Celebrating Charles Reinhart: American Dance Festival’s Impresario, at BAM
http://www.thirteen.org/sundayarts/blog/charles-reinhart-american-dance-festivals-impresario/1028/
Paul Taylor Dance Company in "Brandenburgs"
The word “impresario” derives from the Italian word impresa, an enterprise or undertaking. Impresario is a high-falutin’ word for an entertainment manager, organizer, or administrator, and one of the snazzier job titles in the biz. I suppose many people fit the definition, but few actually live up to the implied mystique, as did Diaghilev, Sol Hurok, Lincoln Kirstein, and Harvey Lichtenstein. And consider Charles Reinhart, who is stepping down as artistic director of the American Dance Festival where he has been since 1968. He was feted in an evening at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House last week in honor of his 80th birthday.
It’s a memorable experience to spend time at ADF, which takes place in the high heat of summer at Duke University in Durham, NC. A combination of summer camp, performance festival, and convention (plus ancillary things like the Institute for Dance Criticism), it provides an immersive dance experience. Classes are taught throughout the days, and performances are given in the evenings, or in workshop showings at random times in classrooms and gymnasiums. The show audiences are filled with enthusiastic students, which puts the “festive” back in the festival.
