A New Direction for a Valued Colleague

Comments:

1. Maggie Thom (March 15th, 2008 at 10:41 am)

   I am extremely disheartened to hear about this decision as I’m sure will be the other many alumnae of Ellen’s classes. For us, Ellen and Dance Theater Workshop always went together. That’s why I am a bit skeptical as to why you state above that Ellen’s program should be connected with a different institution that is better aligned with the goals of her program. Ellen is one of the only dance teachers in NYC or anywhere that I know of that teaches improvisation and choreography to children. She’s not teaching technique she is teaching artistry and If that is not inline with DTW’s goals as an institution well, then I’m really confused about what DTW’s goal are these days.
   I am dancing at DTW this weekend with Juliana F. May/MayDance and if there is anything at all interesting going on in my performance I owe at least half of it to Ellen. She has made an indelible mark on the dance community and it is a disservice to her leave her without a home to do this crucial work of growing new generations of performers, passionate, intelligent audience members and most importantly dancers for life! whether that is onstage, onscreen, in the classroom, in the conference room, art gallery, etc. In a society that increasingly devalues dance, education needs to be made MORE important not less. I am afraid that DTW will be severing an important tie with the larger community with this unfortunate decision. I hope there will be further dialogue on this matter.

2. David R White (March 16th, 2008 at 4:46 pm)

   Dear Carla and Steven,

   I have largely stayed away from DTW and out of its policy and program decisions since my departure because old directors are, well, so over. I’ve seen some good programs go away, and other good ones come on board, and have been content to be an observer of things firmly beyond my control.

   However - the expulsion of Ellen Robbins and her classes (meaning her kids, their families and a big part of DTW’s day-to-day community reputation) and the apparent heartlessness of the rationale used (DTW is “not” an educational, but instead an “arts” organization, and anyway we don’t have the money, even if the families want to think about offering subsidy) is appalling, ill-considered and a truly bad decision. Leaving aside the organizing principles of DTW’s founders, Bessie Schonberg herself must be rolling over in her grave to hear that DTW is not an educational institution. I don’t know if this faux distinction is a Peterson program, a Greco effect or the result of an institutionally thought out cost-benefit analysis. Whichever, it is utterly wrong, not to mention ham-handed and heartless.

   What’s going on here is that someone is de-prioritizing kids and the artists that they often become under Ellen’s tutelage and through their daily contact with DTW ( a lot of them have historically gone on or come back to audition for Fresh Tracks and the like).

   Separate from the widely recognized uniqueness of Ellen’s methods and empathy with her students, this will be seen as a rupture with community members who most appreciate DTW in a holistic way - and I’m not talking the few more insular artists who would largely address only themselves in the once kid-filled spaces. Ellen’s classes (and performances) are one of the few mechanisms that let daylight and fresh air into the rarified environs of downtown artists, many of whom have no concern for those who might follow them in the future. Encountering a future peer on the elevator and in the dressing room is a statement that dance exists in the world.

   I of course have no standing here, so consider this an amicus brief in support of Ellen’s appeal, which I understand has fallen on deaf ears. At the very least, DTW as a whole - its board as well as its staff - should respect both its institutional memory and the intergenerational memory of its public community, and should formally reconsider this issue (as well as the enormous contribution that Ellen herself has made to DTW’s integrity over the years) and make a fully informed and thoughtful final judgment.

   Sincerely,

   David

   David R. White
   artventuresnewhampshire (avnh)
   artistic direction + arts programming
   cultural strategies + cultural community

   474 Crowell Road
   Hopkinton, NH 03229
   Tel: 603-224-5957 Mobile: 603-491-2698
   Email: drwprimemover@yahoo.com

3. Cynthia Meyers (March 16th, 2008 at 6:33 pm)

   Like many parents whose children have studied with Ellen for years, I am distressed by DTW’s change of mission. Ellen’s program connects DTW to a larger community; DTW will lose that community. If DTW wishes to foster creative choreography, their greatest resource is Ellen, whose teaching is shaping future creators and audiences of dance.

   Let me explain why I believe Ellen’s program is vital to the mission of DTW. Many years ago, when I earned my BFA in dance and choreography, we were trained to choreograph by solving compositional problems. We went into the studios by ourselves and presented our choreographic sketches to our teachers, who then critiqued us in class. Only in our third and fourth years were we allowed to choreograph entire pieces to music, title our dances, wear costumes, and dance under theatrical lights. We had only our Senior Dance Concert to perform a completed solo before paying audiences in our entire 4 year program.

   Ellen follows a very different pedagogical approach. Every year she asks each student, as young as 5, to choreograph a solo to music. Each solo is titled, costumed, and by age 9, each dancer performs his/her piece under lights in front of audiences. Most amazingly, when students rent space to choreograph, Ellen stays in the studio and works directly with each young choreographer to help bring out each child’s individual creativity. Ellen does not direct so much as foster–and she does not charge anyone for this use of her time and expertise. Her individual attention to the creativity of each child is unparalleled in *any* creative arts program anywhere.

   Each dancer also learns a group piece–complete with music and costumes–in which each child contributes to an existing choreographic structure. Children learn to work together in space and in the rhythm of music. They understand the dynamics of group choreography by doing it. Each year, her students look forward to doing one of her dances–the Vermeer piece, the Water Study, the Rainforest, the Carnival of the Animals, and many others.

   Ellen’s approach produces an amazingly high level of creativity. The range of ideas I have seen in a single one of her concerts far exceeds the range I can see in a full year of dance going. I have seen dances that are far more sophisticated, musically and conceptually, than most of the dances my college BFA program produced. That’s because Ellen teaches creativity as well as dance–and it is an approach that ought to be modeled and spread. By asking students to conceptualize entire dances, by asking students to title their dances and costume themselves, she requires students to be artists of whole works, not of sketches or “comps.” By asking students to rise to the challenge of dancing in front of strangers, Ellen raises the bar on quality like no other teacher of choreography.

   Ellen does not run an after-school program, she has the best creative arts program in the city, and she is a treasure who deserves strong institutional support. She is not just another “rental”–I am distressed to have her represented this way, as if it were a calculated effort to distance her from the core of DTW’s historic mission. Ellen will survive, and perhaps thrive, in another institutional context. But DTW should understand that they are tossing out not a renter but the single most important teacher of choreography in New York City, as well as a very large community attached to her. This community will find it difficult to have much faith or interest in DTW’s new “mission.” Our new artists will have to be fostered elsewhere.

4. Bruce Adolphe (March 17th, 2008 at 8:39 pm)

   I feel I must add my voice to those who are distressed by the decision to “change the mission” at DTW and, as part of that decision, to remove Ellen Robbins’ classes. As a composer and educator affilliated with Lincoln Center for over 16 years and a former faculty member of Juilliard, Yale, and N.Y.U., as well as as collaborator with Anna Sokolow, Lila York, and other choreographers, I am convinced that the best way to “fully support the creative process”, to use your phrase, is through education — especially education for the very young. Where are the choreographers you seek going to come from if you don’t support the stimulation of creativity in dance at the earliest stage? It would not be a problem if such an education were widely available, but in fact dance for children is not taught as a creative process anywhere that I know of other than in the classes of Ellen Robbins. As a father of an extremely creative girl who loves to dance, I have paid for routine, ordinary dance classes all over the city, and until I found Ellen Robbins’ class I had nearly given up on the idea that a dance teacher might address the creative spirit in the great tradition of modern dance. DTW is renowned as an educational institution and if your mission goes forward it will be more of an end than a beginning. It will be the end of a great era when the organization served the whole community, dancers of all ages, and reached out into the future through its educational zeal. It will be the beginning of professional squabbling, competition for space and attention, aesthetic camps in confrontation, and a community that feels left out.

5. Bob Marinaccio (March 17th, 2008 at 9:28 pm)

   I am quite taken aback to learn of DTW’s decision to drop Ellen Robbins’ children’s classes from its programs. I have always thought of Ellen’s teaching as more than just dance classes, but more the development of the choreographers and artists of tomorrow. Isn’t that what DTW was intended to do when Jeff Duncan created it back in the 60’s. Develop artists!

   Or is this decision purely economic? Is that the sub-text we are not seeing/hearing? Do the children’s classes not generate enough income for the institution? If so, why not get underwriting? Some corporation or foundation surely must value the training and development of children.

   I think DTW is dropping the ball on what its REAL mission should be – developing young artists. Very young artists.

6. Tymberly Canale (March 17th, 2008 at 11:20 pm)

   I am dance theater perfomer with the Bessie and Obie award winning company Big Dance Theater which has been greatly nurtured and supported by DTW for a long while–long enough to remember when the theater’s narrow dressing rooms were shared with the kids coming out of Ellen’s classes and all of those tiny leotards left in the lost and found and the mayhem and the ruckus of the transition between school time to professional theater time. It was an imperfect transition time, to be sure, but an important one– it was when the young dancers could breath in the focus of what we were doing and we could breathe in a bit of their free, excited energy. I still remember some of their hopeful, interested faces.

   This is when I first met Ellen. Years later when I became pregnant, Ellen would joke with me to get on her list early for dance classes for my unborn child. 6 years later, my daughter Ruby has a very short piano piece by Mozart in hand and is working on the creation of a dance. This is remarkable! Ellen’s program is distinct, profound and builds a very strong community for the kids and parents and gives us a special relationship with Dance Theater Workshop. Ellen’s classes and the 3 performances per year of Family Matters are really the only active relationship that DTW has with kids and their families as far as I can tell. We are an important audience base and our kids are DTW’s supporters and performers of the future. It’s not smart to lose us.

   I intimately understand the crunch for rehearsal space for downtown artists. However, I really feel that losing Ellen is a profound error judgment and a sad reflection of how we devalue our elders in the dance world (and beyond). I am really hoping that DTW begins to see the important value Ellen’s program is to the mission of Dance Theater Workshop.

