DTW passes three big milestones.

NEW YORK CITY--Dance Theater Workshop (DTW), one of New York City's most important venues for aspiring modern dance artists, was founded thirty years ago, in 1965, by choreographers Jeff Duncan, Jack Moore, and Art Bauman as a place to make and show their own work and that of other young dancemakers whose budgets made producing at large theaters prohibitive. During the 1994--95 season DTW celebrates this anniversary as well as the twentieth anniversary of its artistic director, David White, and the tenth anniversary of the National Performance Network (NPN), an alliance of small dance and performance presenters.

By 1975 DTW had outgrown the Chelsea loft where it began. It also needed a full-time manager, and White--an erstwhile dancer with a knack for organization and a desire to increase the visibility of modern dance--assumed the role. Under his direction the fragile coalition of loosely affiliated companies acquired a solid organizational structure and funding from both private and public sources.

Banding together to share production costs was an idea whose time had come. White also realized that a coalition of small troupes could capture more public attention for chamber dance and dispel the notion that it was just a poor person's version of grand intentions. Upstairs above the Economy Tires factory on West 19th Street, DTW took over the premises of the American Theater Laboratory, an intimate black-box theater, and produced three four-week series in its first season at the new location in 1976. Since then it has grown from an organization with an $80,000 budget to one with a budget of more than $3,000,000 and has become an international role model for the presentation of dance and performance.

The concept of community is always primary for White--creating opportunities for artists to interact with each other and with the greater cultural community. Among the noted choreographers who gained early public recognition at DTW are Bebe Miller, Susan Marshall, Mark Morris, and Bill T. Jones. DTW's roster is determined by high quality of artistic vision--though it is also a safe place to risk a noble failure--and always includes a broad universe of cultural backgrounds.

In 1984, expanding the community concept, White spearheaded the formation of the NPN to provide similar performance opportunities and support nationally. What began with fourteen presenters in twelve cities now encompasses fifty-five organizations in thirty cities, the three newest of which are as regionally diverse as Lincoln, Nebraska; Phoenix, Arizona; and Anchorage, Alaska.

White now plans for DTW to purchase its building and convert the first floor into a 120-seat performance space with a higher ceiling than the present space on the second floor. The Bessie Awards, another White brainchild, which have raised the community's awareness of outstanding dance and performance downtown, are being revived.