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-Company History-
Betty Salamun
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1975 Fresh
faced local kids return from New York with a couple of good reviews
--“likeable ingenuity…nicely conceived and well danced.” New York Times, and
“Danced beautifully.” Dance Magazine. Called The Pandemonium DANCECIRCUS,
concerts draw on New York contacts for choreographers and local dancers
(including Ferne Caulker). Betty Salamun co-choreographs “Museum Pieces” with
up and coming NY choreographer Rika Burnham at the Milwaukee Art Museum, as
it called at that time. This gallery performance becomes a video program
“ARTSPHERES” funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. 1980 A
small name change -- the company is now called DANCECIRCUS (but nobody
likes to print it all capitalized letters). Betty Salamun’s passion for the
environment becomes an artistic focal point for the company’s concerts,
residencies and outreach programs. She is commissioned to develop a
full-length version of "A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC" for the Burlington
IA’s ALDO LEOPOLD: A Man for all Seasons festival. Then, during the
height of national support for dance touring, DANCECIRCUS tours "A SAND
COUNTY ALMANAC" to 5 states with funding from Chicago’s Joyce
Foundation. An ongoing commitment to commissioning choreographers includes
international choreographer Mark Morris and local choreographer Debra Loewen
who both now direct their own companies. The DANCECIRCUS reputation for
outreach-educational programs and residencies grows with inclusion in Young
Audiences and being the first performing artists in the Wisconsin Arts Board
Artist-In-Residence Programs. 1985 The
company, now Betty Salamun and the DANCECIRCUS, thrills audiences with
“exciting, powerfully convincing modern movement.” (Milwaukee Journal).
Feeling the national decline in touring, Betty Salamun begins working with
artists in other disciplines in addition to composers and musicians to create
new kinds of inter-arts and dance-theatre performances. Projects over three
years with NY poet Joe Cardillo result in a New York State Council on the
Arts funded tour of “Wordprints.” Milwaukee County funds the MATRIX
installation and dance performances in the new General Mitchell International
Airport main concourse with visual artist Dennis Coffee. Betty Salamun and
the DANCECIRCUS are in the middle of two 5 year residencies, one at Alverno
College and the other at Robert Gard’s idea theatre school -- Rhinelander
School of the Arts, Rhinelander WI. 1990 Betty
Salamun recreates "A SAND COUNTY
ALMANAC" based on Aldo Leopold's seminal ecological book.
This"...vocally eloquent, visually inventive blending of environment and
athleticism set to a throbbing score." (Milwaukee Journal) is "...a
refreshing oasis of beauty and dedication" (Milwaukee Sentinel) to the
environment. Betty begins adding her words and voice to performances using an
evolving form of modern dance called ‘talk-dance’ which interacts with the
written word as well as the audience. Talk-dance concepts also focus Betty’s
development of Storycircles for projects in community agencies that empower
people of all ages and races to show and tell their stories. 1995 Now
called Betty Salamun’s DANCECIRCUS, the company is a cultural partner
with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's A.C.E. Program earning the highest
evaluations for its interactive dance program. Storycircles projects develop
into the GIVING VOICE Series of community/company performances. The Milwaukee
Women's Center and photographer Deone Jahnke develops and performs “Keep Your
Secrets” based on a folk tale. Three additional inter-arts projects support
and empower women in recovery at Milwaukee Women's Center until W2 changes
and limits educational services. Listening to and re-telling the stories of
holocaust survivors places Betty’s Storycircles project in a full page
article in the Corporation for National Service’s nationally published
community arts workbook. 2000 The advertising slogan, “Sexy chicks and high kicks from Madison’s SMARTDANCE and Milwaukee’s DANCECIRCUS,” is banned by NPR station WUWM as “not within broadcast guidelines.” Betty’s month long residency at The Yard, an artists’ retreat for dancers on Martha’s Vineyard, MA, includes an “eco-dance” residency with Edgartown Elementary School sixth grade students and inspires the creation of SOUND (including finding the 25’ section of commercial fishing net used in the dance while walking on a beach.) Talk-dance projects expand as Betty writes and adapts scripts for company performances – writing and directing SALT: Relics in Their Seasons with One Drum Band, editing and selecting music from local composers for Italo Calvino's INVISIBLE CITIES, and writing "URBAN FOLKTALES" with music by Crouton. With funding from CEO-II, Betty forms FEST DANCERS summer program for high school students for 14 performances. She develops popular performance-art pieces and personal stories with universal resonance for schools, churches and the acclaimed CON/struct series at Walker's Point Center for the Arts. 2005 Shifting the name, again, DanceCircus
moves forward its successful programs in outreach, residencies and concerts
emphasizing its environmental forte, continuing to develop its stories and
the stories of people in the community using words and movement, and building
community relationships throughout the city (Vincent Family Resource Center,
and Herb Society of Wisconsin with Salvation Army, West Corps Community
Center). In this, our 30th season, DanceCircus is developing a new
program with The Benedict Center’s Women’s Program which provides an
alternative justice system. |
