Eisenhower Dance Ensemble Celebrates 20 Years of Creativity

Laurie Eisenhower of Rochester has put her imaginative choreography and dance troupe in the spotlight since 1991.

Now it's time for her to dial up the intensity for its 20th anniversary season. 

Eight professionals in the , as well as advanced students from its training centers in Rochester and Birmingham, will perform Friday, Dec. 10, in Beverly Hills as part of an ambitious "20/20" series of celebrations.

The anniversary year theme represents a focus on past highlights and a vision of the future. Bookings through June 2011 include shows in New York, Illinois, Minnesota and Ohio, as well as across Michigan.

"It's exciting to reach this landmark year," said Eisenhower, an dance professor and artistic director of the ensemble, which started in Pontiac with four dancers.

"I'm proud that we've built an audience and evolved with the times without getting stuck in a rut of presenting a limited style of dance," Eisenhower said. "I'm also proud that we're able to pay dancers a living wage to develop and present their art."

The 55-year-old founder recalls early shows two decades ago "when we had 25 people in the audience, mainly friends and family members."

On a brighter note, she remembers that in 1999, "We were jumping for joy the first time we sold out Macomb Center for the Performing Arts — and they have 1,200 seats."

In addition to performing Eisenhower's original works, this season's ensemble of five women and three men is presenting works by guest choreographers Gregory Patterson, associate professor at Oakland University, and Daniel Gwirtzman, a 1992 University of Michigan graduate now working in New York City.

Gwirtzman's latest creation, Encore, premieres Friday in Seligman Performing Arts Center on the Detroit Country Day School campus. (For ticket information,  click here or call 248-559-2095.)

'Feels like family'

Ensemble member Rebecca McLindon of Rochester, who first heard of EDE as a high school student in Baton Rouge, La., came on board in August.

"It already feels like family," she said. "Everyone is working hard toward a common goal and enjoying it at the same time."

McLindon moved last summer from Chicago, where she was a dance company apprentice. She enjoys the vibrant, sophisticated community, though the young newcomer senses that her nationally recognized troupe may be somewhat overlooked at home.

"I do wish that more people were aware of Eisenhower Dance Ensemble here in Rochester," she observed. "It is great to travel and perform for audiences around the country, but it would be even greater to be able to influence and inspire our own community."     

The ensemble opened this season with two weekend shows at OU's Varner Recital Hall in October and will perform there again Feb. 13, 2011, as part of OU's Dance Day, a yearly event presented by the Department of Music, Theater and Dance.

The EDE is well-known to the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, Comerica and other corporate backers and individual donors. Eisenhower has received three creative artist grants from state arts foundations, as well as festival awards and an Outstanding Michigan Artist Award in 2003 from the governor.

The EDE also offers instruction for all ages at the main center, 103 South St., which opened in 2008 after the dance company outgrew space on Hamlin Road. Classes in ballet, hip-hop, jazz and other dance styles are also conducted on weekdays and Saturdays in Birmingham, where a two-studio center opened in 2007.

All are taught by ensemble members, trainees or other experienced dancers, generally OU students or graduates of its program. Youngsters and adults at EDE centers even learn about anatomy as part of safe-movement awareness.

"We focus on technique and the expressive art of dance," Eisenhower emphasized, "not competition like on TV. I never watch those shows — though they do bring a new audience to dance."

Reunion show

Barbara Schoen of Warren, a paid apprentice in the current ensemble, trained at EDE as a youngster.

She and the seven other members will join alumni from across the country at an anniversary season gala April 16 at the Macomb Center, where some past members will be back on stage.

"I love my dancers," Eisenhower said. "It'll be great to see them again, and it's exciting to be here 20 years later."

She also looks forward to the company's presentation of Motown in Motion on March 20 at the Detroit Opera House.

"EDE is very much a Metro Detroit dance company," Eisenhower said. "It will be fun to take dance inspired by the city's music to the heart of downtown."