7. Jim May (March 18th, 2008 at 8:02 am)

   The dumbing down of education has been going on for several decades and now those who graduated under this system are gaining power and positions, obviously infiltrating the arts organizations such as DTW. Ellen Robbins is one of the great pedagogues (is that word still used, or should I say teachers) of dance for children and has brought over the years prestige (another bad word) to the profession. How about aesthetics? This word she imbues (to soak with moisture, fill with colour, give life to the imagination). Washington has given up on our youth and infrastruture so why not join them. This selfish act of ‘getting rid of’ established, proven, and honored entities like Ellen Robbins is a pure ego trip by an uneducated, insecure child who should have taken her class.
   PS I was a guest artist on Ellen Robbins children show at DTW (the old one) in the 1960’s). I too am ‘to old to be important but still have something to say.”
   Jim May

8. Julie Applebaum (March 18th, 2008 at 4:22 pm)

   I am a contributor to DTW and as a stake holder in your organization I am writing to let you know how disturbed and disappointed I am that DTW is terminating its relationship with Ellen Robbins. I am writing to you because I feel that it is a terrible strategic fundraising move.

   I understand that DTW has lost a major sponsor this year and has looked for alternative funding streams. I am wondering why the administration has not thought about turning to the built-in constituency you already have. Arts Administration 101 would teach you that a healthy arts organization must build its audience. The students and families you have now are your future audience. Many dance organizations know this and use their space to cultivate community relationships and nurture future patrons. That is why companies such as Mark Morris and Alvin Ailey fill their studios with dance classes during the week.

   In addition, most foundation, corporate, or government funders will want to see what percentage of your work is devoted to education and community outreach programs. Offering free tickets, or family-friendly weekend programming with passive viewing is not considered an education program in the arts education field. You will have to do better than that.

   What will happen when the grant for young choreographers runs out? You have sacrificed all other constituencies and put all your eggs in one basket. Along the way you have alienated a very fertile field of future supporters. I, for one, will not continue to support an organization that has turned it’s back on its core values and key members of your community.

9. Christina Taylor (March 18th, 2008 at 8:04 pm)

   I am the mother of what may have been the first boy to have joined Ellen’s invaluable program.

   My son is a concert cellist, a prodigy since age 3 and has had exposure to some of the finest teachers and experiences in the arts that NYC, and possibly the world has to offer, yet his experience with Ellen Robbins has remained at the very top of the list.

   Ellen Robbins has lived a modest life considering her noteriety and has never exploited her successes with children to further her financial gain. It is apparent to all that know her that her greatest personal reward is that of imparting to her students the most important gift of creativity through movement and independent thought.

   After several years of study(and hopefully many more to come) my son has not only developed into a skilled young choreographer, but also a contemplative, responsible and thoughtful young man. I believe that his experience with Ellen Robbins has played a large role in the development of these paramount life skills.

   As a business person who works directly with arts sponsorship I am empathetic to your position with funding difficulties. However, I know that I speak for all of those involved with Ellen’s program when I express my grave dissapointment in a system that is not only overlooking the cultivation of the future patrons and participants of the art world,
   but also one that has adapted to the now common societal lack of concern towards the most fragile of all altruistic endeavors, building integrity in our children.

   There isn’t one out of the dozens of professional and very willing parent body who hasnt expressed an interest in helping to solve this issue, financially and otherwise. How could such a philantropic organization overlook these
   offerings of support which are un- solicited and presented with the best of intentions?

10. Mana Allen (March 19th, 2008 at 5:43 pm)

    It is with such a heavy heart that I write to DTW to express my dismay and confusion over your decision to disallow Ellen Robbins to hold her classes in the Jerome Robbins Studio after this May. As I understand it, that studio was designed with Ellen’s needs in mind to support her valuable work of growing artists for the future. Ellen’s work is unique in the dance and education community. DTW has hosted and appreciated her life’s work for decades. I feel it is a grave mistake on DTW’s part. But that aside, to give Ellen just a few months notice to scramble to find new space reveals a deep lack of respect for Ellen Robbins by the current DTW administration, no matter how much they may say they value her work.

    The timing of this decision also shows a deep lack of understanding of Ellen’s program. To do this now, at her busiest time of the school year- the spring- when she is nurturing and helping each of the 50+ students create their own solos in preparation for the May showings is absolutely disgraceful. I am on the faculty of CAP21/NYU. Our administration has been on the hunt for new extra studio space in Chelsea for over a year now. It seems so naive to think Ellen will not have any problem re-locating her classes so quickly.

    In your announcement you mention that the DTW board wants to help Ellen connect with other arts organizations to host her work. I would like to respectfully suggest that DTW pledge to make your actions match your words and allow Ellen to teach her classes in the Jerome Robbins Studio until a suitable alternative is found, whether that be this fall or even next. If you are so determined in your decision to close this valuable chapter of DTW’s history with Ellen Robbins, at least do it with decency and class. Treat her with the respect you say she deserves. An arts organization that does not act honorably towards the artists who have contributed to its development cannot possibly hope to thrive far into the future.

11. David R Wwhite (March 19th, 2008 at 7:01 pm)

    I would like to point out that no other blog on DTW’s website has this number of comments (without being headlined on the previous page to get here), not to mention the general opposition growing outside.

    I would also add a couple of comments to my previous post. Face it - Ellen is a downtown artist like no other, with a sustained impact on both fellow artists, audience and community (forget for a moment the kids in the Living Room Nutcracker, etc.)unlike any other artist currently named elsewhere on DTW’s site. Sad, perhaps at least for some, but true.

    Second - do not give up on this, everybody. DTW should overturn this decision which did not, in fact, pass through DTW’s Artist Committee, which constitutes approximately half the board of directors. Many menbers of the Artist Committee are furious , especially since major changes in artistic policy are subject to their review.

    I served as Executive Director and Producer of DTW from 1975 to 2003, and saw waves of artistic/aesthetic change come and go, often with enormous internecine tumult. Until now, Ellen was never part of those feudal battles, because her mentorship of future creative generations served everybody’s interest.

    And now to the parents and past parents (and other family members) of Ellen’s kids. DTW has appealed to you in the past, most likely through generic mailings that didn’t address the seriousness of choices that face a growing institution, and particularly vis-a-vis Ellen. It’s time for each of you, past and present - just as you would as parents of students at desirable private schools or colleges - to step up, organize and create a modest support system for Ellen’s present and future students to exist as full equals at DTW, so no short-sighted administrators can ever again use the lack of support as a reason to cut Ellen and her program off at the knees. That’s what will turn this situation around, literally, on a dime.

    David R White
    Former Executive Director and Producer, 1975-2003
    drwprimemover@yahoo.com

12. maggie (March 19th, 2008 at 8:22 pm)

    I think that making a distinction between artists (whether they be 5 or 98) is dangerous.
    it may lead to big problems.

13. Juliet Critsimilios (March 19th, 2008 at 8:46 pm)

    This disgusting decision makes me truly wonder who in DTW has a recollection of history. Before the fancy new building that we now know of as the home of Dance Theater Workshop was built, ellen was teaching young girls improvisation in classroom with cork board walls. The renovation in style apparently has changed people’s attitudes as well.

    Ellen’s classes far exceed any others offered in the entire state of New York, never mind the city. Ellen’s unique ways of teaching and love for young artists everywhere have produced talented young dancers that graduate from the top schools in the country with the grace of dance to match their stellar academic record. Ellen’s classes clearly have an artistic and academic impact on her students, and leaves them with the strength to carry the confidence they gain in class out into the real world. Not only does Ellen teach girls independence through the art of a solo, but she teaches them teamwork through group dances. Most importantly ellen always stressed that ART was a part of smART.

    Clearly those in charge of DTW are forgetting that Ellen has been with DTW since the classes in a studio with cork board walls and a little theater. While it sickens the rest of the world to realize real estate and money are the driving force behind many people in New York, it’s downright appalling that the refuge young children have to express themselves is being taken away by money hungry executives. Ellen has been with DTW long before anyone making these decisions, i assume, and has contributed much more than any of these people as well. No one but Ellen is associated with DTW, so the replacement of the woman who single-handedly created the popularity of the space is truly biting the hand that feeds you. Clearly whoever made this decision has not graduated from the family of Ellen’s classes. There is no art in their smart; apparently all they can see are dollar signs. As a dancer I am outraged, and as a person with morals, I am horrified.

14. Toni Allocca (March 19th, 2008 at 9:20 pm)

    Shame on you DTW! Ellen has taught my child the freedom of expressing her self through dance. She has added freedom and joy to her life. How dare you steal that away from our children. I am so sad. I will say it again, Shame on you DTW!

15. Greg Severance (March 20th, 2008 at 1:23 pm)

    I endorse all the positive words said above about Ellen Robbins and her program. I’ve known Ellen for the past five years that my daughters have been taking her class. This year all three girls (14, 12 and are enrolled.

    Of course, I have no way of knowing the content of the deliberation that the DTW management conducted in coming to the decision announced in this blog post. But the tortured style and tone of the language does not inspire confidence that we are being given the straight dope. An example of this language: “Ellen Robbins has been renting our studios for her children’s creative movement classes for many years now.” This makes her program sound like some lame physical education offering which it most certainly is not. But taken in the context of the entire post, it is a subtle effort to rationalize the decision by implying that her program is not really Dance (with a capital D) but just “creative movement”.

    I hope that the DTW leadership will listen carefully to all the comments offered on this blog post into a reconsideration of this decision.

16. Michael Penland (March 21st, 2008 at 9:21 am)

    You see… what is absolutely unique about Ellen’s approach is that she’s teaching, not just technique, but voice. It’s quite astonishing really.

    If any form of creative expression is good, it begins and ends with voice. As we all know, voice is what distinguishes one artist from another, and all great artists from those who merely imitate or take a reductive approach to contemporary dance culture. If it’s worth watching, it’s because of the artist’s unique take on the world around them, and the traditions on which they’re commenting.

    Now… imagine teaching that voice to children beginning at the age of five, and nurturing them all the way through high school. Ellen has a true gift in corralling those active young minds and gangly bodies into original expression - each child’s unique take on how bodies should move through space in unison with music.

