The Dance Enthusiast Takes a Field Trip to Dance/USA’s 2011 Annual Conference

Editorial note: This article was originally published Wednesday, July 13, 2011 by Christine Jowers on The Dance Enthusiast.

Welcome to Dance — Chicago Style
Scene: Opening Reception — On Stage at The Harris Theater for Music and Dance

Well, people from Chicago are seriously enthusiastic about our art form and what it can do for a community, and as the expression goes, they put their money where their mouth is. Amy Fitterer, the executive director of Dance/USA , in her opening remarks tonight commented that the Chicago host committee is the largest ever in Dance/USA history — that would be 57 volunteers on the committee to welcome us out of towners to Chicago, divided into 11 subcomittees to really get down to business.  Even the Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, has a strong dance background. Encouraged or coerced (at first) by his parents to become involved, he studied here in Chicago  at the Joel Hall Dance Center and at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Now he takes his kids to dance class and continues the tradition of involvement in the art. Tonight when Mayor Emanuel addressed the Dance/USA event — an event he circled in his calendar contending to his assistant “I am doing this no matter what” — he joked, “I just want you to know you’re making one Jewish mother happy, I can finally tell her I made it to the stage of a dance performance. Thank you for that.”

View the video of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel

Christine Jowers founded The Dance Enthusiast in 2007 with web designer Will Arnold. The Dance Enthusiast is the web extension of the non-profit Moving Arts Projects, originally founded to create performance projects celebrating the powerful stories of dance history and individual dance artists. Jowers writes, edits, acts as videographer, and interviews artists. In addition to her web work, she performs, produces, and teaches. Prior to creating her own company, Jowers performed with Maryland Dance Theater, The Pittsburgh Dance Alloy, and The Doris Humphrey Repertory Company in New York.