Browse Items (101 total)

This dance review highlights the “Pas Contemporains” performance of the Contemporary Dance Playhouse and their determination as a small, but expanding company. This article is indicative of the local recognition and attention Loyce Houlton’s company…

The event was hosted at the Cedar Village Theatre to kick off ticket sales for the first subscription series of Minnesota Dance Theatre concerts for the 1969-70 season.


Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

MDT travels to Spoleto, Italy, to learn the new dance "Mythical Hunters" by Glen Tetley.

Loyce Houlton kept scrapbooks every year. This booklet about the company was part of the 1971/72 scrapbook. The photographs of the company and apprentices were taken in Spoleto, Italy, and Minneapolis by Myron Papiz.

Loyce Houlton's Minnesota Dance Company, Cedar Village Theatre brochure, 1969.

The Contemporary Dance Playhouse building in Dinkytown before and after the fire of 1969. The fire obviously destroyed the building. Houlton moved the company into the Hennepin Center for the Arts (formerly an old Masonic temple).

Minnesota…

One of the first budgets for the Contemporary Dancers.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

Includes information about both the school and the performing company, Contemporary Dancers.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

The notes have a good sense of humor mixed with a call for discipline. Loyce often refers to herself as “El Monstroso” as noted in the March 16 note.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

Important Notice for Swan Lake

When business was slow, Loyce Houlton erected a tombstone in the lobby decorated with an assortment of the company’s bills from creditors rather than flowers.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

MDT announced its decision to layoff the 20-member company for six months due to “bankruptcy and an accompanying loss of credibility,” according to Philip Getts, then president of the board. The board actively searched for other forms of employment…

Lindquist, a long time supporter of MDT, expresses her dissatisfaction with the board’s decision to “strip Loyce Houlton of her title and power.”

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

Letter addresses parents of MDT students in regards to Loyce Houlton's removal as director of MDT and the establishment of the "Houlton Support Group."

Options for dealing with the severe cash flow problem included large contributions from board members, a budget cut, dissolving the Nutcracker Escrow Fund, and identifying a new artistic director.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts…

Advertisement signed by artists who supported MDT, pleading for the uninterrupted continuation of the company.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

A statement calling for donations to save MDT, recognized by the National Association of Regional Ballet (NARB) as one of America’s major regional companies.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

Statement signed by prominent dancers, dance directors, and companies requesting Minnesota to save MDT, “a major force in the performing arts world.”

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

After a more than seven-month layoff, the Minnesota Dance Theater returned for the 1980-81 season. A new contract increased salaries of the lowest-paid dancers, but did not reach union minimums as was hoped ($255 compared with $170 for MDT dancers).…

The Minnesota Dance Theatre hosed the second Mid-States Regional Ballet Festival featuring companies from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. These regional festivals eventually led the National Association…

Flyer from the Mid-States Regional Ballet Festival.

Flyer from the Mid-States Regional Ballet Festival

After the second Mid-States Regional Ballet Festival, Loyce was pleasantly surprised to see a review written by Clive Barnes in the Sunday New York Times.

MDT performed everywhere--from the grand hall of Northrop auditorium to shelters, in schools, and colleges and universities. The idea was to bring dance to as many people as possible, and to give youth, especially, the opportunity to see dance live.

MDT performed in Dinkytown during protests against the near-demolition of this beloved location for low-key entertainment.

An estimated 1,600 dancers turned out to do a tap dance routine to "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy," making it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people tap-dancing to a single piece of music at the same time. The event was organized and…

In collaboration with 12 other local dance schools, the Minnesota Dance Theatre planned to break a Guinness World Record, in honor of the newly dedicated Hennepin Center for the Arts.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

Guru of Milkweed Editions, Emily Buchwald knew Loyce Houlton because they both operated out of the Hennepin Center for the Arts. One of Buchwald’s daughters also studied at MDT. “I forget from year to year how magnificent Nutcracker is…I get teary…

Pictured in the photograph are Marsha Lonstaff, Marna Fletcher, Liisa Mayo, Nikki Gregorian, Jean Johnson, Nairi Gregorian, and Janet Tobias.

A letter of complaint to the company that expresses dissatisfaction with the version of “The Nutcracker,” as presented by the newly formed Northwest Ballet Company (Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Minnesota Dance Theatre). They performed the…

Pictured here are dancers Susan Thompson and Andrew Thompson

Double Exposure of Bobby Crabb, Frances Machal, Marcia Halmers, Sandra Machala.

MDT performed in Dinkytown during protests against the near-demolition of this beloved location for low-key entertainment. Pictured in the photograph is dancer Marcia Halmers.

Shoe shine scene from Kaleidoscope

Loyce Houlton choreographing "Circles."

Pictured here are dancers, Marianne Greven and David Voss

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

Design sketches for the Nutcracker Fantasy.

Notes on sets designed by Jack Barkla, Judith Cooper, Robert Ellsworth, Donald Yunkers, and Kevin Jones.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

“Dancing is the most fragile of all art forms,” Mrs. Houlton said. “It is fragile, you see, because a dancer can’t hang in a museum. We can’t be preserved. The dance is not inanimate; it can’t be placed on top of a desk and studied.”

Minnesota…

A request of approval to catalog and archive the transcript of the oral history of Loyce Houlton conducted by Judith Ingber.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

An adoring telegram to Loyce Houton, while she was in Berlin, from MDT staff and faculty in Minneapolis.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

“A Portrait of the Artist on Yet Another Non-Birthday”

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

From left to right, depicted in the photo are significant people in Loyce’s life including, Miss Martha Hill from the Department of Dance, Julliard, her husband Dr William Houlton, Jacob’s Pillow Festival Director, John Christian, and Eleanor King,…

Loyce Houlton photographed during a rehearsal, 1964, photographer unknown.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

Loyce Houlton seated with Larry Hayden, photographer and date unknown.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

Pas Contemporains

Loyce Houlton standing with David Voss in Drosselmeyer costume at a performance of the Nutcracker Fantasy