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 Young
Dancers Responding To AIDS
By Joshua Bartlett
The term “dance community” is often bandied about as an
abstract concept, as if some vague common denominator bound
all dancers and teachers together. But you’d be hard pressed
to find a more concrete connection than the way dancers,
teachers, choreographers, directors, merchants, and studio
owners have rallied around Dancers Responding to AIDS. Working
on the grassroots level, young dance students ranging in age
from 8 to 18, from studios around the country, raised more
than $175,000 for the organization last year.
Dancers Responding to AIDS, part of the umbrella organization
known as Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, was founded in
1991 by Paul Taylor Dance Company members Hernando Cortez and
Denise Roberts Hurlin. Their goal was to help those in the
dance profession who were suffering from the medical and
financial stresses of HIV. “It was a call to action,” says
Hurlin, who lost many dancer friends to the epidemic. “You
respond to something that personally affects your life.” Over
time, the organization’s fund-raising mechanisms have become
more sophisticated and its function has extended to include
support for other causes, like the Phyllis Newman Women’s
Health Initiative, the Actors’ Work Program, the Al Hirschfeld
Free Health Clinic, the Affordable Housing Initiative, and
victims of Hurricane Katrina. All funds from Broadway
Cares/Equity Fights AIDS are distributed through the Actors’
Fund, which serves everyone in show business.
In 1997 DRA reached out to Dance Masters of America and New
York City Dance Alliance, resulting in one of DRA’s most
successful fund-raising efforts: the Dance Student Outreach
Project. “I grew up in that world—at the Danek School of
Performing Arts in Johnson City, NY, and found my way to the
top of the concert dance world,” says Hurlin, who now acts as
founding director of DRA. To her mind, excluding the local
dance schools that are the circulatory system of the dance
world from DRA didn’t make sense. So she sought out
organizations that educate dancers and teachers.
Denise Daniele Blackstone, the director of Denise Daniele
Dance Studio in Brick, NJ, first discovered DRA’s Dance
Student Outreach Project when she heard Hurlin speak at a
convention. Since then her students have engaged in nume rous
creative fund-raisers, like raffling off Easter baskets,
setting up food bazaars, and persuading a local Italian
restaurant to donate 15 percent of an evening’s receipts to
DRA. “It did phenomenal things for my studio—unified it, and
turned the kids on to helping people who weren’t as fortunate
as we are by helping raise money for grants,” says Blackstone.
For the dancers, there are perks as well. As the top
fund-raising studio at a Joe Tremaine Dance Convention, her
students won a trip to Los Angeles to appear in a concert with
Tremaine. Overall, Blackstone’s studio has raised more than
$30,000.
DRA’s Dance Student Outreach Project has set up several venues
that inspire the dancers through educational and performance
opportunities. One example is the DRA Dream Teacher
Masterclass. For dance studios that raise $5,000 or more, DRA
will send a master teacher in jazz, ballet, tap, modern, or
hip-hop from the students’ wish list to give a class on the
premises. Past teachers include Rhonda Miller, Mia Michaels,
Nick Bass, Doug Caldwell, and Mary Ann Lamb.
The two performing/fund-raising opportunities include DRA
Dance Invitationals and the Capezio-sponsored “Stars of
Tomorrow . . . giving back today!” For both events, DRA
produces a professional show, supplies postcards and posters,
and showcases 200-plus students alongside professional
dancers. The responsibility is on the studios and students to
raise the money in order to participate, like Blackstone’s
students did for the Los Angeles concert.
What makes these events unique is that they provide the
students with an opportunity to learn and perform in a venue
that isn’t a competition. “This has really resonated with
dance teachers across the country, because so much of what
they do is about themselves—their own needs as schools and
performers,” says Hurlin. “This gives them the opportunity to
do what they do best; but they are doing it for someone else,
as opposed to just getting a medal.”
Leslie Clifford, the director of Center Stage Dance Academy in
Long Beach, CA, found out about DRA from her involvement with
the New York City Dance Alliance. One of her st udents,
John Bond, was named “Dancer of the Year” at a NYCDA
competition and was awarded a trip to London to perform and
study under the sponsorship of DRA. Since then, her students
have participated in several “Stars of Tomorrow” events,
raising money by selling tickets. “I have 750 students and
only about 80 participate every year, so the younger ones are
hoping the older ones grow up and graduate so they can get
their spot,” says Clifford. At the NYCDA events, trophy
winners are given the option of donating their money to DRA
instead of accepting the trophies. “My students always want to
donate the money,” says Clifford.
In the beginning, Clifford only allowed students age 12 or
older to participate, but this year she brought in her
10-year-olds. “The parents are always appreciative of the
experience,” says Clifford. “Denise [Hurlin] and her producers
do a really good job of explaining to the kids what DRA is all
about—how it affects the dance community, that it’s not just
about AIDS but also about health care.”
One of the hardest things to communicate, says Hurlin, is that
the services of the Actors’ Fund are there for everyone in the
performing arts community, despite the organization’s name. “I
tell teachers that it’s a great resource, so that if they’re
sending a student off to New York or Los Angeles to explore
the dance world, they have resources to get information and
support with issues like health insurance.” Hurlin says she
finds it particularly rewarding when the children who have
supported DRA as youngsters grow into adulthood with a direct
awareness about the organization and its services.
