DCist Interview: Dance Place's Carla Perlo
Carla Perlo, courtesy Dance Place and the artist.
One of the cool things about living in D.C. right now is that there are still movers and shakers around who have been instrumental in coaxing the city from its sleepy period a few decades back to its current status as an increasingly cosmopolitan place. Carla Perlo is one of those folks. A Washington-area native, she founded Dance Place in 1980 in an effort to give the region's few modern dancers another venue for classes and performances. That was back in Adams Morgan, before the rents in that neighborhood went sky high and she was forced to leave.
Thirty years later, Perlo's organization, now based in Brookland, lies at the heart of the city's swelling dance community and can claim a good bit of responsibility for the still-growing number of dancers and companies who call Washington home.
Dance Place is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with a series of performances featuring longtime allies and collaborators. Perlo herself is marking it, in part, by changing directions: this weekend features the last annual performance by Carla & Co., one of Dance Place's in-house companies. After 18 years of running the group, she'll be turning her focus back to the organization itself as it continues to evolve.
Perlo spoke with DCist about how dance has grown across the region and what makes artists the indispensable catalysts of a city's development.
How did you initially get into D.C.'s dance scene?
When I first came back in to the area in 1975, it was specifically to work with [dancer] Jan Van Dyke, a Washingtonian. During that period, she was able to acquire a large studio space in Adams Morgan, at 2424 18th Street. I worked with her to develop that studio theater for five years, until 1980. Then she decided it was too much work for her and she went to New York, and I took it over. I was 28 years old and that was a big undertaking for me, a big risk.
What was Washington's dance scene like at that time?
There were about 25 serious contemporary dancers in town at that time. It was a very small group of people, and we were all very connected; there weren't many companies. If you were dancing in D.C., you were either in the Adams Morgan studio or at Liz Lerman's Dance Exchange, which was then on Rhode Island and 14th Street.
How have things changed?
I've seen enormous growth, not just in modern dance but ethnically-specific dance, too, all kinds. To a large extent, it's because of institutions like Dance Place, the Washington Ballet, the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage opportunities, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, the Dance Institute of Washington, Joy of Motion, now Strathmore -- we've seen it blossom and blossom. Just like in a lot of other fields, there's a critical mass that has to be there in order to attract other people. Then other people decide, "Gee, I don't feel like living in New York. Where else can I go?" It's really accelerated over the past ten years.
Tell me a little bit about your company, Carla & Co., and why you've decided to close it.
When I formed Carla & Co. [in the early 1990s], I decided that what I wanted was to start an audience-development company that families could enjoy and that I could take to the schools, so that young people would have an appetite for modern dance. I thought there was a real need for that -- there were already plenty of mid-range touring companies looking for space in regional theaters, so there was lots of competition for that and there still is.
What do you mean by audience development?
It introduces dance to people not familiar with it, trying to whet their appetites for it. So they might say to themselves afterwards, "that was fun. Maybe I should study dance, or go see more dance performances." We're looking at people who don't have access, and turning them into dance enthusiasts. And hopefully they'll then come to Dance Place and other venues as well.
So has it worked out?
Oh, yeah. I've been doing this work for almost 20 years. One of the greatest challenges I have is finding dancers who'll commit to doing this type of work, because it's very hard work, very early in the morning, in a variety of settings -- anywhere from a cafeteria to an outdoor stage. It trains you to be a great performer because kids are not going to be polite. If you go to an audience in a regular theater, people are very polite. But go to a school and you have immediate feedback; if it isn't good, you know it right away.
What's the company like?
We have a diversity of ages and backgrounds -- someone is 60, someone else is 50, others are 40 and 30. [Kids] are going to see that range and think, "Wow, you can dance at any age." I used to be one of the dancers, but I've retired from dancing.
So what will you do with yourself now?
Oh, I'll be plenty busy -- I have plenty of work directing the Dance Place. We're in partnership with an organization called Artspace USA to build live/work artist lofts [next door to the studio and currently under construction]. There'll be 39 of them, with three additional spaces for Dance Place. One will be our second studio, and we'll be renting two more spaces. Also, we'll enter into a capital campaign, which will allow us to renovate our building and get it where it needs to be for next 30 years. It's 25 years old now and really needs improvements.
What are your thoughts about the future, both for Dance Place and D.C., from an arts perspective?
I think Washington will continue to be a real magnet and cultural hotbed for new ideas, great performers, and new choreography -- we're really developing a terrific cultural city here. And a lot of it is because of the mayor and others who understand what's happened with New York. It's been the cultural capital of the world, and they see that and they want it. They see that every time artists are involved in an area, it becomes economically vibrant -- people want to live there, they want to work there. It becomes a real economic engine. And it's true here: look at where we've been. And now big changes are coming to Brookland -- it's taken 20 years, but there's going to be so much growth here in the next few years, it's going to be unbelievable. And the beauty of it is that we own our own building, so they're not going to move us out this time.
See Carla & Co. in their last performances this Saturday, 8 p.m. and Sunday, 4 p.m. at Dance Place. Tickets $8-30.