    Who among us - we smart adults, who consider ourselves creative, successful, perhaps even innovative - would not have been fortunate to have had that experience as children? How much further would we have grown as people who create and experience the arts? How much more confident would our own voices be? The respect that Ellen gives to budding artists is unique in education, and it produces confident and joyful artists capable of making us experience a wide range of emotions, and think deeply about the human condition.

    Some may think these comments hyperbole, but that could only be because they’re not watching Ellen and her students closely enough, dismissing her as merely teaching a children’s dance class. The people making this terrible decision, throwing Ellen out onto the street, are not doing it out of some deep appreciation of creativity, but rather out of… what, hubris, political expediency, organizational aggrandizement in a very narrow-minded and ultimately self-defeating way?

    As a coda, let me add that I had the honor of watching Ellen’s graduating class last Spring - high school seniors who grew up choreographing under Ellen’s tutelage, and who were soon to go off to colleges across the country. What I saw on the DTW stage that afternoon rivaled any “professional” dance I’d seen that year for the ingenuity of it’s expression, and the joyful confidence with which it was pulled off. Each year Ellen gives birth to a truly amazing group of artists. Up until now, that remarkable feat has been sponsored by Dance Theatre Workshop.

    Michael Penland
    2266 (at) earthlink.net
    347-731-7545

17. La Meira (March 21st, 2008 at 11:23 pm)

    As a dancer, a mother and parent of two daughters who have studied with Ellen since they were 5, I was absolutely appalled at DTW’s announcement. It is the height of cynical politic-speak to say that DTW is looking for a “more appropriate space” for Ellen’s work: DTW, if it is indeed the center of creative experimentation in dance in New York City, can hardly afford the luxury of distancing itself from such an important artist and such a nurturer of new talent in the dance world. I don’t need to tell those on the board of directors about Ellen’s stature in the dance world, or the utmost quality and rigor of the choreographers and performers who she has nurtured with blood, sweat and tears over all these years. How could DTW choose to distance itself from the bouyant and most wonderful energy of all these extraordinary children having the run of the place? When I used to perform at DTW, before my children were born, I was so struck by those children: how completely healthy, engaged, astute and brightly shining the young people who would sometimes share our dressing room were. Ellen not only creates art, she creates wonder and whimsy; she provides a vibrant alternative to the cynicism and nihilism of so many artists who have been beaten down by commerce and dead ends. When my girls were born, I put them on the waiting list immediately! And I have been honored to share in Ellen’s process over all these years, just as I have been honored to know some of the older dancers who went through the entire program, making and performing dances, thinking fluidly, lightly yet profoundly, with a sure hand , in movement. I am also a recent refugee from Fazil’s, and I am simply in disbelief that DTW would collude in the avaricious trend in New York City to displace artists from the home they have created, nurtured, brought into being. What would DTW be without Ellen Robbins and her children’s classes? An impoverished, empty shell. It almost makes one want to leave New York…

18. Katie Bull (March 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm)

    KATIE BULL: Shame on Your Disrespectful Decision

    Shame on this egregiously bad judgement for the eviction of Ellen Robbins. My name is Katie Bull. I am a jazz vocalist, playwright, director, professional vocal coach, and teacher at New York University’s Atlantic Theater Company Studio, where I am also the head of the vocal production program for their professional classes. Growing up in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s with my father, dancer/choreographer Richard Bull and my step mother dancer/choreographer, and dance anthropologist Cynthia Novack, Ellen Robbins and DTW was a fixture. My parents were dedicated to dance improvisation as a performance art way before it was an acceptable idea, and ELLEN was and IS a pioneer in that regard, teaching choreographic improvisation and incorporating improvisational options into performances for children who are THE NEXT GENERATION OF ARTISTS. I was beyond proud when - all these years later - Ellen accepted my daugher, Hannajane Prichett, into her program at DTW. Hannajane is now one of Ellen’s students and recently performed on the mainstage in Ellen’s DTW Family Matters. EVICT ELLEN ROBBINS? What are you people thinking?
    Dance Theater Workshop without Ellen Robbins teaching the next generation of professioinal dancers? Do you NOT recognize the relationship between training the younger generation and “the next” generation of professionals you say you support? Do you not see how that investment is ABOUT “fresh tracks”? Stop and really think for a moment. And what about ethics? How callous. This woman has DEDICATED HER LIFE to developing a COMMUNITY that DTW benefits from. Where is your sense of respect? What is this world coming to when a woman who has dedicated her ENTIRE LIFE to nurturing the professional dance world from it’s SEED gets EVICTED from the VERY PLACE SHE HELPED TO BUILD because you people who are supposedly servicing the “professional world” can’t get it together to place her PROFOUNDLY IMPACTING work in the perspective it deserves, and raise the necessary funds. Come on. How pathetic. I was born and RAISED in the dance world, and I remember when my father took me to DTW (and when he performed there) and how Ellen was creating a FORCE OF ENERGY that was like BLOOD to that place. My father and my stepmother must be rolling in THEIR graves; and thank you David White for recalling Bessie Shoenberg in your blog response - the Foremother of this generation of dance at DTW needs a voice in response to this egregiously bad judgement. Seriously; what is this world coming to? Yes, with ALL expansion comes some sacrifice, but let me tell you, if THIS is the sacrifice you are going to choose, I will not attend any more of your so called “professional” performances. I boycott you. And I bet I’m not alone. Do you actually think that that absurd letter of eviction would get you off the hook? Step up and think about this, again and consider other options. And don’t put out some BS about fundraising and rededicating rehearsal hours; you do very well at that for projects you support. This is transparent. I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, but this is about withdrawing suppport CREATIVELY for a woman and a legacy that has EARNED IT. I work for a very well established theatrical institution and their board is doing a brilliant job of raising funds for the core projects that it KNOWS are the LIFE BLOOD of the mission. To attempt to put Ellen in some category that is somehow not about the DTW mission, or not about professional work, but rather about “education” - is compartmentalizing education and from my point of view, a total turn around of the DTW mission, NOT a natural evolution. Actually, to say you are re-deciating your funds to “professional work” is just plain patronizing. She has earned better respect, and she HAS it from GENERATIONS of alumni, and their parents. This will impact your institution. This will impact the dance world. It’s like aboloshing the minor league system. It’s absurd.

19. Elizabeth McPherson (March 22nd, 2008 at 8:02 pm)

    As a dancer, dance teacher, dance writer, and mother of one of Ellen’s students, I am deeply disappointed in DTW’s decision to abandon the children’s program run by Ellen. I danced in the Split Streams series in the 1990s at DTW and spent many hours rehearsing there for that concert and for others. DTW has a home-like feeling for me, and this year became a home for both of my daughters. Educational funding for the arts (particularly K-12) is the growing resource for organizations such as ABT. Why not DTW? Ellen is a masterful teacher– with a great understanding of both children and the creative process. I don’t understand DTW’s decision on many levels.

20. Cynthia Meyers (March 22nd, 2008 at 8:59 pm)

    Some of the anger expressed here comes from a very deep love for Ellen and her work–a love that cannot be underestimated. How can we turn this anger into positive action?

    If DTW reconceptualized Ellen’s program as a tremendous and fruitful resource for DTW’s development rather than as a drain on its limited resources, we could find many possible pathways out of anger and conflict. Ellen’s community–her students, alumna, parents, choreographers, and audiences over the past 30 years–are a tremendous resource for DTW. DTW reaches wider audiences through Ellen’s work, and there are a mulitiplicty of fundraising possibilities through Ellen’s program that simply have not been attempted yet. Ellen’s community has resources that could be more directly integrated with DTW’s mission.

    Ellen *is* DTW as much as anyone else at DTW–and now that her very large and loyal community has been informed, perhaps too bluntly, that there are problems with funding and space at DTW, we’d like the opportunity to help DTW address those problems.

    Cynthia Meyers
    cynmey@gmail.com

21. Cloe (March 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 pm)

    DTW has added so much to the lives of hundreds of young dancers. Taking away this space is more than a relocation, it is a destruction of a unique, irreplaceable environment.

22. Kira Akerman (March 22nd, 2008 at 11:59 pm)

    I’m shocked that DTW is even considering asking Ellen to leave. From the age of five to eighteen I took the subway from the Upper West Side to Dance Theater Workshop to study with Ellen. Ellen’s class has been as important to my education as my formal schooling. She provided a space wherein I could transform my ideas and imaginings to personal, creative expression. The amount of wisdom she gave me could only be compared to a mother’s. My classmates are like sisters. DTW feels like home.

    — Kira Akerman

23. Lily (March 23rd, 2008 at 12:30 am)

    There is no doubt that Ellen’s classes have nurtured creativity, and there is no way DTW could “more fully support creative process” than by supporting Ellen’s classes.

    While DTW was being renovated and Ellen’s classes were held at Rod Rodgers’ dance studio, I joined my sister’s class because my own class disbanded. Switching studios, especially when the new studio is in an inconvenient location, is inevitably difficult and disrupts the constancy of a dance class. At Rod Rodgers’ studio, I of course continued to learn and dance, but the space was just not deserving of Ellen’s classes. It did not have the windows, beautiful wooden floors, dressing room, or overall nice environment of DTW.
    It will be difficult to find another studio for Ellen’s classes equal to the one at DTW, and I hope the dance Ellen inspires can continue in this ideal space.

24. Cindi Clark (March 23rd, 2008 at 1:28 am)

    I am new to the community of DTW. I was thrilled this past summer when I heard from Ellen that my daughter would be able to begin studying with her in the fall. I had been watching Ellen’s showcases and Family Matters Series for several years because friends of my daughter were in them. I was shocked to read your statement that Ellen was considered by you to be simply a “renter”. I had always thought that she was an intrinsic part of DTW. After reading a lot of the above comments and hearing more of Ellen’s history at DTW, I believe I am right about that, and your decision to basically “evict” her is very wrong, and very upsetting. How can there be such a disparity between what you say in your mission statement and this action you are taking in regard to Ellen and her program? It makes no sense. I will join with all the many other parents of Ellen’s children in supporting her through this time. I think you need to reverse this very bad decision and if you won’t, please know that I will follow Ellen wherever she goes, but I may never come back to DTW again.

