Arts Professional Story: Jay Franke, Chicago Dancing Company

Lar Lubivitch, "Little Rhapsodies", Photo Credit: Nan Melville

Ann Fink of Carol Fox and Associates Interviews Jay Franke

The 2007 Chicago Dancing Festival is the first project from the Chicago Dancing Company (CDC), founded in 2007 by Franke and co-CDC director Lar Lubovitch. CDC grew out of our desire to give back to this city that has provided us both with professional success as well as our home base. It also grew out of our wish to create an accessible, entertaining, and artistically motivating evening for residents and tourists. The result: an unprecedented opportunity, featuring the best in dance, to enhance public awareness, profile, and appreciation of dance in Chicago.

Early on our dream was to make this a free performance for the public. We knew in order to make this a reality we knew we needed to find a local artistic partner with up-to-date producing experience and an established commitment to dance to help us brainstorm possibilities, provide guidance on difficult decisions, and most importantly, help us get our ideas to key artists, potential sponsors and promotional partners. We found such a partner in Museum of Contemporary Art and its director of performances, Peter Taub. Taub and the MCA offered the invaluable voice of experience as we worked through the myriad philosophical and practical decisions of a small non profit in Chicago in 2007.

To achieve our vision, Lar and I felt we needed an outdoor venue that could hold say 10,000 people. We figured ‘why not shoot for the stars your first year?’ So of course, we were drawn to the incredible open air space of The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. With dream in hand, we proceeded to the amazing staff of City of Chicago at Millennium Park to see if they could help us take this idea one step further. It wasn't too long before they were on board. Now all parties were working together and Chicago Dancing Festival was moving forward.

We knew we’d need to support this event with creation of an image, a website (www.chicagodancingfestival.com), a PR/marketing campaign and we also knew we needed an event to jump start general awareness. A picture is worth a thousand words and with that in mind we created a preview / kick-off / reception / performance event., which took place at the MCA, and featured a selection of dancers from Chicago and around the country. The event was timed to coincide with the annual meeting of DanceUSA. Despite a tight turn around, it was an outstanding success. It attracted a crowd (to capacity, in fact) and allowed us to officially introduce our organization and provided a public forum for our vision. This was a valuable opportunity to meet one- on-one with those who had an interest and capacity to help us continue to move the project forward. We followed that event with a more exclusive cocktail cultivation event on later that month.

Thanks to our army of supporters we have managed to assemble dancers from seven world renowned companies from all genres (from African dance to classical ballet) on the grandest stage in Chicago. The artists hailing from New York, Florida, San Francisco, and of course, Chicago will perform works from a range of choreographers. In many cases, the full company will be performing and in others we have selected duets or solos to represent the choreographer or company.

The 2007 Chicago Dancing Festival promises to be an unforgettable evening where dancers who would rarely be seen dancing on the same stage will all be in the same program. As for its impact on the audience there that evening: we don’t expect them to necessarily to start dancing through the streets of Chicago (though that would be magical), but it is our hope it will help them become more conscious of the dance community around them…maybe motivate them take a dance class, buy tickets to support a local dance company, become a volunteer or join the board of one of the many dance organizations in Chicago.

How will the Chicago Dancing Festival specifically impact the dance community here in Chicago?

"Chicago is a great town for dance," and "Once you get a patron to a dance event the first time, it's much easier to get them there again." That's the logic behind this year's CDF. Ticket price and accessibility of location are common barriers that discourage audiences from considering seeing a company they haven't seen before or attending dance events at all. With this free event in the extremely accessible Millenium Park, we've removed both of those barriers. There's nothing like experiencing of a diverse array of some of the America's best professional dancers to convey the richness of the visual and emotional experience of live dance and inspire the audience to action. We'll want to strike while the fire is hot so on that evening we'll have materials on hand for a broad range of upcoming Chicago area dance performances and as well as reminders about SeeChicagoDance.com, a comprehensive year-round site showcasing the best dance Chicago has to offer. We also plan to survey the audience on site. What we learn from those surveys will help us as we plan our next CDF but also factor into conversations as we share what we've learned with fellow members of Chicago's dance community.

And what’s on deck afterwards?

Plans are already underway for the next Chicago Dancing Festival. When and where that will take place, will be impacted by what we learn from this year’s event. But now that we have the pieces in place we’ll have the advantage of “building on” vs. “creating for the first time” for round two. And we encourage you to stay tuned to our website for our next exciting chapter.

Jay Franke began his formal dance training at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas. In 1993 he was selected as a Finalist for Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and accepted into The Juilliard School, where he furthered his studies by working with choreographers such as Benjamin Harkarvy, Glen Tetley, Igal Perry and Lila York. Upon receiving his BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School, Franke went to work with the Twyla Tharp Dance Company, "THARP!" Jay relocated to Chicago in 1999 to join Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. He also danced with Chicago companies such as:The 58 Group, The Lyric Opera Ballet Chicago, and founded the non-profit "Chicago Arts Project" in 2001 to implement arts education programs in some of the areas inner city schools. He has been a member of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company since 2005 and is proud to call Chicago home.