CHICAGO (AP) — Rahm Emanuel is bringing his
longtime passion for dance to his new job as Chicago mayor.
"I want Chicago to be one of the cities where
dance is one of its great art forms," Emanuel said in an interview with
The Associated Press this week, the same week as the city's fifth annual
Chicago Dancing Festival, which ends Saturday.
Emanuel, a former dancer, was 17 when he was
offered a scholarship to study at Chicago's renowned Joffrey Ballet. He danced
in at least one show at his alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College. Today, he is
honorary chairman of the Joffrey Ballet board of directors.
That resume gives Emanuel, 51, a unique perspective
among mayors of a major American city that boasts a scene with everything from
larger dance companies to smaller ethnic dance groups.
"What's going to bring attention is the talent
and skill of the dancers," Emanuel said. "The only thing I have to
contribute is that it's not just another art form for me, given my
background."
In June, Emanuel spoke to the conference of the
national organization for professional dance, Dance/USA, in Chicago. He told
the attendees that Chicago "will be the heartbeat of dance for the entire
country."
Chicago has everything it needs to become a dance
center, Emanuel said, including an eager audience, performance and rehearsal
spaces, talented choreographers, dancers and stagehands.
Nationally, the dance community sees Chicago as an
active and important scene, said Amy Fitterer, Dance/USA's executive director,
with a range of companies that specialize in ballet, modern, contemporary, jazz
and percussive dance.
She calls Chicago a "hot spot" where
emerging dancers and choreographers are nurtured.
"Having Rahm Emanuel speak up so much for
dance is great not just for Chicago, but great for dance and our country,"
Fitterer said. "It's inspiring to hear from a major political figure that
they recognize the intrinsic value of dance."
Emanuel says he's "an audience goer and a
reader of reviews" and has an appreciation for the art form.
The mayor's excitement for dance is very much in
Emanuel's present, not just his past, said Jay Franke, director of the Chicago
Dancing Festival, which brings dance companies from around the country to
Chicago for free performances every August.
"In the last few months I received a few
emails from Mayor Emanuel saying, 'Have you considered the San Francisco Ballet
for this year's performance?'" Franke said. "He's just very much in
the know of what's going on in the dance world."
Over the last four years Chicago has seen growth
and appreciation for dance, said Ashley Wheater, artistic director at the
Joffrey Ballet.
"There are a lot of people in this city who
are embracing it," said Wheater, who danced all over the world before
coming to Chicago in 2007. "Chicago, when I compare it to some other
cities, it is a major city and I think it is becoming a very comparable city
for the arts and for dance."
According to Dance/USA, Chicago has about 26
nonprofit, professional dance companies with budgets just under or more than
$100,000 annually and three companies with budgets of more than $1 million a
year.
In New York, there are 90 companies with budgets
just under or more than $100,000 annually and 22 companies with budgets of more
than $1 million a year.
This doesn't faze Emanuel, whose ideas for dance in
the city extend to bringing the art into neighborhoods.
"Chicago's climbing in the space," he
said. "Yes, we have three, but they don't have what we have: a community
that wants to come together and build."
Leaders in Chicago's dance community say it's
Emanuel's high-profile status that can help launch the city's reputation as a
center for the art form.
"It's easy to say, 'Wow if Mayor Emanuel loves
ballet then maybe I should go take a look,'" Wheater said.
Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, artistic director of the
Latino company Luna Negra Dance Theater in Chicago, says the mayor "is in
one of the positions that actually can really help put this art in the place it
should be."
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