25. Alice Tolan-Mee (March 23rd, 2008 at 10:23 am)

    It is such a crippling move for DTW to no longer host Ellen’s classes, seeing as it brings so many audience members. Both my sister and I studied with Ellen, and she opened my eyes to (among so many other things) the beauty of Dance Theater Workshop’s community, of which Ellen is a large portion. My family would never have stepped foot through DTW’s doors had it not been for Ellen. It is surprising that DTW does not comprehend how much Ellen contributes to the space and how many followers she brings in. DTW seems to think they are doing Ellen a favor by allowing her to use their space, when in reality Ellen is doing them a favor by cohabitating with them.

26. Julia (March 23rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm)

    This is an example of the terrible consequences of what happens when commerce gets in the way of art. In my mind, the greatest thing about DTW was that it - at least gave the appearance - of being committed to education, public outreach, and the vitalization of new arts in our community. As a student of Ellen’s for 15 years I cannot even begin to express the impact of her classes on me personally. But the community at large will also suffer with the relocation of Ellen Robbins. “Dances by Very Young Choreographers” has been a staple in the DTW season for many years and without it the repertoire will be considerably less rich. Through my connection with Ellen, I have become a devoted viewer of DTW’s performances. Though I have seen some interesting things through the years, the most consistently inspiring performances have been the “Very Young Choreographers” - a endeavor that existed only from the great passion and hard work that Ellen gave to it. I cannot even count the number of stories I have heard of young children - and their parents - taking up dance as a direct result of seeing these performances. They were a beautiful example of what happens when dance is distilled to its purest form, freed from the forces of business or career.

    Arts education - especially in dance - is important, not only because it teaches how to do, but it cultivates an appreciation for the arts. Ellen has spent years cultivating new generations of young dancers, which, as far as I am concerned, is the fullest “support of the creative process.” Dance Theater Workshop should be ashamed that it has lost sight of what is really important in the support of the arts.

27. maia (March 23rd, 2008 at 6:10 pm)

    As a student of Ellen’s for going on 10 years, it makes me upset that she would be pushed aside only for other people to get the time and space she has been using. I don’t mean to criticize DTW because i am only a 13 year old and i don’t know everything; but i do know it doesn’t feel good to be disregarded and thrown away. Ellen has established her identity at DTW and has been there from the early years. Most of you didn’t arrive until the knew building.

    Many great performers have come out of Ellen’s classes. I have really been able to explore who i am as an artist, not just as a dancer. You will be letting a lot of people down if you follow through with this decision.

    There is also an issue of “Dance’s By Very Young Choreographers.” You still want us to perform our solos because the shows sell out every year. And every year you give us fewer and fewer concerts. You contradict yourselves and i find it insulting you would feel like you have the right to only support the glitzier aspect of Ellen’s program.

    You don’t just host some classes, you provide us with the time and space for giving the gift of dance to generations to come. You have allowed Ellen to create an environment that helps assist children and teenagers to find there creative outlet. If i were you, i would struggle to get over the guilt of letting down so many people.

    But thank you for hosting Ellen’s classes, but it would be a great loss if you decided to stop now.

    Sincerely,
    maia sage ermansons

28. Sara Waltuck (March 23rd, 2008 at 6:51 pm)

    DTW is making a decision that I believe will ultimately prove detrimental to it, contrary to what it seems to be expecting. Ellen Robbins is not just a “renter” of DTW’s studios, she is part of DTW’s foundation. Just as I cannot imagine DTW without Ellen, so can I not imagine Ellen without DTW. The two are inextricably linked in my mind, particularly as a student of Ellen’s who not only remembers DTW’s corkboard studio walls pre-renovation, but also the wonderful community feel of the “old” DTW, which seems to have been lost or hidden amongst all of the shiny new metal and glass. I hope that all of these comments will help DTW to realize just what it would be losing by forcing Ellen out, and will help bring back some of that wonderful community feeling that I’ve missed.

29. Peter Richards (March 23rd, 2008 at 8:07 pm)

    I believe the negative hyperbole used by each and every post in this blog, in regards to the new direction of the use of the scarce and limited resources of the DTW facility, to be counterproductive and frankly, emotionally suspect. Shame and guilt really should have nothing to do with this.

    The physical ‘plant’ is a mess; the studios are small and few, the theater is a proscenium dinosaur. This is, as we all know, if a building completed a few years ago. These examples are symptoms of the larger issue at hand - the lack of vitality and cultural efficacy of the dance and performance work of our time. We need to find a way to support the artists and artists who are the voice of our world.

    Surely, Ellen’s classes are instrumental in guiding a great many privileged children into the larger world of art-making. Her necessary work will not end, but frankly, it is possible that her work will be better served in another situation. I’m not sure if the same can be said for the contemporary dance world as expressed in New York City in the last part of this decade, and I applaud the new direction that the organization is taking

30. Irene Krugman (March 23rd, 2008 at 8:24 pm)

    I feel there is nothing more important right now than adding my voice of dissent to this decision. There are many voices here of people I know, who I came to dance with, under, around and above in my time with Ellen Robbins, from age 5 through 18. Many of those people have gone on to become important artistic voices, supporters, administrators, etc. in this next generation of the arts community. I could write endlessly about the closeness I have felt with fellow Ellen-ers, as well as the unending impact that being part of a theater like DTW at such a young age has had on my development as an artist, a professional, and a human. There are thousands of individual stories of changed lives, the discovery of a unique space to fit a creative young child’s needs in a world consistently moving toward deadening creative process. But that is not what I want to write about in this response, not because these stories and mine are not important, but because there is something much larger that concerns me far more in the subtext of this post.

    I live in Seattle now and work in arts administration and arts education, and the idea that somehow arts education–especially the brand of process-focused, empowering, creativity-centered education that Ellen has fostered for more than just “many years”–is somehow not intextricably linked to the act of “doing” art is just incredibly short-sighted, misguided, and destructive. The arts community is not just comprised of the individual dancers or companies rehearsing in your studios. The arts community is endless, stretching to audiences not yet created, not yet even born and in need of fostering and encouragement. In order to truly honor the arts community you have to honor how that community comes to be formed. If it is truly in DTW’s mission to “keep dance artists at the core of everything we do, and speak to our vision of creating a holistic approach to supporting the field of dance,” then Ellen Robbins’ classes should be the number one priority program. I echo the question of where DTW expects the next generations of true artists and visionaries will come from if Ellen’s classes are discontinued or even sent to another space. As a young child, I remember the palpable energy of art happening in the halls of DTW, and it was incredibly important for me to take in that energy, to internalize it in my development into my own kind of artist. I carry with me always the feeling of those years, the knowledge that I shared a stage with some of the most important artists of our time, with people who came to truly influence my own artistic vision. This “education” I received as a child in the halls and studios of DTW was not removed from all other aspects of my life, nor from my understanding and participation in the act of “doing” art. Art and arts education are one in the same, and you cannot claim to have a “holistic” arts institution without both.

    I have long held DTW up as one of the most important performance venues in the nation, an institution with integrity, one that I am proud of having been part of, and one that gives me hope for the perpetuation of art in this world. Please reconsider this misguided decision, and restore all of our faith in this incredible, irreplaceable institution.

31. Brynn Edyn Rosen (March 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 pm)

    I was fortunate to be part of Ellen Robbins’ first children’s dance class at DTW in the early 1970s when it was still on West 20th Street. She had been invited by Jeff Duncan, Art Bauman, and Jack Moore to offer a dance class. The offer was made, not to fill an education component or as a cash cow for the quiet hours, but because Ellen was an artist doing something that no one else was doing: teaching children. Nor were they alone in appreciating Ellen’s artistry and that of her students. Since the beginning, choreographers have approached Ellen for young performers whether it is the Limon Company for their world tours or Caitlin Cobb or David Parker to fill their DTW stage. Jacob’s Pillow doesn’t invite a dance school to perform for a week on its stage; it invites an artist. Chez Bushwick doesn’t invite an 11-year-old dance student of Ellen’s to present her work on the same bill as Deborah Hay because she’s cute but because she has created a work that resonates with their artistic vision. We don’t read about Ellen in Big Apple Parent; we read about her in the New York Times and The Village Voice. Local and international choreographers and other artists value Ellen’s work; they attend her concerts and entrust their children’s development as artists to her.

    I can still remember the director David White whooping after one of the yearly concerts. David supported Ellen’s expansion from that one class on Saturday to a full week of classes because he appreciated her work. DTW’s long-time lighting designer, Phillip Sandstrum spent his own time lighting each child’s piece individually in the theater because he saw value in the work. Because DTW existed on one floor for so long, they saw first hand how the children leapt out of the studio at the end of class, how Ellen trained us not to flush the toilet during a performance because it could be heard by the audience, or put our fingerprints on the mirrors, or to use artist’s tape because it would not damage the floor –lessons that so many of the “professionals” that come through DTW do not seem to know. Perhaps the success of DTW, with this beautiful new building with offices on a separate floor, has meant that the new people running DTW no longer have a deep understanding of what Ellen actually does.

    I am a dancer and teacher of dance to children, and Ellen is still my teacher 35 years on. I recommend her Wednesday technique class to anyone in the dance community interested in a fine modern dance class in which the discussion of taking dance to the level of art is ever-present. Mr. Greco and Ms. Peterson would be most welcome, I am sure.

32. Irene (March 23rd, 2008 at 8:56 pm)

    PS: I think we should all be clear here that we thank and revere DTW for the work it does for artists locally and nationally. I have had the true pleasure of growing up and working with the incredibly talented and passionate DTW staff. I’m sure we are all aware of the deep stress on funding and space for the arts in this current environment, and it is laudable that DTW is increasing its support to performing artists. But please lets not throw out the baby with the bath water. I understand this was a very difficult decision at the end of a very long road. But this is a program that must be advocated for and supported.