Kym Nash, the director of Farmington Dance in Collinsville,
CT, didn’t hear about DRA until her 7-year-old daughter came
to her with a fistful of the organization’s raffle tickets,
which she had bought at a NYCDA competition with her
allowance. “My first thought was that I have to talk to this
kid about how she spends her money,” says Nash. But she
eventually realized that her daughter was on to something. Her
students quickly got involved on a
local level, sponsoring a wine-tasting event at The Bushnell
(a performing-arts facility in Hartford), a pizza night at a
local restaurant, and a raffle for four tickets and a limo
ride to The Daily Show With Jon Stewart in Manhattan as
the grand prize. Nash’s son even hosted a paintball game as a
fund-raiser. After performances, the students also made
donation appeals to the audience, like the pitches for
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS that Broadway stars hold
after curtain calls for their shows.
But perhaps the most profound experience for Nash and her
students came when they formed a partnership with the
Connecticut AIDS Resource Coalition, which was thrilled with
their participation. On World AIDS Day, they performed at the
capitol building in Hartford and petitioned the state
representatives to do more for AIDS. “At the rally at the
capitol, that’s when it really hit the kids,” says Nash. “Here
we are raising money for these people with AIDS, and boom,
there they are right in front of you. That was a huge eye
opener for them.” To date, Farmington Dance has raised more
than $18,000 for DRA and was planning a “Stars of Tomorrow”
event for studios in Connecticut and surrounding states this
spring.
For some studio owners, the issue of AIDS has hit on a
personal level. Blackstone was a close friend of Tom Reid, one
of choreographer Michael Bennett’s assistants for the original
production of A Chorus Line, who died of complications
due to AIDS. Nash had danced in several shows during her
performing career and had known dance partners who died from
the disease.
Still, the topic of HIV in 2007 can occasionally generate
negative feedback from those who harbor misconceptions about
the virus. Despite the enthusiasm for her fundraising efforts,
Nash encountered a few resisters. “There were times when we
approached corporate people, and because it dealt with AIDS ,
the answer was absolutely, positively, no. But overall, people
embraced it,” says Nash. Feedback from the dance studios, says
Hurlin, has always been positive.
For one studio director, Celi Shinn of Sheffield School of
Dance in Mobile, AL, the positive response to her efforts blew
her socks off. After hearing Hurlin speak at a convention
luncheon in Orlando, she thought, “I’m a dance educator. I
need to get involved in this.” Shinn envisioned a performance
that she would produce with the network of students and
parents. “I knew I needed a lot of help, so I met with 40 of
the competition kids and their parents,” says Shinn. “Six
weeks before the show one of the mothers, a social worker,
went with me to the local AIDS-support service. Everyone I
approached asked what they could do to help.”
The result was a gala evening titled “Imagine . . . A
Performance for Life,” featuring local competition dancers
along with working professionals. The mayor of Mobile donated
the use of the performing-arts center for free on Easter
weekend, and that one sold-out evening garnered $10,000 for
DRA.
Participation in DRA’s Dance Student Outreach Project can
bring unexpected life lessons to those who join up. Clifford
says she underestimated the motivation levels of kids who
fund-raise for worthy groups. “They can be lackadaisical when
raising money for
themselves for competitions,” she says. “But for these events,
they are extremely motivated. I’ve been in business for a long
time, but I find myself more aware of things we need to learn
about. We get closed in within our little studios. At these
events, kids meet kids from other studios and look forward to
seeing each other every year.”
For Shinn, the “Imagine” experience showed that she could act
on her imagination. “I had never done a fund-raiser like
this,” says Shinn. “This studio is a family business, run by
my mother, who has always been the backbone. She said to me,
‘Celi, you really came out of the box.’ For me, it was quite
an accomplishment.”
“Being involved with DRA resonates with the kids and the
adults after they do it,” says Hurlin. “They are expressing
themselves in an artistic way, but I think it gives them a
sense of power that maybe they didn’t have before. It’s a
terrific lesson on a human front.”
For more information about DRA, visit www.dradance.org or call
212-840-0770.
Photo captions (from top to bottom):
Sheffield School of Dance students in Grande Tarantella,
choreographed by Celi Shinn, from the DRA benefit gala
“Imagine . . . A Performance for Life.” Photo by Mehrdad
Vaghefi.
Farmington Dance students (bottom to top) Mia Nardini,
Mackenzie Pena, Paige McCarthy, and Taelor Scott perform at
the NYCDA Nationals in 2006. Photo by ProPix.
Leslie Clifford of Center Stage Dance Academy and her students
whirl through class with the same energy they devote to
raising money for DRA. Photo by Steve Crosswhite.
Denise Daniele Dance Studio senior company members (front to
back) Cristina Varriale, Katie Dougherty, and Corinne
Piotrowski rehearse Al Blackstone’s
With or Without You.
Photo by Allyson Paravate.
Students of Farmington Dance at the Pineapple Dance Centre in
London, where they took class before their performance at
Sadler’s Wells Theatre. DRA founding director Denise Roberts
Hurlin is in the center back. Photo by Kym Nash.
Denise Daniele Dance Studio owner Denise Blackstone works with
student Mallory Friedman. Photo by Allyson Paravate.
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