The MDT in Trouble, Twin Cities

The MDT in Trouble, Twin Cities

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 and allowed free lessons and use of rehearsal space during the layoff.

Minnesota Dance Theatre Records
Performing Arts Archives

Mar-80

Arts and Entertainment
A DISCRIMINATING LOOK AT LOCAL ATTRACTIONS

DANCE
The MDT in Trouble

On January 26, the board of directors of the Minnesota Dance Theatre, Minnesota’s largest dance company and school, announced its decision to lay off the 20-member dance troupe from March 3 through September 2, 1980. Even though the board intends to have a 1980-81 season, with new contracts promised by the end of March, the drastic move raises some real questions about the future of dance in the Twin Cities.

The MDT is the premier ballet repertory company in town, offering what artistic director and founder Loyce Houlton terms an “eclectic blend of old and new”—the endearingly familiar Nutcracker Suite, all of the grand pas de deux, Sir Frederick Ashton’s Facade, David Lichine’s Graduation Ball, and, of course, Houlton’s own works, among them the popular Knoxville: Summer of 1915.

Why should the company have to lay off its dancers? After all, the dancers are the MDT. “It was absolutely necessary,” said Philip Getts, president of the board. “We were faced with involuntary bankruptcy and an accompanying loss of credibility. We had to do something immediately. We [the board] are not bloodless people. The lay-off was extremely painful for us, too.”

“Our fund-raising goal for 1979-80 was pegged at $357,000—so far we have raised only about $150,000, less than half of what we need. Our school revenues are down by about $10,000. We scheduled one less performance of the Nutcracker during the holidays. Our moving costs [to the Hennepin Center for the Arts] were extremely high. We were counting on a line of bank financing that didn’t come through. The Minnesota Arts Council cut our grant. It was absolutely certain that we were going to miss a payroll this spring. The only responsible thing was to take some definitive action before that happened, alerting the public to our problems and taking the chance that the dancers might not understand our reasons. Fortunately, I think the dancers do understand and are willing to stay with us.”

Meanwhile, the board is actively seeking other forms of employment for the dancers and allowing all company members free lessons and free use of rehearsal space during the lay-off. “We have to have that contract by March 31, though,” said Roberta Stiehm, a veteran MDT dancer who returned to the company after a five-year sojourn at the beginning of the September season. “Most of the dance auditions are held in April and May, and we have to know the plans by then. We need to look out for ourselves, too.”

The irony is that the dance company, the nucleus of the MDT, had to go to save the rest. “I didn’t want this to happen,” Houlton said. “I wanted to keep the company on a bare-bones schedule. Something like this really cuts the creative momentum, but, hopefully, that momentum can be regained.”

Houlton is convinced that things must change at the MDT if the organization is to survive: “Before we do any productions, I’ll have to know there’s money in the bank. We need more extensive marketing and a concrete plan for our future. I think what has happened to us is not only important to the Twin Cities, but also to the nation. I know I am viewed as a strong creative individual in the dance world... and it’s very important that my work and this company be allowed to continue to grow.”

For an area once considered one of the most progressive dance centers in the country, the MDT lay-off and the tangled finances behind it are singularly depressing. “I fear for dance in this town,” said Nancy Hauser, the normally exuberant head of the Nancy Hauser Dance Company, a troupe and school focusing on modern technique. “The Twin Cities has always been a magnet for dancers. So much is going on. That will fade very quickly if the performing companies are allowed to die. Even if the MDT school could continue, it would lose its impact without that essential interplay between company and school.”

Getts says the MDT will be back in the fall, stronger and better than ever. Plans for the future include a renewed fund-raising effort with the ultimate goal of retiring the company’s debt, setting up an endowment fund, and new additions to the company’s repertory. Here’s hoping that Getts is right.
—Mary Morse