Dance/USA members plan for rainy days. (News).

As record-breaking rain drenched South Florida during the tenth biennial Dance/USA National Roundtable June 19-22, participants at a bayside hotel in downtown Miami marked two decades of the host organization's service by gearing up for any kind of artistic weather. With the theme "Beyond the Moment: Advancing Our Field," the event offered peer-group guidance on fund-raising, marketing, programming, and partnership-building. Administrators, choreographers, and dancers--over 350 professionals, from founding constituents to newcomers--exchanged information on how to make it through trying times.

"The greatest challenge for our members in the next few years will be to survive the economic fallout that will impact cultural philanthropy," stated Dance/USA Executive Director Andrea Snyder. "This will ripple down to concerns about securing new generations of administrators, affording space, paying dancers, and most importantly, supporting the creation of new work."

Representative of the conference's professional development seminars and topic-based sessions, "Past, Present, and Future of Ballet" took stock of a similarly named summit organized a month before by the National Ballet of Canada (see News, Dance Magazine, September, page 23.) The Miami discussion, moderated by NBC's executive director, Valerie Wilder, and including the insights of Boston Ballet's Mikko Nissinen, encouraged horizontal rather than tiered administration, outreach efforts, and a balance of curatorial mission with homegrown choreography.

"We're doing the arts education in the community," pointed out Nissinen, underscoring a fact echoed in other sessions. Accessing funds for education, then, should bolster companies, just as broadcasting on public-access TV could reinforce their image.

For Tammy Lee, touring director for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal, listening to these viewpoints rekindled "what motivates us, which sometimes fades when caught up in day-to-day activity. The bottom line is to remind yourself why you're doing this." As she asserted, "Art leads society."

Contributing to what Snyder described as "a stabilizing experience--to help eliminate isolation and foster a stronger sense of community," many speakers presented dance as both a bridge to other cultures and a bulwark for our own. During "International Projects: Creative Reciprocity" Stephen Petronio talked about choreographing in Mexico with humor (despite the threat of scorpions) and appreciation. "I felt embraced," he said, observing how location gave a distinct energy to the creative process. Still, other artists noted that cross-cultural waters can be stirred by differences in work ethic and attitudes toward gender and sexuality.

In a keynote address, choreographer Bebe Miller reflected on heightening our global sensibility, drawing from impressions of far-flung places as well as her home base in Ohio. "We're all world citizens even when we can't tell," she affirmed.

Spiritual mission, therefore, should be as pressing as coping with workaday practicalities, a stance best summed up by Dance/USA Honors Award recipient and DanceAfrica's founding artistic director, Chuck Davis. "In dance you don't just lift your arm. You reach for something," he declared. The Roundtable ensured such reach continues to match the grasp of dance.