At Dance Center, Change of Tenants Steps on Some Toes

When the Conjunctive Points Dance Center opened in a former aerospace factory in Culver City four years ago, owners Frederick and Laurie Samitaur Smith had a vision: to bolster L.A.’s struggling dance community by providing a home and affordable studio space for a wide range of companies and teachers.

Stanley Holden, former principal dancer of the Royal Ballet and a highly respected West Coast ballet instructor, signed on as one of the first tenants. The Jazz Tap Ensemble, the American Repertory Dance Company and a dozen other teachers or troupes followed suit.

On Jan. 15, however, the current roster of residents will be replaced by a single occupant, dancer-choreographer Debbie Allen, whose new, year-round school aimed at children 8 to 17 will take over Conjunctive Points’ four state-of-the-art studios. Allen plans to hold auditions for the school, the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, from Jan. 18 to 21, and begin classes the next week.

Though a few current Conjunctive Points tenants may sign on with Allen’s academy, most are scrambling to regroup. It was just a few weeks ago, in mid-December, that they were informed by mail that “due to a planned reorganization of the Dance Center,” their month-to-month leases would not be renewed.

“What a Christmas present,” said Holden, whose four ballet classes a week attract between 120 and 200 students in all. Holden joined Conjunctive Points at the Smiths’ invitation three years ago. “They created the studio in my honor, even put up a plaque--I feel like I’ve been taken. We had a brilliant lineup, great artistic people in there, but the bottom line was dollars and cents. Though we’ve done very well, Frederick told me he was losing money. They want to run before they can walk.”

The Smiths maintain that artistic vision--not rental income--is motivating the change. “Dollars and cents had nothing to do with our decision,” said Frederick Smith, who with his wife owns Samitaur Constructs, which is developing abandoned industrial properties in Culver City’s Hayden Tract. “We [will] actually be making less money than before.”

From the outset, the Smiths explained, they had hoped that companies and instructors at Conjunctive Points would not only attend to their own agendas, but also create and present a series of works-in-progress at the dance center. They also wanted to establish an academy for youngsters and, eventually, a professional company formed from dancers trained at the facility.

Feelings of Betrayal Among Center’s Tenants

The center’s resident companies and instructors were aware that in-house productions and training young people were priorities, the Smiths said. But they weren’t following through.

“Debbie walked in in November and said, ‘This is my dream,’ ” Laurie Smith said. “She showed us videos of productions she’d mounted at the Kennedy Center [where she is an artist-in-residence] and others she’s choreographed, almost ready to perform. I only wish that some of those with ruffled feathers had tried to fulfill the mandate. Finally there was someone who voiced our ambition.”

According to many of the original tenants, Conjunctive Points had succeeded in becoming a haven for dance in a town traditionally inhospitable to the art form.

“For a brief while, it helped centralize the training and aspirations of students and professionals in ballet, modern, tap, flamenco and salsa,” said Bonnie Oda Homsey, artistic director of the American Repertory Dance Company, which revives modernist classics. She used Conjunctive Points to rehearse, give workshops and organize the L.A. Open House dance festival.

Lynn Dally artistic director of the Jazz Tap Ensemble, says she and others channeled time and energy into the dance center, giving it a clientele--and credibility.

“After all the vitality we injected into the place, it’s pretty lame for them to suggest we weren’t doing our jobs,” Dally said. “Just for starters, I organized four tap festivals, brought in guest artists like Gregory Hines and Savion Glover, worked with children in my Kids on Tap every Saturday. Ultimately, everyone will land on his feet, but it’s not going to be easy.”

Laurie Smith contended that there is no shortage of options. “Debbie is open to accepting any resident instructor she considers qualified--and those that don’t want to work for her academy will be OK,” she said. “Given their reputations and size of their followings, plenty of studios will welcome them.”

The way in which tenants were informed of the change has added to feelings of betrayal.

“Giving us a month to find new digs and drag our students there? You don’t treat established artists that way,” said Patricia Neary, a former dancer with Balanchine’s New York City Ballet and artistic director of the Zurich Ballet who has been giving classes at Conjunctive Points for the last five months. “They could at least have called us in for a proper meeting.”

Alexandra de la Vega, who has studied with Holden since 1980, gathered 118 signatures on a letter dated Dec. 24 and addressed to the Smiths.

“The manner in which this has been handled has been both alarming and harmful,” it said. “It is odd that . . . management would want to alienate the existing source of income.”

Allen’s timetable required hasty action, Frederick Smith explained. And, he added, though some key players learned the news before the Smiths could call them personally, an attempt was made to contact them.

Allen said she was unaware of the bad feelings created by the establishment of her school. “This isn’t a negative commentary on what was,” said the Emmy Award-winning actress, who has produced and directed feature films in addition to choreographing the Academy Awards show. “It’s a move toward what can be.”

The academy, Allen added, “is a leap into the dark--financed by my life savings. Until my nonprofit status comes through, I have no outside funding. I think I understand the feelings of the artists currently teaching there. But giving birth, bringing new energy into the world, always involves pain.”

Allen said that she has been thinking for years about creating an institution at which serious-minded dance students can develop their talent. She scouted the area for possible sites before she met the Smiths through a mutual friend.

Allen will teach classes at the academy, which plans to offer instruction in ballet, modern, jazz, hip-hop and African dance. She will also form what she calls a young professionals’ company, most likely selected from the student body. Each year, the group will perform in a production directed and choreographed by Allen.

Students will be required to attend 2 1/2 to three hours of classes a day, from four to six days a week. Each must enroll for a year, and a maximum of 150 can be accommodated. Fees are expected to be about $400 or $500 a month. If a student takes a full schedule, Allen said, that comes out to about $10 a class.

Allen has hired Adrienne Dellas, formerly of the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C, to direct the school. Others on staff include Stephen Smith, a former soloist with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, jazz teacher Terry Beaman and hip-hop instructor Andre Revis, who has worked with Michael Jackson.

Though the future of many of Conjunctive Points’ current tenants is up in the air, two have made immediate plans. Dally’s Jazz Tap Ensemble and Holden’s classes are taking up residence at the Dance Arts Academy on La Brea Avenue beginning Jan. 15.