Orphans and Olympians. (Starting Here).

WHEN SOMEONE REFERS TO AN ELITE ATHLETE, WE ALL KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS: HEALTHY AND NATURALLY TALENTED, APPROPRIATELY SELECTED, FINELY TRAINED AND TUNED, FORCEFULLY GOAL MOTIVATED AND FOCUSED, LUCKY and highly successful. It's true in any sport you might hear mentioned, whether it's played individually or in a team.

But when, if ever, we hear someone refer to an elite dancer or an elite artist, the words carry different baggage with them. Although all the same positively valued traits are present in the elite dancer as are presented by the athlete, somehow the image that the words convey is not the same. We have heard too often that the arts are "elitist," by which detractors seem to mean that they are not democratic; that talent is not shared by and/or accessible to everyone. It is usually used in the context of denying public funding or support.

Think about it; what's this all about? Is Michael Jordan more or less elite than Damien Woetzel? Is the San Jose Symphony less finely tuned than the same city's professional hockey team, the Sharks? Where does professional ice skater Kristi Yamaguchi fall--elite or not? Does anyone know of an owner of a dance franchise whose city builds stadiums and other venues and offers tax incentives (public money) to build new ones? Do great countries bid dangerously great amounts of money to be the site of, for example, the next International Ballet Competition?

Yes, these are rhetorical questions. But, yes, we can change the way people think about elites by changing the language we use to discuss them.

And, yes, we are grateful to the Salt Lake City Cultural Olympiad's presentation of the Olympic Arts Festival, which coincides with the 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. From February through March 17, the festival provides not only the opportunity to showcase the many fine dance companies that call Utah their home, it also brings in an enticing array of companies from the rest of the United States (www.saltlake2002.com). Companies performing include the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Folk Ballet, AXIS Dance Company (watch for a profile on this company in our March issue), Ballet West (see page 44), Children's Dance Theatre with guest Pete Seeger (see nod to Virginia Tanner Creative Dance/Children's Dance Theatre on page 56), Savion Glover, Limon Dance Company, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, and extensive exhibitions of the Navajo Nation. Judith Jamison, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey company and a 1972 Dance Magazine Award winner, presents the Olympic premiere of her work based on the life of elite runner Florence Griffith Joyner, and Pilobolus Dance Theatre will premiere a work that mixes gymnastics and humor. Other premieres include Ririe-Woodbury's works by choreographers Daniel Ezralow and Doug Varone, Billy Siegenfeld's new jazz piece set on the Limon Company, and Savion Glover's one-of-a-kind performance. There are, of course, full rounds of lectures and discussions surrounding the performances--and of course, the winter sports performances by elite athletes.

I saw a poster last week asking for foster or permanent homes for the pets that were made homeless by the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11. I was outraged, not because that cause is unworthy but because the people who look out for animals are better organized and doing a better job than we who should be looking out for young dancers. I have read that there may be as many as 10,000 orphans as a result of the deaths caused by the bombing of the World Trade Center. I don't know how accurate that number is, but logic tells us there have to be many (not even thinking about all the orphans resulting from current wars and catastrophes elsewhere). So who is taking these children to dance class? Already a huge number of American children are being raised by grandparents or other family members (public funds are denied to family members taking in children in many states), or by caregivers of one kind or another.

Serious dancers have to be in continuous training for a long time; they can't take time out to find a new home. We all know that. What we may not recognize is the domino effect: Fewer students mean less income for teachers, coaches, and dancewear retailers--which means fewer audiences built and fewer tickets sold, and so on. Adoption, fostering, and mentoring have a long and honorable tradition in most civilized societies, which recognize that a culture's future depends upon those who are being newly acculturated--usually the young. Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses; the prophet Mohammed adopted a slave to be his son; Celtic tradition has an honorable tradition of fostering children to nobles or tradesmen. Even today, some children who live in rural areas where distance and weather prevent their regular attendance at school may foster with a town family during winter terms.

So I'm not exactly suggesting that you adopt a child or two--but maybe you should. At least the dancer part of the child. Is there a promising student you could scholarship? Can you take responsibility for getting a young dancer to class and/or home? What about fostering a dancer who comes to the city for special master classes or auditions? You're really on your own here since there is no organization--unless you want to pick up the challenge of organizing an adoption/fostering/mentoring movement for young dancers. Patricia Goulding at National Dance Week has the nucleus of a mentoring program in the works and many larger independent schools have fine scholarship programs in place. Take a look at www.mentoring.org. Maybe there is something to build on, though I think fostering an organizing movement might be harder than just adopting a child. You choose. Let me know what you do about it.

Editor in Chief K. C. Patrick has worked for Dance Magazine, both in New York and California, since 1998. After dividing her time between the business worm and motherhood, she returned to the arts. She was editor of Dance Teacher Now, a position she held for ten years.