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Bill Evans: changing the body and the geography of modern dance.

Article Excerpt
With his passion for dance, systematic approach to "conceptual" teaching, and extensive repertoire, Bill Evans, at age 63, continues to draw students from across the continent. At a reunion in Port Townsend, Washington, former dancers and students acknowledged how Evans has made modern dance accessible and enjoyable to, as he says, "regular" human beings, who seek a more natural and spontaneous dance based on what Evans calls "essential, universal human movement patterns." His codified technique has been influenced by dance movement specialists Karen Clippinger and Janet Hambing and company members Gregg Lizenbery, Debbie Poulsen, Kathleen McClintock, and Shirley Jenkins, along with other company dancers in the early years. All of them helped In shape who he is aim what he does today.

The August 2002 reunion, for Bill Evans Dance Company members and Summer Institutes of Dance participants, drew dancers of all ages and abilities to trade stories and share reflections about work with this master of fluid, exuberant dance. Evans had been making noises about retiring, and dancers from as far away as New Zealand and throughout Ninth America convened for the event, hosted by, the Centrum Foundation, to acknowledge how Evans and his early company members helped to change the geography of modern dance, broadening it from its longtime base in New York.

Part of Evans's appeal has been his ability to spot dance potential. "So many of the dancers who joined his company caught his eye at a raw stage of development," says Kitty Daniels, a veteran Summer Institutes faculty member and former company dancer, who is now dance department chair at Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts. "I think he...

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