"We believe this magazine has been a valuable asset to the entire Midwest, but despite critical acclaim, it has been unable to garner the critical mass of support necessary to continue during these difficult times," said Executive Editor Meg Galipault.

"This is an extraordinarily sad day for Dialogue and for the entire Midwest arts community. Artists, art lovers, patrons and arts educators have lost a strong voice that raised the profile of the arts and articulated vital issues," said Robert Palmer, president of the Dialogue board of trustees.

According to Palmer, efforts to wean the magazine away from public support to become self-sustaining based upon revenues generated from subscriptions, advertising, grants and private donations were working, but the effort was unable to generate the level of support necessary to continue.

"I'm very sad about the whole thing," Meg Galipault told Arts Wire. "Dialogue has struggled throughout the years but always managed to survive. We were very generously supported by the Ohio Arts Council, both in terms of grants and guidance. The Illinois Arts Council and the Columbus Foundation stepped forward in a big way over the past couple of years, as well. Subscriptions were up, as was advertising. We tried very hard to keep it going, but without proper private support from individuals and businesses it couldn't happen."

Dialogue, a nonprofit arts organization, was founded in 1978 by John Coplans of the Akron Art Institute (now known as the Akron Art Museum) and Don Harvey of the University of Akron. Their goal was to create a communications vehicle so that institutions throughout Ohio could share information on exhibitions. Many notable artists and art educators have been involved with the publication, including Denny Griffith, president of the Columbus College of Art & Design, who served as Executive Director during the '80s.

Executive Editor Meg Galipault's background includes being manager of the MJT Dance Co. in Boston and managing her own public relations firm. In 2000, she won an ADDY award for the concept and writing of a public service announcement series about the arts.

Under Galipault's leadership, Dialogue strengthened its content, refined its design, broadened the scope of coverage to include performing as well as visual arts, and doubled ad sales. The magazine covered the arts throughout the Midwest -- working in particular to place and keep the Midwest on the cultural map and to give recognition to Midwest artists.

"What concerns me most is that the Midwest will lose its visibility on the cultural map," Galipault commented. "The amount of talent in this region is incredible, and I hope that someone will step forward to bring Dialogue back to life so that the rest of the country will continue to read about the richness and strength of all that is happening here in the Heartland."

Regular features included the annual Arts Guide to the Region, listing more than 500 galleries, nonprofit spaces, university galleries, museums, and art service organizations in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, lower Michigan, western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

Recent coverage has featured, among many others, the electronica-duo Adult from Detroit; installation artist Johnny Coleman from Cleveland; performance artist Janet Grau, originally from Columbus, Ohio, who has been working in Germany; Bloomington, Illinois-based sculptor Dann Nardi; Louisville painter Shayne Hull; and Chicago artist Vera Klement.

Dialogue had just started covering the performing arts with the January/February 2002 issue which includes an in depth interview by Caroline Palmer with choreographer Cathy Young; singer Robert Robinson; director Djola Branner; and writer Mary Easter. Through a group discussion, the interview elicits how the group combined jazz and African traditions, the voices of Robinson's Twin Cities Gospel Choir, the rhythms of poetry, and the collective energy of about 35 performers in their collaborative performance JOURNEY/SANCTUARY which premiered last October at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. (through a Walker Art Center commission)

With WCBE radio, Dialogue launched an innovative partnership that promoted the arts through news programs and a series of art history spots. It also produced four award-winning public service announcements promoting the arts, and it published an arts magazine designed to teach science, history and social studies through the visual arts for 10,000 sixth graders in rural areas of the Midwest.

Dialogue received support from the Ohio Arts Council, the Illinois Arts Council, The George Gund Foundation, Columbus Foundation's Community Arts Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. Past supporters included the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.

"Despite these successes and readership throughout the Midwest, the magazine could not compete for dollars with other more high profile performing arts organizations among corporations and private foundations," the magazine notes.

However the board is committed to considering other formats and options for Dialogue to continue, according to Robert Palmer, president of the Dialogue board of trustees. Sources/resources:

DIALOGUE MAGAZINE -- http://www.dialoguearts.com
In addition to Meg Galipault, staff included Jennifer Sadler and Alisa Reber and regional editors John Brunetti, Cate O'Hara, Dan Tranberg, and Jeanette Wenig-Drake.

"DIALOGUE Covers Midwest Arts in New Format"
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2000/cur031400.html
March 14, 2000

The event introduces communities across the nation to dance in its myriad forms, while at the same time promoting the work of companies, dancers, and choreographers -- from Harlem, NY where a week long array of events includes discussions with dance writers, critics, program funders at City College of New York; to Northern California where 50,000 copies of the NATIONAL DANCE WEEK EVENT GUIDE are being distributed. The publication lists the many events and activities being held throughout the region during NDW and serves as a resource for dancers and the general public alike.

In an official letter of commendation in honor of National Dance Week, President, George W. Bush wrote:

"...the performing arts reflect the richness and diversity of the human experience. Dancers combine their athletic and creative gifts to entertain and bring joy to audiences around the world. Dancing's unique ability to communicate ideas and feelings has been a part of the American cultural tradition since our founding.

