Dance troupe has found a new road.

Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard

Dance Theatre of Oregon holds the odd distinction of being the only performing arts group in town ever fired by the Hult Center.

More precisely, the modern dance troupe is the only group to lose its status as a Hult Center resident company without first going completely out of business.

Two years ago, DTO was told it couldn't continue as a resident company because it wasn't able to meet the standard of doing at least six performances a year of three different shows at the Hult.

At the time, DTO founder Marc Siegel was rankled. DTO had been a resident company for a decade. Being a resident company - of which there are now eight, including groups such as the Oregon Bach Festival and Willamette Repertory Theatre - means not only increased status in the arts community but also better rental rates and earlier access to prime performance dates.

In the past two years, Siegel has calmed down. As he said in an interview last week, DTO has taken its show on the road - the troupe tours throughout the Northwest - and discovered that, yes, there is life after the Hult.

Question: What was good and what was bad about being a resident company?

Answer: There was a lot of great camaraderie with the staff and with the union folks. We had a lot of success early on collaborating with other resident companies.

The sponsorships that we were able to get through corporations and private donors would never have happened if we weren't a resident company.

Question: And what was bad?

Answer: Financially, it was a killer. Every day it seemed like they would find a way to raise the prices on something. It didn't seem mission-driven at all. The prices on everything raised and raised and raised.

Out of all the people on the Cultural Services Advisory Committee (which oversees Hult operations for the city), I think only (Willamette Rep artistic director) Kirk Boyd ever came to one of our shows.

Other than that, no one ever asked us a single question about what we were doing or ever came to see the work that we did. And they were the ones who decided, ``you didn't meet the three-and-six (rule), so we're going to give you the boot.'' It was sad they didn't really care about the good work we had done, and what we had brought to the community. It was, you don't meet the three-and-six, you're out.

Question: So you left.

Answer: It was a mutual thing. We really didn't want to do three shows a year. We felt like because we're the smaller guy, they didn't care that much about us.

Question: So where do you perform now?

Answer: On the road. And extremely important is our collaborations. We are working with the (Eugene) Concert Choir, the Bach Festival, the (Oregon) Mozart Players. We are doing the opera and the symphony.

And we do one show a year at the Hult, most recently "Pippi Longstocking." We turned people away. There were a lot of crying children in the lobby who wanted to see Pippi and couldn't.

Question: So why do you go back to the Hult, if it was so bad?

Answer: We like to restimulate that pain!

No, we're not an alternative group. We need the best possible production values, and there is no other venue in town. The Wildish is smaller. It's a great theater, but the Soreng is the minimum we need. We perform in big theaters when we tour. We need the lights and the union crew and all the great things they have to offer. We still think the Soreng affords us the best venue to perform in.

DANCE THEATRE

OF OREGON

What: Nonprofit modern dance troupe founded here in 1991 by Marc Siegel and his wife, Pamela Lehan-Siegel

Upcoming performances with the Oregon Bach Festival:

"The Dancing Composers'' includes dances inspired by Bach, Mozart, Mason Williams and others, Hult Center's Soreng Theater, Seventh Avenue and Willamette Street, 11 a.m. June 30

DTO2, the children's company, performs ``Snow White,'' Soreng Theatre, Hult Center, 11 a.m. July 7