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Dancing in Des Moines

7/6/2022

This year, Ballet Des Moines celebrates 20 years since its founding and 10 years since its professional debut. Des Moines may boast the only professional ballet company in Iowa, but reaching this point was far from a waltz in the park. Beneath the dizzying whirls of tutus and gravity-defying grande jetés lay the gnawing anxiety omnipresent in the arts: funding.

Elizabeth Harano Adams performs as Juliet in Ballet Iowa’s 1992 production of “Romeo & Juliet.” Julie Grooters, second from left, dances as a handmaiden. Photo submitted.

The ballet’s beginnings

The city’s present-day dance industry began with one woman. Circa 1965, local dance teacher Mary Joyce Lind committed to bring Des Moines’ ballet company to a ballet festival in Kansas City.

The only problem? A company didn’t exist.

That didn’t stop Lind, who gathered a corps of 10 girls for the performance. Three weeks later, the Des Moines Civic Ballet Company was formally founded. The company presented Des Moines’ first locally staged performance of “The Nutcracker” in 1966.

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Those who promote the arts often go un-thanked. For Joyce, her efforts were purely for the love of dance; she provided artistic direction free of charge for the ballet’s first decade. Without a permanent home, the fledgling company taught classes in schools in exchange for studio space. Fast forward to today: Ballet Des Moines employs 18 artists and administrators, with a permanent space near Valley Junction.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Back to 1978. It’s been 13 years since Lind began the company now known simply as the Des Moines Ballet. To the shock of many, the board votes not to renew Lind’s contract, and Jorge Samaniego takes her place at the company’s artistic helm. Under his guidance, the ballet cements its reputation as a truly professional company. The ballet inaugurates the newly opened Des Moines Civic Center, performing the venue’s first show in 1979.

The next years are a flurry of faces. Artistic directors Stephan Laurent and Ken Oberly come and go, and so do the dancers, both Iowa-grown and imported from across the country. Among the home-grown group are sisters and West Des Moines natives Julie and Lori Grooters — remember those names for later.

Lori Grooters in Ballet Des Moines’ performance of “Cinderella” in 2014. Photo by Ryan Morrison.

Among the imported group was Elizabeth Harano, now Adams. She fondly recalled the synergy between dancers from Ballet Iowa and other area dance organizations, like the Neuman Dance Project and Co’Motion Dance Theater in Ames.

“It was really cool to have all of that going on. There was a lot of dance actually happening around — and it was really high level,” Adams said. “We all kind of helped each other out.”

Through the 1980s and early 1990s, Des Moines’ young ballet company forged through the tumult of shrinking and growing budgets. They renamed themselves Ballet Iowa in 1990. The troupe staged world-class classical and contemporary ballets, traveling the country on tour. Whispers of financial distress became shouts. It all came to a point under the leadership of Konstantin Uralsky, who hailed from the renowned Bolshoi Ballet.

The ballet’s fold

What took 30 years to build crumbled within days.

Following years of financial mismanagement, newspapers began highlighting the $600,000 of debt incurred by Ballet Iowa. The company canceled five shows mid-season in March 1997. Soon after, Uralsky, several staff members and all 23 professional dancers were let go. Followed by a trail of debt winding through the city, Ballet Iowa was unable to recover. 

From the company’s ashes rose the Vine Street Ballet school, an attempt to reestablish a professional ballet in the city with its offshoot, Des Moines Metro Dance Theatre. However, crippled once again by underfunding, the company shut its doors before it could even launch.

In 2000, the dilapidated Ballet Iowa building on Grand Avenue in West Des Moines was torn down, and the final remnants of professional dance in Des Moines were lost. 

The show must go on

Even as Ballet Iowa fizzled out, the fight for dance spread like wildfire across central Iowa. Inspect the faculty lists of today’s area dance schools, and you’ll trace roots back to Ballet Iowa, Mary Joyce-Lind or her teacher, Rose Lorenz. Many of these studios collaborate to present performances with Iowa Dance Theatre, a community-based company founded by Lind after being pushed from Ballet Iowa. Teachers and students perform with other semi- and pre-professional productions by the Pointe Academy Dance Ensemble, the School of Classical Ballet and Dance, Hurley & Dancers, Yaro Dance Company, Iowa Youth Ballet and many more.

The ballet’s revival

Enter Julie Grooters.

After dancing around the world, the former Ballet Iowa artist returned home to open first a ballet school, then the Ballet Theatre of Des Moines in 2002, restarting the process of building a professional ballet from scratch.

