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Mission/purpose of our organization:
Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers (LA C&D) has a mission to create high-quality, innovative concert work, communicate to a diverse audience by infusing dance with the cultural influences found in LA, and to enlarge an educated dance audience in populations typically underexposed to the arts, especially youth. By involving audiences with participatory activities we explore humanistic themes. In this way, LA C&D is committed to using dance as a unifying force that crosses cultural, generational, language and socio-economic lines.
The Tennis Dances was the first work choreographed for the company by Louise Reichlin in 1979 and became its signature work. The photo was taken by Alfred Desio when it was performed at Dance Kaleidoscope at the Ford Theatre in 1980. The photo on left is by the Los Angeles Times.
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Overview: Louise Reichlin and Alfred Desio's long personal and artistic association made the marriage of two dance forms in one company a natural and exciting idea when the company was founded in 1979. In her critically acclaimed works The Tennis Dances ('79) and Urban and Tribal Dances ('90-'92), Reichlin uses metaphorical imagery and draws movement and music from different cultures, evoking the awareness that we are all related. Since 1996 she has experimented with innovative integration of dance, narration, and technology creating works like The E-Mail Dances and The Patchwork Girl of Oz . Desio’s Broadway background brought an entertaining edge to a highly experimental and innovative area, Tap-Tronics™ ('82 on), an interactive electronic system he invented, which allowed him to play musical instruments through his taps. The company has toured to AZ, CA, CT, FL, ID, IL, HI, MD, MO, MT, NC, NM, NV, NY, PA, SC, TX, UT, WA, WI, WY and Washington DC where former NEA grant recipient Desio performed his Tap-Tronics™ by invitation of the Smithsonian Institute at the opening of their new Experimental Gallery and in Barcelona Spain. Reichlin’s dancers have taken The Patchwork Girl of Oz to four western states and traveled across the country and to Mexico with Dream Scapes. LA C&D traveled and performed in Taipei.
Our current activities: As a professional dancer, Reichlin uses her 30 years experience teaching at USC and a "professional designation" in the CA State Content Standards to continually refine our programming, which is approved by the LA County Arts Education Directory website (LAArtsEd.org) and the Santa Barbara Creative Arts roster. Youth Arts and Education, CRA, Mervyn's and Target awarded multiple grants for educational projects. In 2007 we created Dance at the Stone House, an interactive work for students building on the unique architecture of the famous Stone House and it is now done each fall. Through partnerships, each year we offer free after school programs at Title I schools. Other school partners come from every area in our city, from East LA and South Central to Cudahy and Chinatown and the San Fernando Valley. Our company is a founding member of the Arts Community Partnership Network (ACPN) since it began ten years ago, and Reichlin is on the steering committee of the new LA Arts Consortium, a continuation of companies with a strong arts education component. LA C&D has consistently offered educational dance programs since 1980. Last season the company did educational residencies in three school districts in Los Angeles County, with additional help in this area through a Don Knabe Arts Education Partnership grant.
Reichlin continues to create new interactive dance /multimedia works with The Reality Series premiered in 2008 and The Better To Bite You With in 2009. Baggage Project began in the 2010-11 season, including Mourning Light, Tap Dance Widows Club (a video and live work), a revival of Remembrance, this time with images of those who have past on sent to us by others through Facebook and the internet woven into the media, and a reworking of the 1981 Woman Sleeping. The Board of Directors plans to continue Desio's Tap-Tronics™ and is interested in hearing from those interested in working with us on this project.
Copyright (c) 1995 - 2011 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 August 10, 2011.