Elizabeth Johnson, Artistic Director |
||
|
Dear Your Mother Dances Supporters Past and Present, As we begin 2010, Luc Vanier and I want to thank all of you for your support and patronage since our Milwaukee debut in 2006. During this time, Your Mother Dances accomplished some fantastic things and you were a big part of making all of them possible. You came to the concerts, you threw donations into our proverbial hat, and you participated in our Mother’s Day events and silent auctions. You helped to make Your Mother Dances a force in the Milwaukee arts community. In a quick timeline, here are some of the things we made happen: -- 2006, 2007, 2008: listed in former Journal Sentinel Music and Dance critic Tom Strini’s yearly “Top Ten Music and Dance Events.” -- Self-produced seven critically successful dance concerts in the Danceworks Studio Theatre featuring original and guest work performed by local dance artists and guests. Many of these concerts sold out. -- Presented choreographers and performers with substantial resumes from: -- Multiple collaborations with: Last year, we were the only dance company in the nation other than David Parker and The Bang Group to present his full length “Nut/Cracked” which has been performed in Genoa, Italy, New York City, Boston, Tampa, Edinburgh, Scotland and beyond. Six hundred people experienced Parker’s playful send up of The Nutcracker and newcomers to dance as well as seasoned local critics raved. When David Parker received the DVD of the concert, he was proud and excited that YMD served his vision so professionally and that Milwaukee responded so enthusiastically. We made preparations to repeat the performance for December 2009 and, ultimately, this is why we are contacting you. As some of you may have noticed, “Nut/Cracked” did not happen again this year. After these three and a half exciting and very busy years, we have come to a place of decision that will take time and wisdom to navigate. Committed to keeping our ticket prices affordable, we accomplished everything we mentioned above with personal funds, generating moderate ticket sales to pay theatre and rehearsal rental, technical staff, and dancers (very minimally), and accepting small donations to supplement dancer pay. Unlike other small dance groups here, we have never yet competed for or received any local, state, national or corporate funding to present our work. As a newer arts entity in Milwaukee, it took some time to see “how things are done” here. If we gather more local recognition and further momentum, I am certain we can competently vie with other organizations for some local funding. I am very proud of what we have done with so little and of our trademark edgy excellence. Imagine what we could do with access to regular and more substantial arts funding! As many of you know, we have been operating under a non-profit umbrella, Bad Soviet Habits. All your donations have been and will continue to be tax deductible through BSH. Because we are such a small organization, we have delayed becoming non-profit ourselves because it requires even more of our time, money, and an extensive commitment. In proportion to the amount of small and continually shrinking funding that may be available to us in Milwaukee, this is a large amount of work. There is an advantage to our staying “lean and mean”-- we don’t desire to become a large organization. But, our mission of producing sophisticated, high quality dance in Milwaukee needs broader support. Luc and I already work full time jobs as university educators trying to support a family of five. We are continually striving for the right balance between the rigorous demands of juggling our jobs and family and producing an excellent artistic product that really requires proportional fundraising. Marketing Your Mother Dances as well as finding funding requires much time and available resources. Having that available time has been our absolute biggest challenge. We are the directors, managers, choreographers, dancers, marketers, webmasters, and promotional materials writers. If you’ve seen a poster, we’ve designed it and written the press. If you have written a check, we have hand deposited it. If you’ve seen a dance, we have designed and danced in it. Right now, we find ourselves like the cartoon character Wiley Coyote roaring after the Roadrunner only to realize we have run off a cliff and are floating, momentarily suspended with no wings to support our would be flight. The Field of Dreams idea, “If you build it, they will come” has not drawn the consistent support we need to continue. So now we are taking needed time to see if it is possible to generate some support for our vibrant vision. If you have attended even one of our performances, you have clearly witnessed it. In this new year, we will downgrade all our performing activities to informal showings and the equivalent of “dry readings” for theatre. We will take some time to research reorganizing according to non-profit guidelines, find local and corporate funding possibilities, and see if it is really possible to be a funded and competitive arts entity so we can continue our work here. What has been our “work here?” In December 2007, only one year after our Milwaukee debut, former Journal Sentinel Music and Dance critic Tom Strini listed Your Mother Dances as “#2” for his Top Ten music and dance events for that year. We think his recap sums up everything nicely: “Elizabeth Johnson's Your Mother Dances company has sharpened the edge of Milwaukee's small, intense and fascinating modern-dance scene. Her ballet background and respect for high-powered technique have raised the ante here, Outside of Milwaukee, we will continue to research festivals and venues that offer travel funds and other fiscal support. We will no longer accept the anxiety that accompanies risking our personal finances and relying solely on local ticket sales to pay dancers who are volunteering their rehearsal time and receiving very minimal performance fees. All of our dancers are college educated and some also hold graduate degrees as do Luc and I. Most work 2-3 dance and non-dance related jobs to make ends meet and carry no health insurance. Our culture is okay with the idea of being a “starving artist” but we are not. If you are getting this, it is because you have already supported Milwaukee dance in some way. Your Mother Dances has already accomplished so much with very little. Our love of and devotion to the art of dance have forged something special and we think it should continue. Our lives spent training, our level of professionalism, our education and experience, and our product are worthy of support. The work we have done is good. If you miss us, let us know. If you can be a regular, monthly or yearly supporter, let us know. If you know of corporations or financially secure arts minded individuals who are passionate about dance and not maxed out, let us know. We thank you for all you have done and for coming to see the concerts. We have so enjoyed bringing our work to you and have danced it with all our hearts. We’ll be in touch with more information and hope to see you again soon! All the best in the New Year and all our gratitude,
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||