33. Ming Lin (March 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 pm)

    I have to admit that I knew that DTW was not and never to be the same as soon as a stepped foot into the new lobby. I was sure of it, once I was asked to sign my name on a list of building visitors as a somewhat absurd precaution, that I was right. It seems to me that the new DTW has lost its core values. I no longer sense the strong community that I felt starting at age 6 when I joined Ellen’s class. Performers drift in and out of the studios barely aknowledging eachother’s presence. Is not the purpose of DTW to provide dancers with support and to nuture them so that they can continue to create and bring delight to the hearts of many? Failing to provide Ellen Robbins with the space to teach and encourage children to dream and to think will be sending a very sorry message to the dance world.

34. Jessica (March 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 pm)

    After reading every single post on this blog, it is good to know that DTWs ignorance remains unsupported. How can DTW ignore the public’s - their support system - opinion?
    Ellen Robbins has been a staple of the New York City dance institution for 20 years and she remains the heart of its future: the children. To ignore her stature and to simply pay an ode to her development of children’s choreography by stating her ‘contributions are valued’ is to undermine DTW’s seemingly lonely pillar of progress - and erase the very reputation of it.
    I hope that DTW comes to their senses before any boycotts develop.

35. samantha geracht (March 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 pm)

    This issue of Ellen’s classes being evicted is hardly a question of finding a viable or more appropriate space more in “alignment with her goals and demands.” This is DTW’s public statement of it’s disrespect for any of its past and therefore disregard for it’s own future. While it might seem that “privileged children” are being taught the art of dance making-as our dance audience disintegrates, these children are not only our artist future, but our audience future as well. Face it, they are the only ones who know enough about modern dance to begin to understand what is presented these days. And a piece of me laughs knowing that their composition skills are often better. Maybe that is why their shows sell out. In the New York dance world that has seen the collapse of so many of the great modern dance professional training programs, Ellen is one of the few remaining bastions of modern dance training. DTW ought to be ecstatic that it has access to such a venerable resource.

    There is an outrageous space crunch for all dance in New York. Many of the masters of modern dance(Sokolow, Limon, etc..) are without permanent space or homes, evicted by new arts administrations or astronomical rents. Most have survived. Our contemporary arts organizations and their need for new new new, with no attachment to what came before them are setting themselves up to be finite in their own artistic presence. If the measure of art is whether it can pass the test of time,(a difficult thing for dance to begin with,) what is DTW saying about its mission if it has no grounding to it’s own past. No one will fight for these new artists either when they are no longer the cutting edge. Why are we teaching that choreographer’s and dance institutions are to be young, hip, and disposable–unaccountable to anyone with experience?
    Ellen’s 30 plus year commitment to DTW, the dance world ,and yes, the training of future artists, warrants that DTW manage to allocate her the fewer than 20 hours a week she needs to continue her work as long as she chooses to.
    We need more space for dance, we need more money for the arts, and the answer is not to remove Ellen Robbins from the place she has served for over 30 years. She is clearly one of David White’s great legacies, and the new directors need to build a legacy of their own, as well as feel responsible to maintain the tremendous ones that they have inherited.

36. David R White (March 24th, 2008 at 7:53 am)

    I hate to get derailed in what is an extremely important discussion of kids and mentorship to the health and well-being of the professional arts community, but I can’t let Peter Richards’ insulting comments go unanswered.

    I’ll take responsibility for the design of the “dinosaur,” that is, the state-of-the-art facility (admittedly not to every site-specific taste, but then DTW could only overachieve, not accomplish miracles) that now houses DTW. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, DTW had to build within the limits of a 75×100 plot of land, with buildings on all sides, and a height limitation imposed by the Chelsea zoning plan. We discussed issues in open meetings with DTW artists and others, and ultimately decided that a frontal black box theater (not proscenium) was the best solution (and by far met the most needs) for the vast majority of artists and was need given existing theaters at the time) - plus we were required by building code to have concrete risers. While some lamented it was not an all-purpose tabula rasa, we opted instead to create a radiant heated floor in the theater (to enable dancers to warm up) and wired the place to the gills, with technology connecting the theater to the studios and vice versa, and of course custom, designed, top-of-the-line lighting and sound systems.

    As for the studios, (yes, Peter, sadly only two could be built, but that was twice as many as DTW used to have), each was required to be a minimum of 40X30, with sprung floors over floating concrete slab (which keeps sound from moving through the building). Plus each studio came fully wired with sound and video systems available to all who used the studios. Oh, and heat and dressing rooms.

    Enough about the building. Two uglier comments remain.
    First, about the “negative” and “emotionally suspect,” including guilt and shame: I only read positive things and serious, practical suggestions into the posters’ comments about Ellen, her mentorship of children, and indeed the history and obligations of DTW in the larger community. People are deeply unhappy about an uninformed decision that disses not only a key artist and mentor but the community that has supported DTW in all sorts of ways over the years - they fear for the damage that DTW will incur (as well as the collateral damage that it is now inflicting).

    And finally that remark about “privileged children:” whose children, Peter, and how privileged? Are we talking a luxury perk for the super-rich? A lot of Ellen’s parents have been artists and other cultural working stiffs that you and I have known over the years, not to mention others striving to keep their families afloat in a difficult city. What about scholarships that Ellen has occasionally been able to raise from past parents? And are these children more privileged than some of the artists with whom DTW works, and for whom DTW provides significant subsidies for the creation of good works? Man, how many people can you take out in a single post!

    Oh, and Peter - what if in years past, DTW had decided to evict the late, great Bessie Schonberg’s Laboratory in Composition for Working Artists from DTW’s theater? Benefiting as it did only a select 10 good and decent (and often certainly privileged) choreographers at any time? Would that have been the best way to “support the artists and artists who are the voice of our world?” Can you imagine the outcry then onyour side of this distorted equation?

    Why doesn’t DTW (and the artists currently in public view) have a responsibility to also support the “voices-in-progress of our world?

    I don’t know about shame and guilt and suspect emotions, but I do know meanness of spirit when I see it.

    David

37. Nell S. Hawley (March 24th, 2008 at 10:11 am)

    Dear DTW:

    I, too, am shocked at your decision to withdraw support for Ellen Robbins’s dance classes. I was a student of Ellen’s for eight years; like her other students, I learned far more from her than simply how to move as a dancer. I learned how to value music, space, the body, creativity, and myself. I learned how to conduct myself in a classroom, I learned how to be responsible, and I learned how to work with my peers. Most important, it is because of Ellen Robbins that all kinds of art — that of others and my own — has continued to enrich my life and scholarship almost ten years after studying with Ellen.

    Ellen has taught invaluable — I repeat, invaluable — lessons to her countless students at DTW, and I balk at the notion that the studio would discontinue them. Truly the studio does a disservice to itself: where do emerging artists and art-lovers come from, if not from under the wings of teachers like Ellen Robbins? I feel that it is integral to the mission (not to mention survival) of DTW that Ellen’s classes take place within its walls.

    I seriously hope that DTW–for its own sake–will reconsider the recent changes to its rental policy.

    Most sincerely,

    Nell S. Hawley

38. Laura Shapiro (March 24th, 2008 at 10:48 am)

    What an appalling and short-sighted decision. As the parent of a former student of Ellen’s, I’m amazed that DTW wants to turn its back on such an important and vigorous corner of its constituency. Ellen has not only raised dancers, she’s raised dance-lovers — and believe me, we need them just as much as we need performers and choreographers. I hope you will reconsider, and make room for a low-cost, absolutely secure investment in your own future and the future of the arts in New York.

    Laura Shapiro

39. Erin Mee (March 24th, 2008 at 3:22 pm)

    Dear DTW,

    I am writing to ask that you reconsider your decision to end your relationship with Ellen Robbins.
    A theatre in Pennsylvania recently closed its doors because its audience got too old and they had no new audience members to replace them. Conversely, a theatre in Rhode Island continues to have a strong subscription base because of their education program. When you make education a part of your mission, you ensure that you will continue to have spectators, patrons, and artists to be part of your community.
    What Ellen teaches is very special. She teaches creativity. She teaches, as someone has already said on this blog, how to have your own artistic voice. She teaches ways of translating ideas into movement, and she teaches ways of thinking about and experiencing the world we live in. In my opinion, this is very political: we live in a culture that values the word (both written and spoken) and often ignores what can be communicated through the body. Ellen teaches her students to value what the body can say.
    The way Ellen teaches is equally special. My daughter has learned how to listen for the movement in a piece of music, how to translate the “exciting moments” of a piece of music into movement, how to tell a story through movement, how to visualize ideas and emotions, and how to make a floor plan for a dance. Just the other day, as I was waiting to pick up my daughter, I heard Ellen tell her class that a dance can be a story, or a feeling, or an image. I can’t tell you whether my daughter will become a choreographer or not; if she does, she will owe a lot to Ellen. I can tell you that she has already become an avid spectator of dance, and that the way she now looks at and understands a dance owes a great deal to what Ellen has taught her. Ellen has taught me a great deal too. When I went to a showing of the class’ work last December, Ellen asked us to put a piece of chocolate in our mouths and feel it dance around on the tongue. A piece of chocolate that can dance? A dance on my tongue? These were new and interesting ideas to me. So Ellen has taught me new ways of thinking about things too.
    If you want to be able to work with innovate choreographers in the future you need Ellen, because she is training them. If you want interested, informed, excited dance spectators you need Ellen, because she is training them. If you sever your relationship with Ellen, you are planning your own obsolescence. Arts organizations cannot and will not survive if they do not invest in the children who grow up to be their community of artists, patrons, and spectators.

    Sincerely,
    Erin B. Mee
    emee1@swarthmore.edu

40. Kate Gyllenhaal & Umit Celebi (March 24th, 2008 at 5:48 pm)

    As parents of two students of Ellen Robbins, we are shocked at the news that DTW will cut its decades-long association with Ellen. We cannot think of any reason why Ellen should be removed from DTW, and it is looking increasingly like the Board feels DTW is more important to Ellen than Ellen is to DTW.

    In almost every artistic discipline here in New York City we have seen worrying declines in audience attendance and community support in the past two decades. The one common theme that shows up in studies conducted by the major arts institutions in New York City is that as their audience ages and literally dies off younger members of our population do not step up and fill in the gaps. Though you wouldn’t sense it at one of Ellen’s classes, children and young parents are less and less inclined to devote time and energy to art and it is our opinion that modern dance is probably the most vulnerable of art forms.

    Certainly there are a vast number of other choices for dance education here in New York City besides Ellen – other modern, ballet, tap, jazz, ethnic, show, etc. But having sampled some of what is on offer, Ellen Robbins is arguably the best teacher of modern dance for children in New York City. Modern dance – always a niche compared to the far more well-funded disciplines of ballet (is there a single city in the United States with a “city” modern dance company a la NYC Ballet?) – is an art form that needs extra special care.

    You could respond by saying that the gigantic grant that DTW was awarded for young choreographers addresses precisely this issue. But at what cost? By evicting the most prestigious, most revered, most esteemed, most impressive modern dance program for children? Cutting off DTW’s connection to what is by now an institution in its own right seems utterly misguided. A cost benefit analysis would determine that what you are losing here would be far greater than what you would be gaining.

    And when you add on the performance feature there is no comparison. A studio showing cannot possibly rival performing on DTW’s stage. As members of the modern dance community for more than 25 years, having rehearsed and performed several times at DTW with Sally Silvers and Dancers and Annie B Parson Big Dance Company, we were delighted to introduce our two daughters, aged 5 and 8, to modern dance. Our older daughter has now reached the age after three years of classes with Ellen that she can look forward to performing at DTW this spring – we couldn’t be happier. It will be her very first solo performance in a real theater, an experience that cannot possibly be valued enough. And the fact that this will take place at one of the most significant modern dance performance spaces in the city, perhaps in the world, inspires our daughter and all the other young dancers to dig deeper and work harder more than any other situation could.

    There is not a more effective way for modern dance to survive, never mind thrive. Evicting Ellen will only hasten modern dance vanishing from the arts landscape. It’s not too late to reverse the decision.

    Sincerely,

    Kate Gyllenhaal and Ümit Çelebi

41. Jane Barrer (March 24th, 2008 at 8:54 pm)

    It is true that Ellen’s students are “privileged.” They are “privileged” because they are Ellen’s students.

    In the end, Ellen will survive without DTW, Ellen’s classes will survive without DTW, and her students will be dancers, artists, dance teachers and dance audiences for generations to come. Ellen’s students, and parents of students, and former students will make sure that Ellen continues to amaze and enlighten and revive a frequently tired and precious art form.

    It is DTW who may not survive. Alienating a huge and dedicated support base is a poor business decision. Evicting a visionary is a short-sighted artistic decision. Describing that eviction as a “new direction for a valued colleague” is hypocrisy.

    Shame and guilt really have everything to do with this.

42. Tom Sahagian (March 25th, 2008 at 11:44 am)

    Chalk up another parent of one of Ellen’s former students who is saddened by DTW’s decision. I know nothing of the background of this — perhaps it’s a money issue, or a personality clash, or even a genuine difference of opinion. But the idea that someone of Ellen’s stature, accomplishments, gifts and commitment somehow doesn’t fit into DTW’s mission is incomprehensible to me.

    I cannot claim to be a dance aficionado, but when I saw what her kids were doing with dance it filled me with awe and admiration. And it led to my attending many more dance performances (in addition to Ellen’s) than I ever would have if my daughter had had a run-of-the-mill teacher. If expanding the audience for dance is not part of DTW’s mission I continue to be perplexed.

    When I see my daughter dancing confidently and creatively onstage in a production now, I always end up thinking to myself, “how lucky we were to find Ellen all those years ago”. Ellen’s unique approach; the way she gets the most out of her kids; her ability to attract talent; these are things DTW should be bragging about, not evicting.

    DTW should be shouting from the rooftops “there’s only one Ellen Robbins, and we’ve got her!”. I hope there is still time to reconsider.

43. Lina (March 25th, 2008 at 9:09 pm)

    There is not much I can add to all of the heartfelt comments above, but I would like to say again, that as a student of Ellen, Ellen’s program has nurtured, fed, and helped my creativity grow and reach a new level of thought. Ellen’s experience that she gives so many fortunate children is priceless. Even if someone will not be a dancer, they still gain so much that they will carry on throughout their life. Whatever kind of person you are, you will be happy in Ellen’s class, because you can always find your own creative signature and learn from your classmates and Ellen’s experience.
    I think that if DTW wants to support creativity and even nurture a future audience, Ellen’s class does that. DTW gets so much publicity through her program. Their are hundreds of families constantly talking about their child’s extracurricular activities, and they mention DTW. Some of those people are also very important people. However, I am at no position to tell you what to do, because I am still very young, so I will refrain.
    I would also like to add that Ellen’s program is completely unique unto herself. There is no other dance program like it. If you decide to not house her anymore, keep in mind that you will be discarding a very unique program. I think you are very lucky to have her.
    Please take this matter seriously, for this decision affects many, many people- including yourselves and your future as a successful dance theater.
    Sincerely,
    Lina Dahbour
    Age 11

44. Jessica Nicoll (March 26th, 2008 at 4:30 pm)

    March 26, 2008

    Like those who have responded before me, I strongly support Ellen Robbins and her continued presence at DTW. What I offer here may be a slightly different perspective, however. As a colleague and friend of Ellen’s who has also worked in this field for more than 25 years, I am intimately aware of the struggle to be supported and taken seriously by a world – and a community – that often sees its art as separate from the lives and artistic explorations of children. This is at the heart of our dilemma and I think we, all of us, ought to examine our assumptions in a bigger context.

    This event, this “appalling, ill-considered” decision, as David White calls it, did not occur in a vacuum. Even within some of the blog responses, I recognize underlying assumptions about art that Ellen and I have noted over the years. When David White, for example, says, “someone is de-prioritizing kids and the artists that they often become,” he has unintentionally “de-prioritized” the artists they already are (something Ellen never does). And Ellen herself knows so well how many artists share her passion for teaching dance as a creative process and as an integral aspect of being human. For while Ellen is a unique treasure, she is not alone in this city as a teacher of dance as a creative process. We are here; we know and support each other; and we know how blind others often are (DTW included) to what we have to offer, not just to the future, but in the here and now.

    We must take a hard look at our own words, our own actions, and our own assumptions, even as we work together to overcome this misguided program decision and apparent fuzzy thinking at DTW. Perhaps this is an opportunity to suggest that a place like DTW, if not DTW, itself, at long last invite all sorts of communities to come together and broaden our understanding of the work Ellen does and its relationship both to bigger issues about art-making and to our willingness to support and recognize others’ children, and other valuable programs for children all over this city. The original editorial from DTW tossed out words like “professionalism, artistry, creative process, holistic approach to supporting the field of dance.” Perhaps this is a time to pick up the gauntlet they’ve thrown down and ask ourselves what we really mean when we speak of such things.
    Like David White, I say do not give up. Do step up to support Ellen and fight for her to remain at DTW. And while you’re at it, consider the ways in which we all might better understand the implications of Ellen’s work – and the work of those like Ellen – to the life of our larger community.

    Jessica Nicoll
    Dance Artist and Teacher
    92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center
    ArtsConnection Artist (public school residencies)

45. David R White (March 26th, 2008 at 8:29 pm)

    To Jessica,

    Point taken. I never meant to underestimate the artists that I know and have always known these kids to be, implicitly and explicitly, and that in fact Ellen publicly reveals them to be (as opposed to teaches or trains them to be). I should have been more specific and said “the professional working artists that they often become” - meaning members of the same professional community whose interests have somehow been placed in contorted opposition to those of Ellen and her proteges.

    And you are dead on - language matters. Subtext matters. Argument matters. It’s a sure bet that when whatever group of downtown artists sit down to talk aesthetics and community engagement at DTW, Danspace Movement Research or wherever, Ellen is never invited to the table. Or, again as you rightly underscore, nor are the other artist-mentors who may be doing work as significant and groundbreaking as Ellen’s.

    It is an issue of the what constitutes the life of our community, hiding, as they say, in plain sight.

46. Sharron Reed (March 26th, 2008 at 11:24 pm)

    I’m so surprised to read this decision by DTW. We arrived in NYC unconnected to the world of dance. Another parent (in our former city of Atlanta) urged me to enroll my eldest in Ellen’s DTW youth class and well, it remains a highlight of my daughter’s time in NYC. Ellen’s class introduced our family to dance in New York, and we attended many a dance performance in the City while we lived there. Ellen conducts one of the best programs for outreach into the non-arts community. I’m disappointed that DTW doesn’t recognize Ellen for the role she plays in bringing dance into the greater community. Ellen is a treasure and a gifted instructor. Please reconsider this decision.

47. Alice Teirstein (March 27th, 2008 at 8:04 am)

    “The center for new developments in dance” is how DTW defines itself. What could be newer developments than young people following their creative impulses in new choreography in Ellen’s classes? Gratefully, DTW opened its doors to Young Dancemakers Company last summer, and has opened them, albeit part-way,for 2 weeks of the 5-week 2008 summer season. Are these NYC public high school students professional? No. Are they creating and performing their own work,as artists? Yes. DTW must continue to support Ellen Robbins and the work she brings to the new developments in dance.
    Alice Teirstein
    Dance Educator, Choreographer, Performer
    Director, Young Dancemakers Company
    Director, Dance Program, Fieldston School

48. Jessica Jacobson (March 28th, 2008 at 3:11 pm)

    I keep checking up on these posts and the list just keeps growing. If DTW doesn’t want to end up like Walmart of Kmart you should pay attention to your blogs.

49. Rebecca Lazier (March 28th, 2008 at 9:44 pm)

    I cannot sleep after reading these posts. I thought I had nothing to add to the well-articulated letters, but I cannot be silent. In my 20s I performed alongside Ellen’s students, who were 8 at the time, and the experience became a transformative moment in my career as a performer/choreographer/teacher. These young artists were involved with their imaginations in such a powerful way, I almost could not recognize it as the same form I had been studying, my background valued movement acquisition and technical accomplishment for its own sake. From that moment, I have danced, choreographed and taught in a very different ways. I went to the Young Artists performances and felt that the work was some of the most invested work I ever saw in New York.
    I believe that experience in dance doesn’t necessarily train us to be dancers, in fact I find that to be a byproduct, rather, it trains people to be citizens, to create a point of view, to look at the world from a different perspective. There are only a few teachers in the world that hold the integrity of the individual in higher regard than the need to perfect skills. Ellen remains a master and inspiration in this regard. Thankfully this will not change, she will continue to create her great legacy. But I am heartbroken that DTW (who I have long respected, am a member of, rent space from, and would love to perform at) will no longer support her within the institution.

    My skeptical side says, I guess the parents didn’t donate enough money to make the program come out on the winning end of a cost/benefit analysis.

    Currently, I have the great privilege of being part of an educational institution that has embarked on a mission to place arts at the heart of its experience. I am sure to make numerous mistakes in my leadership decisions in the years to come but will think back on this as a cautionary tale.

    Rebecca Lazier
    Associate Head of Dance, Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University
    Artistic Director, Terrain
    Mother of 9 month old twins I wanted to bring to DTW in a few years.

50. Cynthia Meyers (March 28th, 2008 at 10:14 pm)

    Letter sent March 25, 2008
    To: Virginia Millhiser, President
    Board of Directors, DTW

    As parents of children in Ellen Robbins’ program, we are writing to respectfully request that the Board of Directors reconsider the decision to remove her program from DTW. We would like the opportunity to engage in a discussion about how the community that supports Ellen Robbins—her students, alumna, their families, audiences, and other supporters—could be mobilized to help DTW manage or solve the problems of space and financing that may have led to this decision.

    Ellen’s value as a teacher and nurturer of creativity is well documented; please see the DTW blog for many testimonials about her significant impact on the dance community: http://www.dancetheaterworkshop.org/blog/2008/03/13/a-new-direction-for-a-valued-colleague/#comment-295
    Ellen’s work enhances and supports DTW’s mission, which is defined on the website as being “a center for the development and presentation of contemporary dance and performance” and to “cultivate public involvement in the arts.” What we ask for is the opportunity to discuss new ways that Ellen’s program could even more directly support that mission.
    Ellen’s program could be a tremendous resource for building DTW rather than a perceived drain on its limited resources. How could her program contribute to DTW’s financial health? Possibilities include:

    • Establishing a Fiscal Sponsorship Program for her program, which would attract many donors currently frustrated that they cannot earmark their donations for her program.
    • Generating new forms of income; for example, many dance studios charge students “registration fees” in addition to tuition. DTW could levy such a fee and perhaps tailor it as a form of family membership in DTW, thereby directly connecting DTW to new potential audiences and supporters.
    • Designating Ellen’s classes as a formal Program Area could help DTW attract more funding support for educational programs.
    • DTW could work directly with Ellen’s families to fund raise for the specific subsidy needs of her program; for example, our children’s schools do not ask their teachers to organize fund raisers like auctions and benefits, instead a “parent association” of committed volunteers independently oversees fund raising events and then funnels those revenues to specific budget items. Ellen has over 130 students, some of whom work with her for over 10 years; there is a deep well of families to draw on who could do similar work to support both Ellen and DTW if it could be coordinated and formalized.
    • Ellen’s program has produced over 1,000 alumnae, some of whom have reached prominence in the arts and entertainment; DTW (or a parent committee) could devise a program to reach out to these grateful and loyal alumnae, functioning like any school’s alumni program to raise funds.

    Ellen is such an integral part of DTW that the Jerome Robbins studio was designed specifically to meet the needs of her program, including the closets to store hundreds of costumes, which are central to her pedagogical strategy; her office located next to the studio; and the dressing room equipped with over 20 lockers and double sinks and toilets. An individual choreographer renting space may not need those facilities, but they are essential to Ellen’s program. For her to find an available, affordable space with such specifications may be impossible. Will she be forced to drop costuming and props from her repertory of choreography, such as the Vermeer piece or the Rainforest piece, because she will have no means of storing and transporting dozens of boxes? This would severely limit her and undermine a key component of her program, which is to engage students in the full range of the theatrical experience.

    If it could be argued that another space could do just as well, DTW should still consider the impact of her departure on the future of their studio spaces.

    • Ellen’s classes, by serving roughly 20 users per two hours, is an efficient and effective use of a limited resource.
    • Ellen’s use of the space is consistent, regular, and extends through about 9 months of the year; what future users of the studios would be able to guarantee such regular usage?
    • If there are time pressures on scheduling studio space, DTW could discuss with Ellen what scheduling flexibilities may be possible rather than remove her altogether and then be faced with no consistent user of the space in a future year.
    • If the rental subsidy DTW has thus far extended to Ellen is not enough to meet DTW’s needs, then perhaps it is time to negotiate a new arrangement for charging and paying for the space; but without asking what Ellen and her families would be willing to do to improve DTW’s financial position, an opportunity would be lost.
    • Ellen’s use of the studios allows DTW direct engagement with a wider public, people who are not (yet) professional dancers, and this use could help generate greater funding support for DTW and its mission to “cultivate public involvement in the arts.”

    We hope the above ideas indicate the parents’ commitment not only to Ellen’s program but to the role of DTW in her work and to DTW as a vital part of the dance community. We are concerned that DTW may lose a major resource, as well as the good will of too many members of the community. A willingness to explore possibilities would go a long way toward defusing the situation. We believe there could be mutually beneficial solutions to the challenges facing DTW.

    Please feel free to share these ideas with others on the Board and at DTW. We appreciate your consideration and look forward to your response. We will contact DTW again later this week to see if we can set up a meeting with a few of us.

    Sincerely,

    Cynthia Meyers (contact person)
    cynmey@gmail.com

    Nick Akerman & Lisa Helmrich
    Mana Allen & Ben Model
    Toni Allocca & Nick Hartman
    Lisa & Mark Alpert
    Julie Applebaum & William Weisberg
    Erica Baum
    Susan Bell and Mitch Epstein
    Chana Ben-Dov
    Penne Bender
    Bea Bogorad
    Naomi Bravmann
    Lori Brungard
    Katie Bull & Harry W. Prichett, Jr.
    Cintia Chamecki & Allan Brik
    Lenora Champagne & Robert Lyons
    Virginia Chang & Robert Whitelaw
    Cindi Clark & Tony Freeman
    Susan and Wayne Cohen
    Dorina Cragnotti & Greg Severance
    Heidi Cunnick & Kevin Fisher
    Bruce Cutler and Ingrid Hustvedt
    Joanna Delson and David Venderbush
    Sarah Diamant
    Jeannine Dominy
    Susannah Driver-Barstow & Phil Christopher
    James Drougas & Mercedes Indiana Bervis
    Faye Ellman & Teodors Ermansons
    Andrew & Martin Farach-Colton
    Lana Flame and Abraham Ehrlich
    Liza Gennaro & Scott Alan Evans
    Samantha Geracht & Glen Myers
    Robert Gilbo
    Deborah and Gordon Grinberg
    Kate Gyllenhaal & Umit Celebi
    Wu Han & David Finckel
    Arthur and Meira Goldberg
    Cheryl Henson
    Penelope & Andy Hort
    Betsy Jacobs & David Berliner
    Cynthia & Matthew Haiken
    Tymberly & Brad Harris
    Phyllis Haynes-Fleiss & Arthur Fleiss
    Margot Hollander
    Catherine & Vlad Jenkins
    Wendy Phillips Kahn
    Margaret & Michael Keppler
    Heidi Latsky
    Lisa Leff
    Nadia Leonelli and Fredrik Sundwall
    Wendy and Melvin& Lilo Levine
    Julia Lichtblau
    Meriam Lobel
    Jocelyn & Richard Markowitz
    Ellen McElduff & Eric Overmyer
    Elizabeth McPherson
    Erin B. Mee & Shanker Satyanath
    Maria Mileaf & Neil Patel
    Alexandra Min
    Julianne Moore
    Robin Morse & Gus Rogerson
    Ann O’Dell
    Aylin Lim-Omur & Alp Omur
    Lannyl Stephens Ossorguine & Serge Ossorguine
    Michael Penland
    Marcia Pomerantz + Scott Eder
    Christine Pittel & Joseph Giovannini
    Pamela Raizman and Neil Newman
    Kathleen Robinson & Ernest Battifarano
    Livia Schappert
    Solveig Schumann & Sebastian Brecht
    Judith Seidel & Marvin Milbauer
    Lynn Shapiro & Erik Friedlander
    Judy Sheehan
    Melanie Shulman MD
    Todd Shuster
    Sarah Soffer & Peter Liberman
    Silvia Spagnoli & Andrew Berman
    Julie Spriggs & Glenn Stevens
    Marija Stroke and Bruce Adolphe
    Christina & Owen Taylor
    Tracey Tenser and Mark Sydel
    Catherine Tharin
    Suzanne von Eck & Jeffrey Guyton
    Beth Wachter & Dr. Stephen Rudin
    Elsa Ward and Antonio Soddu
    Sarah Worthington & Nathan Carver
    Kim Wylie

51. Julie Applebaum (March 28th, 2008 at 10:19 pm)

    Jessica Nicoll’s and Rebecca Lazier’s inspiring entries bring up the most pressing issue facing DTW. DTW’s move against Ellen’s program is a perfect time to take stock of what DTW will become. How can it “keep dance artists at the core of everything we do, and speak to our vision of creating a holistic approach to supporting the field of dance” without reaching out to a broader audience and the community at large? We have been told that this is “the beginning of a new era” for DTW. Well, I am afraid that DTW might have begun to dig its own grave.

