Choreographing a New Future for Michigan Dance

It's safe to assume that no aspiring professional dancer has ever been given the advice to stay in Michigan. After graduating high school here, Kathy King sure didn't consider staying an option. At the advice of her teachers, she moved to Los Angeles. 

 

"It was one of those learning experiences where you realize, that this is a crazy world," says King, explaining that the concept that sex sells is alive and well in L.A. "I learned that commercial dance wasn't really the avenue I wanted."

 

As it turned out, what King really wanted to do was concert dance, and instead of moving somewhere else to find the best outlet, she simply came back to Michigan and made her own opportunities. Now an adjunct lecturer at Eastern Michigan University, a modern and jazz dance instructor and assistant director at Michelle's Academy of Dance & Performing Arts Center in Brighton, King is also the founder and director of the Michigan Dance Project. 

 

"The first year I was 21, and I didn't really know what I was doing, "King says. "It was just me and two of my girlfriends. I read every small business book I could get my hands on. Throughout the years it's definitely grown."

 

The non-profit concert dance organization started in 2006 with seven dancers. Now in its seventh season, Michigan Dance Project has not only grown as an organization – fluctuating in size up to 20 dancers in some years – but also as a part of Michigan's dance community. The Brighten-based group attracts dancers from all over the state, and their weekly open dance classes attract attendees from as far as Ohio. This August, Michigan Dance Project will host its fourth annual Brighton Dance Festival, which has raised more than $14,000 to date for the Brighton Center for the Performing Arts.

 

"People say there's nowhere to dance in Michigan," says King. "I'm like, 'dude, open your eyes.' There is all sorts of dance happening. This big boom in the dance community has been happening here in the last five years or so."

 

Michigan Dance Project has played no small role in that boom. Not only has King's group given dancers the opportunity to train and perform, but she's also committed to bringing concert dance to a broader audience. 

 

"We pride ourselves on putting on shows that you don't have to be a dancer to know what's going on," she says.  "Anyone walking down the street can come in and be entertained." 

 

Now wrapping up it's season for the year, the King's organization is looking to change things up for the 2013-2014 season. Rather than beginning right away in the fall, Michigan Dance Project will go on a sort of half-season hiatus to prepare for its biggest show ever. King hopes to bring in about two dozen dancers for the event.

 

"I like to change things up every season," she says, "just to keep it exciting for me and the dancers. They're all excited to do something new."

 

King plans to continue to grow Michigan Dance Project, spurred on by the group's new amobitions. Though she is now able to pay her dancers for performances, she'd one day like to provide them with salaries for their work, leaving the professional dance industry in Michigan more fruitful than she found it. 

 

Not that she has any complaints about her career here thus far."Coming back from L.A. was the best decision I ever made," King says. "I 've been so successful as a dancer here."

 

Michigan Dance Project recently performed its last regular concert of the season at Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti. The weeklong Brighton Dance Festival will take place Aug 19-24 and will include intensive classes for kids, teens and adults. 

Natalie Burg is a freelance writer, Concentrate's development news editor, and a regular contributor to Metromode and Capital Gains in Lansing.