New Director Strives to Keep Dance Company on its Toes

After mustering the courage to audition for his college’s chorus, Jeffrey H. James found that

his strength lay not in singing but in helping manage the group, mainly by selling its records at concerts and developing contacts with alumni interested in the chorus’s activities. Since then, arts management has always been part of his varied career, including fund raising for the Dance Theatre of Harlem and establishing a foundation associated with the Canadian Centre for Architecture, in Montreal.

Mr. James recently began a new job, as executive director of the Cunningham Dance Foundation, the New York organization that manages the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio.

The contemporary dance company, which will mark its 50th year in 2003, has a storied history, as does its founder, Mr. Cunningham. The company has performed throughout the world, with engagements last year in Australia, Portugal, the Netherlands, and France, as well as New York and California.

In his nearly half-century as choreographer at the head of his own dance company, Mr. Cunningham has created more than 150 dances and collaborated with other celebrated artists, including the composer John Cage and the artist Robert Rauschenberg. He has won dozens of awards, including a fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (often known as a “genius” grant), two Guggenheim fellowships, and the Kennedy Center Honors. Once a student of the lauded dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, Mr. Cunningham is now recognized as one of the premier contemporary choreographers.

Mr. James’s duties include overseeing the management of the 16-member dance company and its touring schedule. Mr. James also is responsible for raising money for the company and the dance studio. The foundation has about a dozen employees and an annual budget of $4-million. About one-fourth of the budget usually comes from contributions, and the balance from performance income.

Mr. James, 48, started his job a month after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Even before then, the slowing economy had led to a decline in performing engagements for the Cunningham company. But the period since the attacks has been an especially challenging time for arts groups in New York, particularly small ones, as many donors have shifted money to causes tied directly to the attacks. Mr. James says he thinks the attacks will have some effect on contributions this year, but he won’t know how much until he gets responses back from an end-of-year fund-raising letter he is sending to prospective donors.

Just in case donors are wavering, in the appeal letter Mr. James plans to include a quote of Mr. Cunningham’s from several decades ago about the renewing power of the arts. “In some people’s minds, September 11 marginalizes the arts,” says Mr. James. “In my view, it makes them more important.”

In an interview, Mr. James talked about his plans for the dance company.

What are your first three priorities?

There is no question that framing the marketing picture is a top priority, rallying the board around this idea of a 50th anniversary and the needs the company is facing, and building the team that we need to do all of this. They had been without a development director for three years. There had been terrific work by those working here part-time and by the executive director who had been here. They had done a valiant job balancing the books every year. But there is still a lot to be done.

How will your work at the Dance Theatre of Harlem help?

I understand the real survival tactics that are necessary for dance companies. One of the continual challenges is balancing the pressures income-wise. Continually you are needing to tour for income, present seasons in New York for visibility and because it’s your home, and raise money philanthropically. Almost no dance company has an endowment, particularly in contemporary dance, so you are always operating at a level of risk that is both tough and invigorating. The other thing that is quite similar is that you are very close to the art-making. Every day the dancers are in class rehearsing, and every day you are trying to have someone come see them because that’s the way they get excited about getting involved.

Was that one of the pluses of this job –being so close to the art form?

Absolutely. For instance, every morning around 11:30, Merce Cunningham walks in the door, sits down in a chair, goes through his mail, and you can talk to him about the things you need to. Then he goes upstairs to conduct a class or a rehearsal and be an artist. To me it’s quite inspiring that you can have an interchange almost every day with this genius who happens to be a great soul, too. That’s a very powerful reward. It goes a long way to making the struggle part of it worthwhile.

The board hired you in part because of your fund-raising skills. How important is this right now?

It’s very important to the company right now. Each income stream is important. At the moment, though, the philanthropic side of the picture is really important partly because the company is touring less, partly on purpose and partly because it just happened to be what happened this year. Philanthropy is much more important this year, and more important than it has been in the past five or six years. It is perhaps the crucial piece of the picture. Fortunately, we have the prospect of this 50th anniversary coming up, with fabulous American engagements and a European tour shaping up.

Is it harder raising money for dance than for other arts groups?

I think it’s harder. The evidence is how many dance companies don’t survive. The audience for contemporary dance is smaller than the audience for symphony orchestras. What’s interesting is that in many cases the attachment of those who do care about it is more intense. In some cases it is because it’s such a physical thing and those who get drawn into it get drawn into it body and soul, so they have a fervor that is pretty powerful.

How involved is Merce Cunningham in fund raising?

He is a willing participant. It’s not the thing he thinks about every day, but every time he is asked about it, his instincts are brilliant and his abilities are great. We are very careful to ask him not to do a whole lot, simply because his most important work is in the studio. If it would ever get to a point where his role as a person who is involved in fund raising distracted from that, that would be a mistake of huge proportions.

Will the 50th anniversary have any long-term effects on the company?

If it is successful as a marketing vehicle, it will give the company a financial stability it won’t have had before. I’m not saying there is going to be a huge endowment, but there should be a much healthier financial position than it has ever had, so there will be greater predictability in the number of new works that are possible, greater flexibility in what you do and don’t do — sort of like movie actors who get to pick and choose roles.

ABOUT JEFFREY H. JAMES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE CUNNINGHAM DANCE FOUNDATION

Education: Mr. James earned his bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College, in Clinton, N.Y., in 1975.

Previous employment: Mr. James has worked for several higher-education institutions, most recently as vice president for advancement and external affairs at the California Institute of the Arts, in Valencia. Earlier in his career, he was director of development and marketing for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, in New York, and the associate director of advertising and public relations for the New York Philharmonic.

Charitable interests: Mr. James serves on the boards of directors of the Pacific Resident Theatre and the Diavolo Dance Theater, both near Los Angeles. He contributes financially to Hamilton College, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, and the Chorus of Westerly, in Westerly, R.I. Before leaving Los Angeles, he donated a car to the AIDS Project LA.

Hobbies: Mr. James enjoys cooking and playing the piano.