A look back at 2001: it's hard to get an even perspective on a year like 2001.

A look back at 2001: it's hard to get an even perspective on a year like 2001. Looking back at the calendar, September 11 jumps out, the date of attacks on the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and the World Trade Center in New York City, terrorist-targeted center for U.S. military organization and world financial activities. Going to war now--a new kind of war we are told, one long and removed--seems somehow less real and immediate than the moving-image reruns of D-Day invasions or Star Wars. But war's not all that happened in these last twelve months. Events great and small throughout the year affected people's ordinary and dance lives. Here's a short playback.

Politics

THE JANUARY INAUGURATION OF George W. Bush paled beside the prior year's feverish celebration of "The Millennium" and the bitterly contested election of the president of the United States. With the new administration ensconced, Robert Sidney Martin was announced as interim chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. A perennial aggressive foe of the NEA, North Carolina senator Jesse Helms at last announced his retirement. In the wake of New York's September 11 disaster, which affected arts groups so heavily, constituents are pressuring their legislators to get the funding cap that limits dollars for New York blown off.

Economics

IN APRIL, PARTNERING WITH DANCE/ USA, Dance Magazine published the results of a ten-year study of economic information on large, medium, and small dance companies. The summary, prepared by John Munger, clearly outlined economic trends in what may have been a first longitudinal look at dance's fiscal stability. Even such well-prepared information about the last affluent decade, though, did not prepare us for the current tumultuous year, where the bottom fell out of the dot-com industry, venture capital was pulled out, and stock markets around the globe fluctuated like yo-yos, reaching new highs and lows. Unemployment, lost retirement and investment dollars, and a charitable outpouring of private contributions to families and relief efforts perhaps presage a more conservative time ahead for dance companies.

Law

LEGAL WRANGLES WITH THE Microsoft and Napster corporations continue, with the courts' decisions affecting your computer and mine as well as wider implications of which intellectual property (yours and mine) is protected by copyright and trademark. Closer to the dance community per se were still-pending court decisions surrounding who owns the Martha Graham modern-dance legacy.

The courts did decide that the (Joseph) Pilates trademark was unenforceable; that Boston Ballet was not responsible for the allegedly diet-related death of a dancer; and that San Francisco Ballet did not violate a young auditioner's human rights by discriminating on the basis of height and weight.

Lula Washington Dance Theatre's suit against the City of Los Angeles continues. This community-anchoring nonprofit school and company alleges that its efforts to rebuild after the 1994 earthquake were blocked by the city's use of eminent domain, exercised in order to build a retail development on the site. New Yorkers, keep your eye on this outcome.

Management

IT SEEMS THAT AN UNCOMMONLY large number of artistic directors and executive directors of dance companies played musical chairs this year. Among the more visible: Boston Ballet's artistic directorship passed from Anna Marie Holmes, wavered over Maina Geilgud, rested temporarily with Jonathan McPhee and Bruce Wells, was carried on by Jorden Harris, ballet master, and finally landed on Mikko Nissinen, who concurrently completes his season with Alberta Ballet before moving to Boston. Sir Anthony Dowell retired as artistic director of the U.K.'s Royal Ballet and is replaced by Australian Ross Stretton; BalletMet's (Columbus, Ohio) David Nixon and his wife, Yoko Ichino, the school's director, moved to Northern Ballet Theatre in the U.K.; and Matz Skoog succeeded Derek Deane at English National Ballet. Frank Andersen returned to direct the Royal Danish Ballet, replacing Aage Thordal-Christensen; Dinna Bjorn moved from Norwegian National Ballet to replace Jorma Uotinen at Finnish National Ballet. Ben Stevenson now shares co-artistic directorship with Trinidad Vives at Houston Ballet so that he may concentrate more on choreography, and Benjamin Houk departed Fort Worth Dallas Ballet, leaving Bruce Marks, artistic advisor, in charge. Donna Faye Burchfield succeeded Martha Myers as dean of the school of the American Dance Festival, that legend of summer modern dance.

A generation of college dance department chairs and regional dance company heads retired or passed, raising the question of whether their successors will carry on the legacies of their elders and maintain their schools' reputations in the field. Or will the new chairs forget their heritages in the need to create their own work and image?