Serkan Usta and Lori Grooters served as Ballet Des Moines’ artistic directors for 16 of its 20 years to date. Photo by Jami Milne.

Meanwhile — in Oklahoma, Julie’s younger sister, Lori, had been dancing for the Tulsa Ballet. She’d met and married fellow dancer Serkan Usta, whose background is an entirely different story. In brief: a Turkish-born troublemaker raised in an orphanage moves to the United States on a scholarship to become a ballet star.

Grooters and Usta moved to Des Moines to become part-owners at Julie’s school in 2004, and a year later, the directorship of the ballet company also fell into their laps. The couple rebranded the Ballet Theatre of Des Moines as Ballet Des Moines (BDM).

Rebuilding a professional ballet was no small feat. Although some years had passed since Ballet Iowa’s fold, investors and donors remained wary.

“We’d go and try to get donations,” Usta recalled. “They would always pat me and Lori on the shoulders: ‘Hey, ballet, it’s a hard one — good luck with that.’ ”

But try they did. With an army of volunteers and a vigilant financial strategy, BDM slowly built support and funding. They spent their early years as a civic — not professional — company, and the husband-wife duo used their Ballet Tulsa connections to the fullest. Young local dancers comprised the corps of their ballets, while the company contracted professionals from Tulsa to dance as guest stars once their own season was over.

“Those principal dancers were my friends, and they would stay in our house, downstairs; I’d cook for them.” Usta said. “And we would just show the community what they can have.”

For some shows, Grooters and Usta emerged from retirement to dance the principal roles themselves. It wasn’t until 2012 — a decade after BDM’s founding — that the company was able to hire six of its own resident dancers. Today, BDM is home to eight professional dancers and one apprentice who perform four mainstage productions per season and several other events throughout the year.

Tom Mattingly directs Ballet Des Moines dancers in their studio near Valley Junction. Photo by Jami Milne.

A dancer’s life

The life of a dancer can be unforgiving. A typical day for a BDM dancer starts with company class at 10 a.m., followed by rehearsals through 2 p.m., a short lunch, and more rehearsals until 5 p.m. For Cameron Miller, who joined the company in the spring of 2021, the remainder of his day is filled with keeping in shape at the gym, teaching at a local dance studio and serving part-time at a cocktail bar.

“Unfortunately, doing what you love doesn’t always come with a high paycheck,” Miller said, also citing the challenge of constant self-scrutiny. “Looking at yourself every day in the mirror for six, seven, eight hours can put a lot of mental strain on you.”

Plus, a dancer’s career is short-lived. Only 26 years old, Miller is already one of the oldest dancers in BDM, and he must take special care to avoid injuries.

Adams, who was a principal dancer with Ballet Iowa until 1994, recalled surviving off unemployment insurance during summer layoffs.

“I did that for six years because ballet is seasonal work,” she said. “So you just assume you’re going to be unemployed during the off-season.”

Despite the struggles, many continue to perform, teach and promote dance — through the injuries, part-time jobs, criticism and uncertainties. Even in the peak of the COVID pandemic, Ballet Des Moines managed to provide performances that were broadcast through PBS (and nominated for a Midwest Emmy).

The stubborn tenacity of dancers and dance-lovers is rooted in a deeply held conviction in the performing arts.

“Dance is very important in the community,” Usta said. “It’s a soul need; it’s not a luxury.”

The ballet’s evolution

Last summer, after 16 years with Ballet Des Moines, Usta and Grooters stepped down as artistic directors, due to conflicting visions with other leadership regarding the future of the company. They plan to focus on their dance school, which recently presented its first full-length story ballet. The couple also hopes to establish another nonprofit dance company, although plans have yet to be set.

In the meantime, BDM forges ahead with its new artistic director. Tom Mattingly came to Des Moines from Madison (Wisconsin) Ballet last November and is ready to take BDM to “the next level.”

For him, that looks like showcasing a more diverse range of choreographers and voices, both on and off the stage.

“I think the community is ready to be challenged a bit artistically,” he said.

Audiences got a taste of that change during Mattingly’s first “Nutcracker” last December. The Act Two celebration of sweets that traditionally included Spanish Chocolate, Arabian Coffee and Chinese Tea was replaced by graceful does, swirling betta splendens and sparkling dragonflies.

“We reimagined the storyline of ‘The Nutcracker’ to eliminate what can often be very hurtful and racist caricatures,” Mattingly said.

Last April, the company concluded its season with “Of Gravity and Light,” which became the most highly attended contemporary show in its history. The interdisciplinary ballet combined a brand-new score, video installations, and more than 30 on-stage musicians to portray the science and mystique of the cosmos. BDM recently announced a summer tour that will bring “Gravity” across the state, concluding in Des Moines on Aug. 3.

