Dance Critics in Ann Arbor?
At Dancing in Summer, the Festival, hosted by Terpsichore Collective in June of this year, I learned about an exciting project: Ann Arbor Bicentennial (1824-2024). Aimee McDonald and Terri Serris created a short documentary about contemporary dance and dance performance in Ann Arbor over the past 40 years or so. It was fascinating to have a look into what was happening here in recent decades.
In the 10 years I’ve lived in Ann Arbor, I have met a lot of dancers, and I’ve built up the idea that I know a lot of what’s going on around here… But there’s always more to learn. Like what Ann Arbor looked like before I moved here.
For example, one of the first people who appeared in the documentary was Noonie Anderson, who I met while she was a dance faculty member at Washtenaw Community College. The Noonie Anderson of the 1980s was new to Ann Arbor, and she told stories of her first encounters with dance in the city. Spoiler alert, she followed the sounds of hand drums to an upstairs studio where Biza Sompa was teaching a Congolese class (and he, himself, was also new to A2 at that time)! Anyone who has danced at the University of Michigan probably knows who Biza is. So cool to hear how these local dance elders met each other 40 years ago.
I hope you’ll have an opportunity to watch the documentary for yourself, but until then, I’ll share a couple of my takeaways.
In the 1980s, there were a lot of resources for concert dancers. There were 10-20 studios where dancers could train. There were a dozen professional companies who supported one another and shared performance spaces, etc. ALSO, there were dance critics who wrote about dance performance in the weekly paper! I remember reading movie reviews and movie listings in the paper when I was a teenager in the early ‘00s… I can extrapolate and think about how great it would be to read about dance as well! These journalists wrote reviews about dance concerts they had seen. They also wrote PREviews for audiences to know more about a show, so they could decide which shows to attend.
The glory days of the ‘80s-’90s are gone, and appreciation for dance as an artform has limped along in this region. In my decade of living here, I’ve seen an increase in the variety of dance performances offered in and around Detroit, as well as an increase in viewership. However, the Ann Arbor story is a bit different.
After a lull from the late ‘90s until the 2010s, dance is starting to have a resurgence here in Ann Arbor. Terpsichore Collective is back at it after a 14-year hiatus. Dance Uprising is beginning our 6th season (more or less… the pandemic really did a number on us!), Fun Girl in Ypsi is in their 7th season (I think that’s right!). There are dance classes for professionals to train during the day with me, Aimee McDonald, Amy Hutchison, Jodie Randolph, and Chloé Gray. There are evening classes at nearby studios as well, particularly with Community School of Ballet and Studio Centre. I know there are even more, which is a testament to how much the dance scene is growing!
I feel inspired by the hopeful tone of the documentary. Ann Arbor was a hub for dance and it is on its way to that again! We know how to find events on social media, EventBrite, Facebook, the Ann Arbor Observer, and so on. What I would really love to see again though is someone who can write dance critiques and previews.
I’m going to do my best to share my experiences with performances as I find out about them, BUT I also want to hear from others in the A2 area! If you attend a dance performance and want to write about the show, send me an email! danceuprising@gmail.com. I’ll add it to the blog! :)
If you have a performance in the A2 area coming up, and you want to share a little preview of it, let’s get in touch!