Our own Dance Magazine underwent an ownership change to Macfadden Communications, LLC, a New York publishing firm. Barbara Kaplan remains as publisher, but during 2001 K.C. Patrick became editor in chief of Dance Magazine, Karen Hildebrand assumed editorship of the now-annual Dance Magazine College Guide, and India Alexis became editor of Stern's Directory.

Celebrations and Honors

DANCE MAGAZINE AGAIN PRESENTED its awards for achievement in the field during National Dance Week, this year to Susan Stroman, Damian Woetzel, Terese Capucilli, and Michael Kaiser. That perennial sparkler, Jo Rowan, was honored with a lifetime achievement award at this year's St. Louis Tap Festival, one of the most prestigious events in tap dancing. Our British colleagues at Dancing Times celebrated the ninetieth anniversary of that publication. The annual Capezio Award went to Career Transition For Dancers and was presented at a gala during October. Donald Saddler, back on Broadway again this year in Follies, was awarded the Astaire Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Can We Pick 'Em?

RICHARD MOVE, FROM 2001'S "25 to Watch," is still eminently watchable for his famous guest stars and his characterization of Martha. Ashley Bouder, an extraordinary talent even for New York City Ballet, continues her star-ward climb after stepping into a last-minute Firebird when the scheduled winged one was injured. And just look at your programs to see the names of choreographers that we recommended you watch.

Dance Magazine Award-winner Michael Kaiser began his tenure at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., with a coup. With funding from international financier Albert Vilar, a ten-year deal was made to bring the Maryinsky Theater/Kirov Ballet and the Kirov Opera to perform in the nation's capital for one week each, beginning in 2002. Further, to help prevent the deterioration of musical documents from the Maryinsky's famed library, D.C. will provide curatorship of selected materials.

Trends

EACH YEAR APAP (ASSOCIATION OF Performing Arts Presenters) and WAA (Western Arts Alliance) sponsor showcases of performers and companies available for bookings. This year we saw a healthy contingent of ethnic or traditionally inspired performers: flamenco and Spanish classical dance (June Dance Magazine); dances of Native American genres (October Dance Magazine); styles from all parts of Africa, India, Eastern Europe, and the Silk Road.

On Broadway--and on tour--the dance influence is heavy as the trend toward musicals continues. Similarly, dance has been the subject or vehicle for general-release films as well as documentaries. Liturgical and praise dancing is increasingly mainstream. Dance Masters of America even offers a syllabus on how to teach the subject.

Moveable Gold Standards

MERCE CUNNINGHAM, PAUL TAYLOR, and Mark Morris can be counted on to produce premieres every season with bankable audiences. Cunningham is still touring widely and showing a great range of repertoire. Taylor and Morris both crossed over to choreograph for ballet companies this year with generally favorable reviews. But watch for youthful NYCB choreographer-in-residence Christopher Wheeldon, along with Trey McIntyre, Stanton Welch, Robert Hill, Matthew Bourne, Wade Robson, and Akram Khan.

The influence of women choreographers is being seen more, and not just in response to the Gender Project, an informal study by Janis Brenner, and not just in modern dance. On stages and tours we now see women's work by, for example, Lila York, Julia Adam, Natalie Weir, and Nan Giordano.

In Sickness and in Health

DANCERS RESPONDING TO AIDS (DRA/Broadway Cares) continues the effort not only to raise funds but also to keep the battle to conquer this plague right in front of the public eye. New York Foundation for the Arts created the One Step Forward program to aid dancers recovering from medical catastrophes and to put health care within dancers' reach. Initial fund-raisers highlighted the experiences of Alan Danielson (heart transplant) and Homer Avila (malignant cancer necessitating the amputation of his right leg and hip).

The plague of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease in the U.K. mandated a halt to travel to prevent spread of the illness and forced the cancellation of the World Irish Dance Championships.

Some noted losses to our community this year: Dame Sonia Arova, Willam Christensen, Dame Ninette de Valois, Pauline Koner, Jamake Highwater, Jane Dudley, Jose Greco, Tanaquil Le Clercq, Elizabeth Sherbon, Peter Gennaro, Nenette Charisse, and Herbert Ross.

AS THE YEAR 2001 CLOSES, WE reflect back in order to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them, and to profit from and take pride in our successes. The staff of Dance Magazine wishes you a happy next year.