I commend the organizers of National Dance Week for providing an opportunity for people to celebrate and recognize dance as a unique and inspiring art form. I also applaud those who have planned special events and activities as part of this observance. Your commitment to this unique and important form of expression encourages others to learn about and participate in dance.

Laura joins me in sending our best wishes."

In Harlem, New York National Dance Week Delegate Cassandra Meroe Wimbs describes a key NDW event in this way:

"Screening of the Bahamian Junkanoo by Scholar Linda Cousins, Screening of the 1st Hour of FREE TO DANCE, Discussion on what makes dances out of Africa, African, Bobbi Humphrey, the award winning flutist leading the attendees in the Cha Cha Boogie #2, which is the latest line dance. Explaining why this observance is termed TRADITIONAL DANCES OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA, the rest of the observance events, announcing of the awardees, explaining how the chat online system works with voiceofdance.com announcing the Presidential Sports Awards in Dance (which I received 2 days ago) and getting people to register. Annoucing that Uptown Juice Bar is going to feature special Dancers Foods (and menus). Mentioning the fact that part of the reason why City College was the base is that it no longer has a dance department, wanting to pass the torch, setting a blueprint for future observances..... Showing 10 minutes of Nubian choreography on video and the traditional Chandelabrum/Shem'adan dance of Egypt- 15 minutes by Nadia Hamhdi."

In Northeast Georgia, The Art Zone, a fine arts education center in Young Harris will host DANCE UNITED at the Young Harris College campus. Events will include master classes for experienced dancers; a Young Dancers Experience for dancers ages 5 to 8 and; breakout seminars for dancers, parents, and teachers. Topics to be covered are: how to audition, creating a resume, what is competition, business management for the studio owner. The events also include a full day of exhibition performances by area dancers and a College Fair for advanced dancers.

In St Louis, 50 companies --including ATREK Contemporary Dance Company, the St. Louis Ballet, and Diadie Bathily -- will perform at Station Square.

In Michigan, a Senate Resolution has proclaimed April 26- May 5 as National Dance Week in the State of Michigan.

In Los Angeles the Lula Washington Dance Theatre is celebrating National Dance Week with a tribute to dance legend Katherine Dunham. Dunham introduced African movements and rhythms into American modern dance and was featured in the recent PBS documentary FREE TO DANCE. Events include master classes and SHARED DANCED STORIES AND PRESENTATIONS, a gathering of Los Angeles dance leaders with guests including Scoti Ermann, Elle Johnson, and R'wanda Lewis.

In the San Francisco Bay Area at the last reporting, there were 141 events scheduled during BAY AREA CELEBRATES NATIONAL DANCE WEEK. Special Focuses will include networking with new dance studios as well as a forum with the Black Performing Artists Network to generate discussion with and about the African-American dance community in the Bay Area.

"This is the second largest dance community, outside of New York, in the United States and, despite the studio closures, artist displacement, and shrinking resources that characterized the effects of the dotcom boom/bust over the past two years, the local artists have faced these adversities with creative solutions, aplomb and a renewed commitment to the proliferation of dance in the Bay Area," the NDW calendar notes. "BAY AREA CELEBRATES NATIONAL DANCE WEEK is, in itself, a tribute to the powerful spirit of this vibrant dance community.

Performances will include

• EMSPACE DANCE AND FRIENDS SAMPLER, a low-tech modern dance sampler with performances by EmSpace Dance, Huckabay McAllister Dance, SHIFT, and surprise guests

• DANCE-A-RAMA , a performance marathon of East Bay choreographers in an informal setting at Terrain

• Gumption Dance's 7:10PM AT THE WILSON'S -- "Come take a sneak-peek through the storefront windows of Sanchez Street Studios....This 15-minute, light-hearted piece looks at the dynamics that, all too often, surrounds the family supper." (Peeping Tom Productions)

• Joe Goode invites the public to The Marsh for a showing of "old favorites and new work hot out of the studio."

"The important thing is conversation. I want to enter into a conversation with an audience. I want them to feel like they're being asked intimate questions, that the material is asking them to think more deeply. If I can entertain them too, then that's a way that I can seduce them to take a deeper ride with me. The ride is all important, not just a magic carpet ride up and out of our humdrum lives, but a ride into the mysterious inner terrain."

Sources/resources:

NATIONAL DANCE WEEK -- http://www.nationaldanceweek.org features a calendar of NDW events across the country and contact information for each event
Information about the NDW ACADEMIC AND MENTORING PROJECTS are available from NDW Executive Director, Patricia Goulding, at PGould1724@aol.com
In the summer of 2002, The National Dance Week website will be launching an Online Training program in the summer of 2002 which will offer all Delegates, new and past, the opportunity to learn how produce NDW events and activities.

Cassandra Meroe Wimbs
NATIONAL DANCE WEEK -- http://www.partydirectory.com/pages/ndw-cmw.htm

DANCE MAGAZINE -- http://www.dancemagazine.com/
The Current issue includes a story by Darrah Carr and members of the Dance Magazine staff about the adverse impact of the World Trade Center's collapse on New York's dance world, particularly on smaller companies and solo artists as well as on collaborative efforts to seek aid, reestablish community, and utilize the healing power of their art.

