight NC dance artists/companies are selected to participate in the tour. An effort is made to show a variety of aesthetic points of view and to involve work from many areas of the state. Although the emphasis is on modern dance, we also present ballet and ethnically based works with success.

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