Barbara Bounds fillone with pupils
. .despite heavy demands, she continues in her career.
It is common for a
dancer to work
full-time, take as
many as four
dance classes a
week, perhaps
teach a class or
two, and spend
nights and week
ends rehearsing for
a performance.
Dance finds horn
By TODD WELLS
Dance is a manual labor with no minimum wage and
local dancers who want to perform, often find the toll
financial as well as physical.
The story isn't new, A willingness to sacrifice is an in
tegral part of a dancer's make-up, and a love for the art is
the epoxy that holds a performing company together. The
amateur and semi-professional dance troupes in Durham
and Chapel Hill offer their members the opportunity to
perform, if they .pay the piper.
"Nobody associated with the company gets paid any
thing' said Pam Lester, a performer and board member
of the Chapel Hill Ballet Company. "In fact, it ends up
costing us."
But for Lester and others, the sacrifice is worth it. "I
love to perform and I like the opportunity to choregraph,"
she said.
"Dancers tend to be workhorses' said Carol Richard, a
UNC dance instructor, -
But the explanation borders on understatement. It is
common for a dancer to work full time, take as many as
four dance classes a week, perhaps teach a class or two,
and spend nights and weekends rehearsing a perfor
mance. Love or obsession are the only ready explana
tions for such dedication.
Jack Arnold calls his seven-year affair with dance "a
love-hate relationship' Arnold toured professionally with
the Atlanta Contemporary Dance Company before mov
ing to Chapel Hill. As manager of A Southern Season, he
works 45 hours a week and still manages to dance, taking
classes and rehearsing with the Carolina Dancers-.
"I tried to stop dancing once," he said, "but I couldn't
do it." Now Arnold sees his effort to dance with the com
pany as "worthwhile because of the dedication of the
whole group."
But if such devotion leaves little time for anything else,
it is the devotion of professionals and amateurs alike.
The Feld Ballet has come to Durham, and people only
marginally interested in dance know that a virtuoso com
pany is in their midst. The same people probably don't
know that a company of locals will also perform this
weekend, but to those interested in the development of
dance locally, the Carolina Dancers' concert will offer an
important glimpse of some of the community's best tal
ent. The Carolina Dancers is a company in transition,
evolving from a training outlet for UNCs modern dance
students to a co-operatively managed professional com
pany. In terms of consistency and quality, the change is a
step in the right direction, members said.
The company, begun in 1 976 by Diane E ilber and Carol
Richard of the UNC dance faculty, is carrying on the
tradition of modern dance that blossomed in the 1920s
and 30s out of tension between creativity and strict
technique in classical dance. Some of their early perfor
mances were erratic as dancers of varying skill and talent
tried to mesh in original performances.
But lacking support from UNC's physical education
department and. gaining more dancers of professional
background, E ilber, Richard and the other members de
cided to go it alone. This will be their first concert with-
out student dancers.
"We feel bad about not doing anything, with the stu
dents," Richard said. "But with no money and no moral
support from the department, it got to the point where
enough was enough."
. "No money" is a common complaint in the world of
dance, and, for companies like the Carolina Dancers,
money problems can be critical. The company's leap to
professionalism has not lessened its financial burden.
: - - see DANCE page 11
Carolina Dancers