In 1983, Trisha Brown unveiled her choreographic masterpiece, “Set and Reset,” at BAM’s Next Wave Festival. I was the company’s managing director. Immediately after the premiere, I stuffed my backpack with resplendent reviews, flew to London, and got a Eurorail pass. Art Becofsky from Merce Cunningham’s company had given me a list of European sponsors. I visited cities in England, France, Germany, and Italy meeting with producers, festival directors, and agents.
It was rather haphazard; nothing was prearranged. Meetings were organized after I arrived and first found a hotel. Somehow it worked, the relationships established during this trip developed into a touring network for the company. Years later, Trisha told me, “Europe gave me my career,” as it had for so many other American artists.
Next stop for me was working as managing director for Christopher Hunt, director of the PepsiCo Summerfare Festival at SUNY Purchase. American debuts of foreign ensembles were central. Highlights included The Stary Theatre of Cracow’s dramatization of Andrzej Wajda’s “Crime and Punishment” (1986) and William Forsythe’s “Artifact” with Frankfurt Ballet (1987). Experiencing these works, live in real time with others, was revelatory.
In 1988, I became curator of performing arts at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for eight years. International artists diversified programming as well as engendered artmaking in the community. Butoh dancers, Bulgarian singers, Tibetan chanting monks, Cuban jazz legends, Burundi drummers, and Grand Kabuki performers were cheered alongside European choreographers. Neil Bartlett and Bloolips introduced a very particular British camp sensibility, exploding theatrical possibilities for local queer creators.
These virtuosos were curated amongst an intentional community of like-minded presenters and agents who traveled together to see work and be in contact with artists and peers worldwide. My Eurocentric lens broadened through journeys to Australia, Cuba, France, Israel, Ivory Coast, Japan, Mexico, and Russia.
Experiencing artists’ fully produced work in their home countries was far superior to studio showcases during American booking conferences. And since we were traveling in a group, if a few of us got excited about an artist, a tour became instantly viable. In addition to attending performances, bus rides to the Gulf of Guinea, Guadalajaran drag shows, and overnight trains to St. Petersburg forged lifelong friendships as our world views changed and aesthetics redefined.
These trips were resource-intensive, but through the intrepid efforts of people like David White and Sam Miller, philanthropic support enabled cohorts of Americans to research artists, network with international administrators, and present an array of worldwide artistry throughout the country. This work was often highly subsidized by foreign governments recognizing the importance of global exchange.
Furthermore, I taught workshops with colleagues in Bratislava, Buenos Aires, Sofia, Salzburg, Toronto, and Warsaw. American marketing and funding strategies did not always translate; I often learned more than our lesson plans offered. Shared meals and post-performance drinks were as essential as daytime curriculum. In Bytom, while lecturing with Silesian Dance Theatre (1995), I encountered the unmitigated hell of Auschwitz – life changing indeed.
Internationalism was also important while I was executive director at Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Chief curator Renny Pritikin invited Japanese sculptor Kenji Yanobe’s robotics (1997) and British filmmaker Isaac Julien’s media installations (2002) to complement the Bay Area focus in its galleries. Alonzo King’s explorations with Shoalin monks and people from the Ituri Rainforest expanded his choreographic range on the stage.
More recently, I was executive director at Flynn Center in Burlington (retiring in 2018). Artistic director Steve MacQueen programmed Canadian circus groups alongside Angélique Kidjo, Gilberto Gil and Compagnie Hervé Koubi as well as emerging dancemakers from the Congo, Mozambique and Japan. As important, he curated a New Voices series featuring New American immigrant musicians living in the community. Everybody gains with cultural cross pollination.
Sadly, opportunities for curatorial research travel have diminished considerably and immigration visas became more cumbersome, restrictive and expensive. Consequently, world artists all but disappeared in many presenting seasons.
With the Biden/Harris administration, I do hope a renewed commitment to the import of internationalism will be rekindled. Philanthropic support will be essential. Open borders are more necessary than ever.
As the sector rebuilds post-pandemic, composer Arvo Pärt reminds us, “This tiny coronavirus has showed us in a painful way that humanity is a single organism and that human existence is possible only in relation to other living beings.”