LULA WASHINGTON DANCE THEATRE, 5041 West Pico Boulevard Email: lulaoffice@aol.com

VOICE OF THE DANCE -- http://www.voiceofdance.com features a database of Bay area NDW events

JOE GOODE PERFORMANCE GROUP -- http://www.joegoode.org

LEWISTON, Maine - THE BATES DANCE FESTIVAL has announced its 20th anniversary season, July 20 through August 17, 2002.

On the beautiful campus of Bates College, each summer the Bates Dance Festival hosts an international community of choreographers, performers educators, and students who come together each summer to study, perform, and create new work. The Festival fosters a cooperative community and provides a supportive atmosphere aimed at fostering a creative exchange of ideas -- encouraging exploration of new ground, and providing opportunities to experience a wide spectrum of dance/movement disciplines.

With new works by Jane Comfort and Company, Robert Moses' KIN, Eiko & Koma, Simone Forti, and Lisa Race, as well as performances by emerging choreographers Sara Sweet Rabidoux, Gesel Mason, Ming Lung Yang, Helanius Wilkins, and others, the 2002 season celebrates the diversity and creativity of contemporary dance. In addition to its main stage performance series of 13 concerts, the festival will offer two intensive training programs, one for adults and one for younger dancers.

Highlighting the season, Jane Comfort and Company return to the festival with their collaborative work ASPHALT, described as "a dance and theater story of Racine, an aspiring disc jockey who uses elements of jazz, classical and hip-hop beats to transcend his grim urban reality and enter a world made right by music."

Asphalt features choreography and direction by Comfort, book and lyrics by poet and dramatist Carl Rux Hancock, break beats and instrumentation by DJ Spooky and a vocal score by folk rock artist Toshi Reagon. "The worlds of ambient raves, DJ sampling, tenement squats, jazz, botanica remedies and Zuni Indian traditions are all part of Asphalt," the company notes.

Robert Moses' KIN will present a selection of new works incorporating a "richly multilingual choreography". The company describes the work as "a unique fusion of different styles including modern, African, hip-hop, jazz, and ballet, with detailed gestural phrases, partnering and storytelling."

"My work expresses my concern with the honor, dignity, truth and potential of real people. Human lives and beliefs are the material, the choreographic elements, of my work," explains Artistic Director Robert Moses, who teaches at San Francisco Dance Center and is on faculty at Stanford University where he teaches technique and lectures on composition and methodologies of contemporary dance.

The Japanese-born, New York-based duo Eiko & Koma "take audiences on amazing journeys that, in these fast times, are notable for their unhurried pace," the Festival notes. "Like their other recent site work, OFFERING embodies a poetic vision and takes place within a public environment crafted from simple materials. Created in response to the events of Sept. 11, Offering uses a backdrop of chaos to speak to the preciousness of life." This summer Offering" will be performed in more than 30 sites around New York City and New England. The Bates Dance Festival will present a free, outdoor performance of the work.

AND MUCH MORE...

DIFFERENT VOICES celebrates the festival's 20th anniversary with a showcase of new works by gifted emerging and international artists. Five past participants in the festival's Emerging Choreographer Program have been commissioned to create new works. They are:

• Ming-Lung Yang, a former member of the Trisha Brown Company, who currently choreographs for Dance Forum Taipei Company

• Washington, D.C.-based Gesel Mason has been called "young, black and brilliant" by the PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER

• Sara Sweet Rabidoux's "makes fierce, zany and highly original works for her Boston-based company, hoi polloi"

• Michael Foley's "engaging, highly physical choreography has been winning devoted fans across the United States and Ireland"

• Karen Love, Artistic Director of Umjodance, infuses her work with the African-American experience.

Also on the program are this year's emerging artists: Helanius Wilkins, Artistic Director of Edgeworks in Washington, D.C., and Millicent Johnnie, Artistic Director of Phlava in Tallahassee, Florida.

The annual FACULTY GALA will showcase the diversity of resident festival talent. Among others, the evening features new works by Simone Forti, an original member of the Judson Theatre Dance group; Lisa Race, a long-time standout of David Dorfman Dance; flamenco dancer Clara Ramona; and dance/music collaborators Kathleen Hermesdorf and Albert Mathias.

THE MUSICIAN'S CONCERT -- features "an eclectic mix of original and improvised works by gifted musician/composers in residence," including multi-instrumentalists Peter Jones; Tigger Benford and Jesse Manno; improviser Albert Mathias; pianist Christian Cherry; and percussionist Gilles Obermayer.

In conjunction with its performances, the festival presents INSIDE DANCE UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY DANCE, a series of pre-and post-performance discussions and lectures offering audiences insight into the artists and contemporary dance. Led by dance scholar and critic Suzanne Carbonneau, the discuss ions accompany performances by Jane Comfort, Robert Moses, and Eiko & Koma.

Other events will include: