If You Build It, Will They Dance?

Wanted: a Los Angeles dance center, with studios and performance spaces where local companies and choreographers can teach, interact, develop reputations, test works in progress and present finished pieces, just as they do in similar venues in Seattle, San Francisco and New York. Parties interested in pursuing this vision must be well-heeled and persistent, undeterred by past failed attempts, the sprawling nature of the city, and a pervasive lack of civic support.

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It sits on Hayden Avenue near Washington in Culver City, a block-long former aerospace factory. On the northern end, a discreet sign, “Conjunctive Points,” hangs over a loading dock entrance to a makeshift lobby. The only furniture inside is a sporadically occupied high-tech steel desk once featured in a Sylvester Stallone film.

Nothing suggests the nature of the place until signed photographs of Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov catch the eye. Around the corner, parents watch their progeny flutter about in one of the four mirrored dance studios. Later on, amateurs and pros will tap, stamp and point their way through a host of workshops and classes.

If teachers, choreographers and entrepreneurs involved with Conjunctive Points have their way, this 2-year-old repository of expertise and energy may eradicate L.A.’s dance center gap. Though it has a way to go before achieving its promise, it’s already acquired critical mass.

Opening in 1997 with a few high-profile dance classes, Conjunctive Points now houses three highly regarded resident dance companies--the venerable Jazz Tap Ensemble, the young, contemporary Helios Dance Theater and the American Repertory Dance Company, which revives modernist classics. Each pays rent, rehearses on the premises and calls Conjunctive Points home. The facility offers classes not only in ballet and modern dance but also in jazz, salsa, flamenco and swing.

Stanley Holden, former principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, has set up shop there, and, in an art form where maintaining technique is crucial, his professional-level ballet workouts are legendary. Baryshnikov takes his classes when he’s in town. And joining Holden on the “faculty” are dancers who’ve worked with such masters as Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, Bella Lewitzky and Twyla Tharp.

“Proximity with such high-powered artists is very refreshing--and rare in Los Angeles,” said Jazz Tap Ensemble artistic director Lynn Dally. “This is like being in New York.”

That’s music to the ears of Laura Zucker, executive director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, which administers the local dance program at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre every summer.

“The center is providing much needed energy and rehearsal space for developing work which, we’ve been told, is the No. 1 need of dancers,” she said. “It’s a critical step in the evolution of dance in this city.”

This summer, the operation has picked up speed, serving as a hub for the L.A. Arts Open House and the site of a weeklong tap festival. Bette Midler just finished rehearsing there for her upcoming show and, on Nov. 14, former American Ballet Theatre star Cynthia Gregory will hold a master class. Also on the schedule that day: a Pushkin bicentennial celebration presenting arias and ballet set to the author’s work and readings by Michael York.

According to the center’s masterminds, developers Frederick and Laurie Samitaur Smith, there’s a lot more in the offing. A “conjunctive point” is a physics term connoting the place at which an idea takes physical form, they explain--and their idea extends beyond the dance facility. So far, they’ve built or renovated 700,000 square feet of properties in this former industrial tract, leasing them to high-tech and entertainment firms. Their ultimate goal: a multiuse creative community, known collectively as Conjunctive Points, that they hope will trigger a cultural renaissance in the once-blighted area.

“We see the dance studio as the beginning of a theatrical district which will be set in motion this year,” said Laurie Smith, a former actress and native Angeleno. “There will be three new theaters, each seating 200 to 500 people, as well as a small amphitheater. My husband said he wanted to focus on the art form in the worst shape. Well, no major dance company--other than Lewitzky’s--has ever survived and thrived in L.A.”

The influx of private capital is good news for a dance community facing dwindling foundation monies and virtual abandonment by the public sector. Because the Smiths are self-financed, they can sidestep some of the fiscal problems that led to the collapse of Lewitzky’s Dance Gallery in the early 1990s. That project tried to create a dance institute with a resident company, theater and rehearsal studios. It was to be financed by government agencies, private donors and tax-exempt bonds.