    Whether or not DTW supports Ellen is inconsequential to her work as an artist with support and an audience. Ellen will survive. DTW will not survive as an institution unless it reimagines itself as a hub of activity, thought, and exchange for a broad audience. Think of the most vibrant museum that you visit. It is not an institution only dedicated to supporting artists and the art world. It is an institution that is truly holistic. It presents an array of experiences, events, and resources that engage a heterogeneous audience with a multitude of interests and needs. There is artmaking, art viewing, discussion, performance, film, and socializing. It has partnerships with other cultural organizations, schools, universities, and community based organizations. It has programs catering to youth, families, adults, art professionals, tourists, students, and the disabled. And it has no problem finding support for its programs and it is active all day long. DTW is under the gun financially. Well, now is the time for some visionary and strategic thinking. This doesn’t mean it will abandon or short-change its core constituents or core values. In any case, hasn’t Ellen’s program for children always been a key component of DTW’s core mission (no matter how amnesiac the current administration and board choose to be about it by continuing to refer to her as a renter)?

    Another point to make is the fact that many dancers need to earn money to support their careers by becoming teaching artists. Why on earth wouldn’t DTW want to tap into one of the city’s most esteemed practitioners to help support young dancers and choreographers in their work as teaching artists? DTW needs to create a new paradigm for itself if it wants to survive.

    Jessica and Rebecca are correct in challenging DTW to think about what their art really is and whom it is really for. How else will they create a healthy vibrant ESSENTIAL member of the New York City cultural landscape?

    It’s unfortunate for DTW and the Board that we are talking to ourselves.

52. Cynthia Meyers (March 28th, 2008 at 10:25 pm)

    Dear Cynthia–Thank you and the other parents of Ellen’s students for your dedication to her and her wonderful teaching. The board and staff of Dance Theater Workshop understand your concerns for her and her program.

    Unfortunately, we are not able to alter our decision to end Ellen’s classes at DTW. I know this is not the answer you are looking for and I hope you will take the time to understand our decision. We realize that this is the end of an era for our institution, a difficult and sad one for everyone. Ellen is, by all accounts, an extraordinary teacher and also a founding member of Dance Theater Workshop. However, this time is also the beginning of a new era. During the past several years, as we have transformed DTW with our unique and pioneering Creative Residency program, the need for more use of our studio space has also grown. That program is now successful to the point that maximum use of the studios is an absolute necessity.

    Our staff has been and will continue to work with Ellen to find new space. At the moment there are four possible venues, all based in Manhattan, which have the time, the studios and proper waiting space, as well as easy transportation access, to begin classes in September. A couple of these studios would like to fold Ellen into their program which would take care of some of her administrative responsibilities, but as she has been at DTW, she seems to want to remain an independent renter. Ellen’s program will not end! We want to reassure all of you that the one piece of the equation that is impossible to replicate anywhere else–the main stage at Dance Theater Workshop–will remain available for your students’ year-end performances and we will continue to present Dances by Very Young Choreographers through our JPMorgan Chase Family Matters Series. We hope Ellen will always have a strong tie to Dance Theater Workshop.

    Finally, I want to thank all of you for your ideas and strong ties to Ellen. Perhaps the best way to honor her is to work together through this transition so she can continue to flourish as the gifted teacher she is. If you would like to meet to discuss further, please don’t hesitate to call me at my office.

    Very sincerely,

    Virginia Millhiser,

    Dance Theater Workshop, Board President

53. Lise Brenner (April 1st, 2008 at 5:30 pm)

    I do not need to add to the many strong statements that have been made, about: Ellen, the value of mixing the generations of artists, the importance of a dedicated space for creative endeavour, honoring history, honoring good work done for many years, honoring the love and community that Ellen’s work so clearly engenders. I simply want to say: I am so very sorry. I think Bessie would be sorry. Nothing stays the same, but what do we gain by by bulldozing another community garden?

    One great teacher of mine, who ran a suburban ballet school in Seattle, said: “Of course most of my kids won’t be dancers. But they have a lifelong avocation.”

    Sometimes things have run their course and need to fade away. Judging from this chain of comments, Ellen’s classes are far from doing that.

    Lise

54. Carol Clements (April 2nd, 2008 at 6:45 pm)

    It seems the current “regime” at DTW is not open to negotiation regarding financial matters that may effect the prior decision. I wonder why. Why wasn’t there encouragement toward the potential of fundraising suggested by blog entries? Doesn’t DTW want some money? Here are many voices of the New York City dance community inspired to spearhead and organize the very thing any nonprofit wants. Fundraising with a cause. Don’t you want to jump on this energetic bandwagon for bringing in the dough? I guess not. Just the number of blogs show this is a lost opportunity for new and consistent funds for DTW.

    I am a dancer who performed at DTW during the 1980’s and early 90’s. I would say I spent over a hundred nights performing on that stage, not to mention many hours of rehearsals there, and many more evenings in the audience as well. Participating in Bessie Schonberg’s workshop, serving on the Fresh Tracks panel a couple of times and having concerts of my own produced for two seasons gave me a lot of chances to see those tiny leotard-clad dancers and pubescent leggy choreographers running from the dressing room to Ellen’s classes. Without those little bare feet around I feel like DTW loses a lot of heart, a lot of the real “stuff” that makes people feel integrity about the contribution of DTW to dance — for now and the future.

    Kind of makes you want to toss the DTW calendar in the trash when it comes in the mail next time. I’m not trying to be negative. Just honest.

    Carol Clements

55. Alexandra Critsimilios (April 3rd, 2008 at 7:27 pm)

    “The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing… there are times when the simple dignity of movement can fulfill the function of a volume of words. There are movements which impinge upon the nerves with a strength that is incomparable, for movement has power to stir the senses and emotions, unique in itself. This is the dancer’s justification for being, and his reason for searching further for deeper aspects of his art.” ~Doris Humphrey, 1937

    As I read the above comments, tears nearly spring to my eyes. I have been dancing since i was five years old with Ellen at DTW and i have absolutley NO intention of giving up my position now. Ellen has been somewhat of a mentor to me throughout my life since i was five. She has taught me that the littlest movement like the flex of a foot or the biggest tweak like the stretch of a leap just needs practice. Ellen has guided me through not only dance, but my WHOLE LIFE. My parents had gone through a painful divorce that made me cringe with the thought of their fighting. But every week, however, i knew that my dance class was going to be there for me every single solitary Saturday morning. I knew that when i was there i knew that i was free to run around the gorgeous studio (which, by the way, would not have been there if not for Ellen. Remember that confined old place that was Dance Theatre workshop? Yeah, um, Ellen was teaching there WAY before any of you set foot in the OLD OR NEW DTW.) I believed that when i was there i could get lost in the world of dancing and i’d let the music overwhelm me, let it bring me across every inch of the studio, and i knew that it was possible. And i knew that it was Okay. With Ellen teaching at Dance Theatre workshop, hundreds of girls knew that they could express themselves through dance freely with Ellen there to guide them along. Ask any Ellen alumni and they’ll tell you the same thing; that DTW with Ellen was what got them through every week. Their parents will say the same. The friends and family of us girls are always ecstatic to see our performances, and DTW will lose around 3/4 of their viewers if we can’t stay.
    My little sister has been with Ellen for around two years, and i will not have her perform in any other theatre but DTW’s. As a matter of fact, my other sister has been with Ellen since she was five as well. She, i know, is a proud graduate of Ellen’s. She (just like the rest of us) walked into DTW at five years old, an average girl that had no clue about dancing. Now she has emerged as a graceful and artistic dancer that will be making her way into college. There have been dance majors in Julliard that were students of Ellen, they’ve worked with world famous coreographers and scouts have come to the various performances with hearty offers for Ellen’s well taught-and talented students.
    DTW is Ellen’s home. It’s one of my home-away-from-homes. It’s a place where i have met my friends, a place where i have expressed myself in dance when words couldn’t suffice.
    Kicking Ellen out so abruptly is cruel and heartless. I have just gotten into high school, a good one at that, and the required essay had to be about something you were dedicated to that has helped you and taught you many lessons throughout life.Niether my mind nor my heart missed a beat (litterally). I knew that I had to write about dancing. The descriptions of Ellen’s dance class was poured out of my heart and mind onto the piece of paper that provided my acceptance to one of New York’s best schools. If you want to take that away from girls of all ages that have families that would sure as hell have something to say about this, i can inform them of this very website. the lives and feelings of these brilliantly talented young girls that you are throwing away may very well turn into World War three.
    And i could send you a copy of my essay, if you’d like.

    “We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams.”

56. David R White (April 4th, 2008 at 8:48 am)

    Just a note to Alexandra,Carol and Lise at the end of an extraordinary storytelling from everyone who’s posted:

    Alexandra: It continues to be about the dreamers, and the opportunity to dream. There’s a profound reason that aborigines in the Australian outback talked about “the dreaming time” when they followed their songlines.

    Carol: Laughter is what I think of when I remember your own dances and performances (the red dress with train, on which sat a cinder block) - as well as the profound difficulty of choreographing genuine humor onto a stage. No one has taught any of us pros better how to do that then Ellen’s kids. Some large piece of laughter is just now going into permanent eclipse at DTW.

    And Lise: As you so elegantly point out, in the life of the city, sometimes the quiet creative anarchy of the community garden and the plantings so carefully tended to are - simply, inevitably, unfortunately, regrettably - are somebody else’s obstacle to progress. It seems obvious, but it would occasionally be a sign of real progress to have one less bulldozing to regret.

    I have recently adopted a statement by the late cosmologist Carl Sagan as a working premise for my new professional arts career in New England: “In order to make a cake from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” I leave it to others to imagine who has created a universe, and who are now able to make those cakes.

57. "When AIDS is stopped we will dance for joy. Until then we will dance for life." (April 4th, 2008 at 11:49 am)

    “Then come the lights shining on you from above. You are a performer. You forget all you learned, the process of technique, the fear, the pain, you even forget who you are you become one with the music, the lights, indeed one with the dance.” ~Shirley Maclaine

    “Dance is your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It’s the rhythm of your life. It’s the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness and envy.” ~Jaques D’ambroise

    If you want to take these things away from us dancers, i can’t imagine where your heart is. You’ll be sadly mistaken if you take DTW away from Ellen and her students. Good luck with that.

58. Sheila Reid (April 4th, 2008 at