The future

Prior to the pandemic, BDM passed its first ever budget topping $1 million. But, Mattingly said, it all comes down to taking calculated risks and targeting the right audience — all while keeping a careful eye on financials and avoiding an encore of the past.

“As a newer director, my No. 1 goal is: don’t put the company in debt, don’t tank this company!” Mattingly said, laughing.

And each day that Des Moines’ professional dance scene grows, hundreds of aspiring dancers train, scattered across dozens of studios, dreaming of their time in the spotlight.

“We’ve graduated some amazing dancers out into the professional world, and it’s because we’re able to have performances. What we don’t have is audiences,” said Adams, who now directs the Pointe Academy in West Des Moines. She deemed it the “Iowa inferiority complex,” the phenomenon prompting talented artists to emigrate from the state. “It’s unfortunate that people aren’t aware of all the amazing stuff that’s here in Iowa.”

Ultimately, the success of professional dance in a city depends on the support of its community. And while dance in Des Moines may be young in that regard, Mattingly seemed confident in its future growth.

“The response and the support from the community is really overwhelming,” he said. “It gives me such confidence, moving forward with the company, that we can keep building and building and building. I really do think that Ballet Des Moines can be the most envied small ballet company in our region.” ♦


Gateway Dance Theatre performs a fusion of worldwide dance styles. Photo by Eric Salmon.

Gateway Dance Theatre

Celebrating 50 years of moving to the rhythms of the world

By Sofia Legaspi Dickens

While ballet and modern companies ebbed and flowed in Des Moines, there was a different type of dance group that chugged along — slowly and steadily. Gateway Dance Theatre (GDT) utilizes multiple art forms to enrich lives through residency programs, workshops, classes and outreach events.

GDT marks its 50-year anniversary this year. Its founder, Penny Furgerson, said the company’s greatest accomplishment was surpassing its first month.

Furgerson came to Des Moines from Mumbai in 1956 and is trained in classical Indian dance. She didn’t plan to start her own company, but a lack of diverse dance opportunities prompted her to explore the possibility.

“When you say ‘dance,’ people think of tutus and ballet slippers. So I was trying to explain to [people], there’s dance all over the world.” she said. “I felt when I came here, people’s perception of dance was very Eurocentric, even now. And so I want them to see that there’s more to it.”

The “more” manifests itself in a rich fusion of worldwide dance forms: African, Asian, and Caribbean, just to name a few. But as Furgerson pondered over the last five decades of GDT, the list of dance styles the company has performed was too long to recount.

“If you’re looking for specific dance names, you won’t find them because it’s always a mix of different cultures,” said Debina Nath, associate director of GDT. “If we’re doing a modern dance, we might add hand gestures of Indian dance into it.”

GDT choreographers and instructors come from near and far. Some are natives of the country whose dances they share; others have studied internationally. But wherever they’re from, GDT’s artists work faithfully to maintain the integrity of each culture.

The company defies traditional expectations not only in dance styles, but also its members. Dancers of all backgrounds are welcome, from those with decades of experience to those who have never stepped foot on a stage. Currently, the group’s oldest dancer is 75 years old, and its youngest is 4. Inspired by the likes of Arthur Mitchell, Katherine Dunham and Alvin Ailey, inclusivity is key in GDT’s membership.

“As I like to put it, we’re the America of dance companies — we’re the melting pot,” said Sydney Furgerson, Penny’s granddaughter and GDT’s program and project coordinator.

This month, GDT will present the classic Indian play “Shakuntala.” The company first performed the love story in 2016, not knowing how audiences would receive it.

“We didn’t typecast at all,” said the elder Furgerson. “Shakuntala happened to be Indian. The hero was Brazilian, her brother Chinese, her father African American.”

Despite GDT’s work, its leadership said Des Moines still has a long way to go in promoting diversity in the arts. Twenty years from now, Furgerson hopes to see “all kinds of dance” celebrated in the city.

“I think we’ve got some excellent dancers that you only see during the heritage festivals,” she said.

Furgerson emphasized that diverse performances will only become mainstream as Des Moines residents get involved — whether as a dancer, audience member, volunteer or donor.

GDT will present “Shakuntala” at 7:30 p.m. on July 9 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 4114 Allison Ave., Des Moines. More events will be soon announced, and classes are offered weekly on Wednesday evenings. Find information at gatewaydance.org,  or email info@gatewaydance.org. ♦

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