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From the outset, the Smiths had an agenda that has played out according to plan: Sign on top-of-the-line dance teachers such as Holden and Yuri Grigoriev, a People’s Artist of Russia. Then attract choreographers and dancers. Make the space inviting and user-friendly--with skylights and sprung floors. Finally, make sure that rents will be both competitive and sufficient to make ends meet. The facility was in the black after only a year.

Mark Morris and the National Ballet of Cuba have rehearsed at Conjunctive Points. The Joffrey Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company and ABT have held auditions there. Scheduling is handled by Alexandra Grigorieva, wife of Yuri, who oversees day-to-day operations. The center’s high-caliber technique classes have been another plus.

“It’s hard to find good ballet and modern classes,” Holden said. “I used to tell my [teenage] students to get out--that there’s nothing here for them. If the Smiths’ vision materializes, it will be a happy day for L.A. and the West Coast--and we’re already on the turn. Baryshnikov calls Conjunctive Points ‘a place.’ ”

For Holden, that “place” emerged in the nick of time--just as he lost his previous lease and was considering retirement. After working in his own Pico Boulevard studio for 25 years, he was tired of taking responsibility for cleaning, repairs and the like. Besides, finding suitable space was a difficult proposition. Though the Smiths only had two rather small studios at the time, they agreed to build another in a big warehouse space and dedicate it to him.

“Stanley established this as a serious training facility and served as a magnet for talent,” said Bonnie Oda Homsey, co-founder of the American Repertory Dance Company. “Now that we have the facility and the faculty, we have to build a bridge to the community.”

On Saturday mornings, Dally holds entry-level “Kids on Tap” classes for children ages 8 to 11. Twice a week, 12 youngsters participate in her Caravan Project for gifted teens. The L.A. Arts Open House was another vehicle for bringing people in.

Though performances at Conjunctive Points are still sporadic, there’s a major commitment to revving things up. Last spring, the center presented the African American musical “Spiritual” by choreographer Otis Sallid (Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” “School Daze”). And in December, a low-priced ($5-$10) student “Nutcracker” is planned.

“Our big [5,250-square-foot] studio is huge--large enough for lighting, scenery and an audience,” said Conjunctive Points’ modern jazz instructor Karen McDonald. “That’s very hard to find. We can present works in progress and invite backers to a concert. I always told Frederick: ‘If you build it, they will come.’ ”

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Developing the center as a performing space and a presenter has major implications in a city with only a handful of dance venues.

“Last year, we were part of the UCLA series--the only local dance company to be featured alongside such [commercially viable names as] Merce, Bill T. Jones, Mark Morris,” said Laura Gorenstein Miller artistic director of Helios. “It’s very hard for local troupes to get exposure.”

Serena Tripi, an independent producer and presenter, agrees. “Are we always going to say that Bella Lewitzky’s was the biggest L.A. company?” she asked. “Conjunctive Points helps companies to experiment, [eventually] to be seen, so they won’t have to tour to grow.”

In the next year, dressing rooms and more bathrooms will be built--along with a gym/spa with massage tables and whirlpool baths to soothe dancers’ aching limbs. Construction will also begin on the theaters that, in the wildest of the Smiths’ dreams, will one day house a Conjunctive Points dance company.

Though some challenge the feasibility of that venture, no one is questioning the overall plan. The need--and the payoff--are so obvious, in fact, that the project has already spawned a potential competitor. If all goes well, the Dance Arts Academy will come into being before the end of the year, to be located on La Brea Avenue just south of Wilshire Boulevard. The venture is being financed through a Small Business Administration loan obtained by artistic director Carla Luna, a flamenco choreographer who has taught at Conjunctive Points, among other places.

“Two dance spaces would be better than one--and, ideally, we need three or four,” Tripi observed. “There are an awful lot of local dance companies that need to be accommodated. And a dance student working near Claremont is unlikely to take classes in Culver City.”

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For information about classes and productions call: (310) 836-3962.