My story
I began in dance at the age of 27 in 1973. I retired from dance in 2014.
My beginnings were with Al Wunder in Berkeley CA who inspired me to refocus my theatrical interests away from acting and into dance. His improvisational approach provided a safe and manageable way to ease my body into the rigors of dance. From there, I began in earnest to immerse myself in a crash course to absorb sound technique in modern dance. At UC Santa Cruz I studied with Ruth Solomon, Byron Wheeler and Kelly Holt. In NYC I studied with Alwin Nicholais, Merce Cunningham and Rod Rodgers.
My first professional work began in 1976 with the Portland Dance Theatre in Portland OR. There I began to choreograph in earnest, putting pieces on that company until it disbanded in 1979. In 1980 I moved to Sun Valley, Idaho and started a small company called Idaho Dance Ensemble.
In 1989 I co-founded the Idaho Dance Theatre in Boise, Idaho with Fred and Marla Hansen. I was co-artistic director for 25 years and executive director for the last two of those until I retired in 2014.
During my career I made 110 dances. Of course, some of those weren't much good. Some were, however, and I decided to create this website as a way for my better dances to continue to have some life.
My beginnings were with Al Wunder in Berkeley CA who inspired me to refocus my theatrical interests away from acting and into dance. His improvisational approach provided a safe and manageable way to ease my body into the rigors of dance. From there, I began in earnest to immerse myself in a crash course to absorb sound technique in modern dance. At UC Santa Cruz I studied with Ruth Solomon, Byron Wheeler and Kelly Holt. In NYC I studied with Alwin Nicholais, Merce Cunningham and Rod Rodgers.
My first professional work began in 1976 with the Portland Dance Theatre in Portland OR. There I began to choreograph in earnest, putting pieces on that company until it disbanded in 1979. In 1980 I moved to Sun Valley, Idaho and started a small company called Idaho Dance Ensemble.
In 1989 I co-founded the Idaho Dance Theatre in Boise, Idaho with Fred and Marla Hansen. I was co-artistic director for 25 years and executive director for the last two of those until I retired in 2014.
During my career I made 110 dances. Of course, some of those weren't much good. Some were, however, and I decided to create this website as a way for my better dances to continue to have some life.
Dance and music are ethereal, especially dance. Music can be recorded and one can get a very good experience listening to a recording. Plays can be written down and read or filmed. Dance really must be seen live to get its full impact. Videos of dance rarely convey all of the nuances or raw energy of live dancers in real time.
After my last concert in 2014, I felt too keenly that a dancer's movements disappear as they are done to make way for the next one. Finally, the dance itself disappears the moment the stage goes black. Eventually, a whole career evaporates as soon as one stops working. If you stop moving, you cease to exist.
After every season I felt I had done some good things, and some other things I wished would have been better. The next dance was always impelled by the former dance. Knowing there was another chance to improve or make a stronger statement kept me invested and eager to continue. The sudden end to that ritual took me by great surprise.
Even more startling came the realization that a lifetime of work would have no venue, no exposure. Surely this happens to every dancer or choreographer at any level who either chooses or is forced to stop their career, but it was a bitter pill to accept. For an artist, your work is your life, and if your work has no life, neither do you. Of course, that isn't literally true and should not be true. After all, artists are not special nor immune to life's realities. Nor should they be so invested in their work that they can't live a good life once they have finished.
Dance is an artform in which nearly everyone who participates must finish with it long before they feel ready. It is a young person's art, at least the people on the stage making it happen. As choreographers age, they slowly become more distant from their dancers, living out very different issues and thoughts. As dancers age, they too often face economic and personal challenges that thwart a long career - a long career being one that ususally ends by 40.
So I've decided to create this website as a place where my work can be. It's also a place where many of the fine dancers I was privileged to know would also have their efforts be available, even though most of them no longer dance. It is here for the enjoyment for anyone who finds it and to see what we all were doing for the 25 years I spent here until I had to leave the artform I love.
I will periodically replace videos, so I hope you come back to see the variety of the dances I made.
I hope you enjoy!
Merde
To see my work as a landscape painter go to: carlroweart.com