By Fran Robbins

Pity the poor dancer. Dance often is considered the bastard stepchild of our other art forms - thought of by many to be less accessible than its more popular relatives film and music. To that end, dance is overlooked and underappreciated. And pity the poor dancer who is dedicated to modern dance. That performer is doomed to a life of empty audience chairs and the occasional review. Right?

Don’t try that argument out on Hannah Baumgarten of South Florida’s Dance Now! Ensemble. A creation of Baumgarten and Diego Salterini, Dance Now! serves as the nexus of contemporary dance in South Florida with a reach that goes nationwide and acclaim that is international. A small homegrown troupe with big dreams and an even bigger agenda, Dance Now! is determined to bring contemporary dance to audiences that will leave fulfilled, enriched, and entertained.

“Our mission,” Baumgarten says, “is to bring contemporary dance to South Florida, specifically through two different avenues. One is through a fusion style of movement - ballet, modern dance, jazz, and yoga - and our use of contemporary music and contemporary themes in our works. And the second part of it is through our education and the teaching and outreach programs, basically raising young artists from the community and also teaching youngsters how dance can be a part of their lives.”



In order to bring modern dance to a diversified community such as South Florida, Baumgarten insists that the troupe reflect the demographics of the area. A dance troupe removed from its constituency is a dance troupe that is useless. “Our company is made up of the eclectic: Russian, Italian, Puerto Rican, American, Nicaraguan, Cuban—the varietal grape! It’s not a pure grape from anywhere. It’s what we manage to grow here and what has come to us here... Dance Now! is very specific to South Florida and reflects the cultural diversity of South Florida, both in its makeup and the kind of work we do. And we love it! We love how it feeds us. We love the rawness of it. And we love the opportunity to be founding and core members of this community.”

Because of the international flavor of the troupe, virtually any form of dance or theater, no matter how experimental, is given serious consideration and worked on diligently. Dance Now! projects have been noted for their bold athleticism and unique combinations of theater styles that range from the traditional to the Avant Garde.

Dance Now! was founded by Baumgarten and the Roman-born Salterini seven years ago in Miami Beach. Baumgarten originally trained as a ballerina starting at age 5. At age 20, she shifted her studies to modern dance and ended up graduating from Juilliard with a ballet-modern dance background. Salterini, on the other hand, trained in athletics, ballet, and jazz movement and worked in Italian television and theater as a dancer and choreographer. Upon meeting, both were transfixed by what they had in common and what each could teach the other. “All the time we have spent together,” says Baumgarten, “we have grown so much as artists. Our technique, both as dancers and as teachers and choreographers, expanded because of the influence of one another.”

Other influences also came over time. Salterini’s association with Michael Uthoff brought Uthoff into the fold as their Artistic Advisor, one who brings his studies in classical ballet into the mix. Further enhancing the troupe is Guest Choreographer Colleen Farnum, who specializes in contemporary works. With all the disparate fields of study at work, Dance Now! wants to focus closely on fusion dance. “The works that we do,” says Baumgarten, “are all different projects - we’re not trying to invent any new style on our own. We will never claim to be that genius! But the artistic interaction of working together and studying each other’s styles, the influences have started to develop a genuine vocabulary that incorporates all these things.”

That vocabulary is responsible for projects such as AMERICA/America, a five-act ballet directed by Baumgarten and Salterini that articulates the multiplicity that is the United States’ residents as seen through the eyes of four completely different people: an Irish-American, the child of a Holocaust survivor, a South American immigrant, and an Italian resident alien. Three Dances of Alone, which uses José Cura’s Canción del Arbol del Olvido (“The Song of the Tree of Forgetfulness”) is Uthoff’s meditation on solitude.

Donne: Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Lovers... is their newest work, which will debut February 17th and February 18th at the Colony Theatre on Lincoln Road. It is an eight-movement ballet that tells the story of some of the dancers’ personal experiences and the experiences of people who have been in their lives. Says Baumgarten, “We’re going to tell you about the women in your life in an exciting, dramatic way. We’re going to tell you about the hurt that happens to women and about the strength to overcome. We’re going to tell about the mother many of us are, the mother all of us have. And we’re going to talk about the relationships between men and women in a way that will excite. It’s the story of every woman.”

Dance Now! sees itself as a tool for communication, education, and the sharing of perspectives, which is very much in keeping with its community outreach programs. In fact, the very first grant Dance Now! ever wrote was for community education, putting that above any performance concerns. Baumgarten comes from an academic background and is keen to pass the torch to both students and audience members. Part of their educational offerings are lectures on the history of dance, master classes in different forms of movement, and workshops in improv and composition.

This year, the company will be in residence at Coral Gables Senior High, having done a residency at Coral Gables Elementary just last fall. It is also scheduled to do outreach work at Hialeah Senior High and Coral Reef Senior High. Baumgarten cannot keep the pride out of her voice when she talks of her students. “We love it! We find talented students to work with our apprentices, and they end up going to college and conservatory programs and sometimes end up in professional companies that come back to tour in South Florida! We have long-standing relationships with students, and have had several return to work with our own company.”

So the challenge remains: how to promote dance, specifically contemporary dance, in an environment conflicted about the place dance holds. While South Florida boasts a good number of dance troupes (upwards of 20) and Miami-Dade and Broward counties do a good job of financing and promoting companies, there still remain obstacles. One is the lack of accessible mass transit, which hampers audience attendance and participation. Baumgarten laughs when mentioning that it just might take less time to fly from Florida to New York than it would to drive from Kendall to North Miami during rush hour.

Another obstacle is the intimidation factor, which, Baumgarten concedes, can be daunting to overcome. “Modern dance is esoteric: People sometimes feel that they’re not initiated in it or educated in it, that they don’t know what they’re going to get out of it. Sometimes they feel it is dry.” But polls have shown that Dance Now!’s core audience ranges from ages 15 to 49, and that those who attend their performances are virtually certain to return. Dance Now! has made modern dance exciting and lively, offering audience members the option of either analyzing the pieces intellectually or simply enjoying the vision of watching beautiful bodies moving in space.

“We want to invite the audience into our world,” says Baumgarten. “Because we are contemporary young people living in South Florida. We are creating work that is meaningful to us, not works suitable for anywhere or anyone else.”

Dance Now! Ensemble
P.O. Box 416525,
Miami Beach, FL 33141
305.975.8489
www.dancenowmiami.org