History of Company - 1979 highlights to present

Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers began officially at the events below. That was our non-profit name, with the two official companies under that umbrella Louise Reichlin & Special Dancers (which later became Louise Reichlin & Dancers) and Alfred Desio, Tap Dancer (which later became Patanaxy, and finally Zapped Taps™/Alfred Desio). Following are some highlights that we selected for an article in our first newsletter in winter of 1991. Reichlin was Director of the organization, with husband Desio the Associate Director. They each headed their own performance companies under its banner, and from the beginning each gained their own excellent reviews. Their plan was to produce others work besides their own, and first season included a New Works Dance Festival with multiple choreographers, an audition for school touring that had them immediately performing in multiple districts in Los Angeles County, and the first paying work for other presenters (LA Street Scene/ City of LA, and the Discover Downtown LA Arts Festival/ Garden Theatre Festival) where they were able to begin paying dancers. The first of their collaborations using modern and tap dancers together was in 1981. Here are a few of the highlights. 1979 1st performance of The Tennis Dances under the name Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers at the Anson Ford Theater in Hollywood, presented by the 1st Dance Kaleidoscope. 1st full evening of producing our own works, choreography by both Louise Reichlin and Alfred Desio at Bing Theater, USC. 1980 1st New Works Dance Festival (NWDF) at the Pilot Theater, producing works by company member Sarah Elgart, Elaine Gardner, and Reichlin. Photo: Kenneth Johansson Louise Reichlin & Richard King 1st school programs and tour for the Intergroup Cultural Awareness Program (ICAP) – 50 performances. Tour of Amahl and the Night Visitors with the USC Opera. 1981 NWDF II. Premieres of eight choreographers, both modern and tap, including Patricia Coleman, Alfred Desio, Judith Doudna, Phyllis Eckler, Carolyn Kreuger, Jennifer Lane, Louise Reichlin, and Paul Tanney, a Los Angeles Bicentennial endorsed project, but still no grants coming in. It also premiered our first “blend” piece of modern dance and tap called Merchants Lunch or Ulysses Meets Camunda and Reichlin’s sweeping theatre piece Woman Sleeping. 1981/82 1st L.A. City grant, used to tour three community colleges. Alfred Desio's Tap-Tronics™ introduced, performed first in Ulysses Suite at UC Irvine's Village Theatre.  1982/83 1st California Arts Council grant, and the strengthening of own management with an office in the Eastern Columbia Building downtown and our 1st company manager, Karen Bilbrey. NWDF III features works by four choreographers, including Karen Goodman and Charles Edmondson along with Reichlin and Desio. 1983/84 Increased touring in Orange County. 26 outdoor performances for the Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad and for the Los Angeles Zoo, where Reichlin is commissioned to write and choreograph special programs tying in animal champions, athletes and dancers. 1984/85 Celtic Suite and Tap-Tronic™ Suite performed at Bing Theater/USC, made possible by a $14,000 Faculty Research and Innovation Fund grant. Photo: Kenneth Johansson Alfred Desio 1985/86 The television media discovers Alfred Desio, the "Electric Tap Dancer", with features on "Two on the Town", "The Today Show" and others. The Tennis Dances is performed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion/LA Music Center. NWDF IV at the Japan America Theater features premieres by Desio, Carolyn Dorfman, Reichlin, LA C&D company member Madonna Roberts and L. Martha Young. A grant from the County helps us in an intra-county tour. 1st out-of-state performance at the Arizona Summer Arts Festival. 1986/87 Repertory and New Works at the Japan America Theater, including guest choreographer Rene Olivas Gubernick with a meaningful work about the Latin American "disappeared", just before the Contra scandal. Reichlin begins work using developmental mind/body ideas and premieres Grounding. 1st local all-tap program featuring Zapped Taps™/Alfred Desio at Barnsdall Theatre with dancers Damon Winmon and David Sharp joining Desio, and drummer Roger Boyce.  1987/88 1st New York tour featuring Zapped Taps™ at Dance Theater workshop, funded by a National Endowment for the Arts grant to Desio. NWDF VI featuring works by six choreographers at the Coroner Theatre including Desio, Karyn Klein, Bernie Lenhoff, Elanora Panich, Young-Ae Park and Reichlin. All modern program at Brand Art Center under name Louise Reichlin & Dancers. 1988/89 2nd New York tour to Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Interview and concert footage of Desio in Tappin', a documentary of Tap (the film) released on 81 stations nationwide. Release of Tap, Tri-Star motion picture, with Desio as consultant of Tap-Tronics Residency for LA C&D and Reichlin at Loyola to work further on dis-located, a dance about the homeless, coming from feelings. Photo: Theodora Litsios Damon Winmon and Alfred Desio 1989/90 1st collaboration for electronic tap dancer and symphony orchestra, with Desio performing with the Pacific Symphony at Segerstrom Hall, OCPAC. LA C&D performs new works by Reichlin and Desio at Keck Theater, Occidental College.  Cruising on the Northern Pacific from Hawaii on the Royal Viking Sea, a ship-board audience learns about Tap-Tronics™ from Desio as an Enrichment Lecturer. 1990/91 Desio is a featured performer at CyberArts International collaborating with Carl Stone. Photo: Theodora Litsios dis-located Bambi Swayze and Shari Nyce Reichlin is commissioned to do choreography for the Shakesepare Festival/L.A., for the opera The Tenderland, and for the Santa Anita Church. LA C&D is presented by the Newport Harbor Art Museum opening their Contemporary Culture Series and by Cerritos College for their Family Series. We celebrate our 12th year and produce at the Bing Theater at USC. 1st Northern California tour for Zapped Taps™/Alfred Desio, including 10 performances/residencies, as part of the CAC Touring Program. Zapped Taps™/Alfred Desio is invited by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. to perform for the opening of their new Experimental Gallery. 1st fundraising campaign for private funding and a support group 1st time with an outreach performance in our main venue for an invited group of students. We bring in 600 young people in South Central Los Angeles to a fully produced dance concert. The results are totally charged students and dancers, an event we hope to repeat. 1991/1992 Louise and the company get a loan to buy their first mac computer! First task is to get the mailing list in a data base. LA C&D receives a Brody grant to have Fayard Nicholas, Kennedy Center awardee, to work Photo: Theodora Litsios Grounding Alfred’s group of tappers Kids Tap/L.A. Louise premieres the final section of Urban and Tribal Dances called Wedding at the Brand Gallery Dance Series culminating 3 years of work on the six-part suite and receives an amazing review in the Los Angeles Times. Alfred is selected for the Western States Touring program (WESTAF) which will allow the 13 western states to get financial help in bringing him in for residencies. To continue in our history, see the links below. Please continue on our earlier events and project pages, on our Colburn Kids Tap/LA pages, our just before now news pages, and our current News page.http://www.usc.edu/dept/dance/p9a_earlier_seasons.htmlhttp://www.usc.edu/dept/dance/p13_special_proj.htmlhttp://www.usc.edu/dept/dance/p8_colburn_kids.htmlhttp://www.lachoreographersanddancers.org/p9_current_news_perf.htmlhttp://www.lachoreographersanddancers.org/p9_current_news_perf.htmlNews.htmlHistory_of_Company_files/photo6color.shapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2shapeimage_1_link_3shapeimage_1_link_4shapeimage_1_link_5

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Copyright (c) 1995 - 2013 by Louise Reichlin; all rights reserved. These pages may not be used for financial gain. These pages may not be used for commercial collections or compilations without express permission from the author. (Louise Reichlin, Southern California Dance and Directory) Reader/Subscriber may not publish, market, download, reproduce, retransmit, distribute or sell photograph(s) and or graphic images through any electronic or other medium, or storage device, including but not limited to databases, bulletin boards and/or CD-ROM, video, audio or other multimedia product. (Louise Reichlin, Southern California Dance and Directory) This page was last revised on March 30, 2012. History_of_Company_files/photo1.

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