Today, we’d like to introduce you to Samuel Hanson.
Hi Samuel, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I took the reigns at loveDANCEmore as the executive director in 2019, after having previously been an intern and journal editor from 2010-2015 before moving to NYC, where I danced professionally for four years.
loveDANCEmore began in 2010 when founder Ashley Anderson returned to Utah after living on the East Coast for several years. Upon arrival, Ashley collaborated with other locals to start a performance journal and a works-in-progress series called Mudson, which got its unusual name from a mash-up of Judson Memorial Church in downtown Manhattan and the Masonic Temple here in Salt Lake City. Upon arriving in Salt Lake, Ashley had searched for a place to show her work and to see work by her peers — independent and emerging dance makers.
She missed the sense of community she’d found in NYC at the free, low-tech works-in-progress Monday nights at Judson Church, which had been a mainstay of that community for decades. Dancers would “go to Judson” to try out and see new ideas and to see what was new in the dance world. Soon, Utah dancers were doing the same thing Monday nights at Salt Lake’s Masonic Temple. The original name — Masonic Judson — was shortened to Mudson, which never fails to make dance critics and historians chuckle. During the first decade of Mudson, we produced over 150 new dances and paid out roughly $20,000 of stipends to local (and a few touring) choreographers.
Around the same time Ashley also founded SUITE, an annual showcase of women choreographers which still takes place each year under the auspices of Sugar Space, a local performance space. In its few years in Utah, loveDANCEmore also played host to several guest artists, including New Yorkers Regina Rocke, Diana Crum, Karinne Keithley-Syers, and John Jasperse Company-alum Burr Johnson, who helped develop material for several of Ashley’s dances.
By providing an open invitation to write about dance in Utah, our website has hosted over 400 reviews of performances across the state over the last 11 years. Every year, we produce a print journal which is distributed at our programming, at fiscally sponsored events, 12 Minutes Max, bookstores, museums and rehearsal spaces.
2012 through 2015 saw a period in which loveDANCEmore explored new ways of showcasing choreography as well as dance film and video, including our museum scale exhibition Arrivals/Departures at the Rio Grande Building, dance-dance — a festival of screen dance, which took place during Sundance, the Screen Deep series, and Miguel Gutierrez’s DEEP Aerobics at the Rose in 2014. Arrivals/Departures (2013), curated by Ashley Anderson and Samuel Hanson, featured live performances by Ashley Anderson with Tara McArthur and Alex Bradshaw, Efren Corado, Emily Haygeman, and Movement Forum, with film and new media work by David Rousseve, Karinne Keithley-Syers, Ellen Bromberg, Diana Crum, Juan Aldape, Ishmael Houston-Jones & Julie Dash and Adrienne Westwood, among others.
We also produced two Daughters of Mudson performances at the Rose Wagner, curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones. These performances offered a full-produced venue for some of the best works-in-progress coming out of Mudson.
In 2014, our Ashley was honored with a Mayor’s Arts Award for her contributions to making dance possible in our city. In 2017, Summer Series, directed by Liz Ivkovich (also a former journal editor), with support from the Seven Canyons Trust and the Jordan River Commission, included a performance by Danceband Banddance at the Three Creeks Confluence, a wayfinding installation and jam by Windy Wischer and the CI community, and Those With Wings, a performance at The-Bend-in-the-River.
In 2015, Mudson became itinerate, having to leave the Masonic Temple after a sudden rent hike. The series took place most recently at the Marmalade Branch of the SLC Public Library in 2019. We continue to search for new venues to present work in progress, and in 2020, we began innovating an artist-in-residence program based loosely on the Movement Research model as a part of our “Only the Lonely” platform. In the fall of 2021, SUNDAY SERIES on the roof of Spy Hop’s Kahlert Center will take the place of Mudson in our programming. Its worth mentioning that Mudson and SUNDAY SERIES would not have persisted without the hard work and leadership of Amy Falls, also a longtime journal editor, and Erica Womack.
Our arts journalism picks up a vital service in the dance field, which used to be provided by local newspapers and national magazines. These entities have folded or have drastically cut their coverage of dance in the last ten years. loveDANCEmore picks up telling the story where they left off. Beginning in 2016, we started paying reviewers and digest writers for their work, adding a new stream of income for local artists and leading to better and better criticism.
In addition to presenting works-in-progress and connecting artists to resources and mentorship through our staff and board, we also frequently lend expertise, equipment and grant writing support to independent productions around the valley. Dozens of grants have flowed through us to artists who would be ineligible for state and foundation support through our fiscal sponsorship initiative. We do whatever we can to sustain greater quality and quantity of dance-making in the Salt Lake Valley.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story. Has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
We serve an art form that is arguably the least financially stable of any of the arts. We make dance accessible by charging nothing for our events and many of our artist services. And we work to make a career in dance or an interest in dance available to everyone in our county regardless of ability, race, geography, income, access, or privilege.
We provide opportunities to underserved Utah choreographers, dancers, and critics by paying them stipends for existing labor. Salt Lake County regularly loses artists to other states that have better opportunities. Artists opting to stay often cite programs provided by loveDANCEmore as critical to their continued participation in Utah’s dance community.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
In May 2022, we presented a shared evening in the Peace Gardens at Jordan Park, featuring AIRs Mitsu Salmon and Nora Price. Mitsu’s piece, “Orchid: Dormancy and Becoming,” in particular, spoke to the meaning of the place, as it narrated the history of Mitsu’s Japanese and Japanese American ancestry, troubled by war, colonialism, and immigration through the story of how the orchid came to be a world commodity.
The people who made reservations and came expecting a performance that night reflected our wide and diverse audience, but the unexpected magic was in the large number of people who simply wandered in because the dance was taking place in a public park. We met a woman who had recently relocated to the States from Mexico, where she had been a contemporary dancer. She didn’t speak English, but one of our other AIRs, who’s a native Spanish speaker, was able to connect with her and begin to educate her about the dance scene here in Utah.
Another person who stopped by knew about our work in schools in the nearby Rose Park neighborhood and was excited to learn about our present efforts. Families stopped and watched and could be overheard discussing parallels between their own experiences across time and place and the artist’s family’s story. Mitsu decided to use the same venue again for a performance this summer. This led to collaborations with community organizations in the neighborhood and to a cast of Asian-American dancers, which she has employed both for her work with us and for other projects, including a performance at UMOCA. Mitsu, being new to SLC, credits our staff and board with support in finding these amazing collaborators.
Artists who begin creating a new work with us often go on to present it on a larger scale. One recent example is Alex Barbier, who returned to Utah from Illinois to workshop a solo called “I will never be Beyoncé” at Sunday Series. She has gone on to present this piece at major venues in Illinois, Ohio, and soon New York City. Our work keeps artists like this coming back to Utah. Events like this and transformational artists like Alex and Mitsu are why loveDANCEmore matters.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I think timing has certainly played a role. Ashley moved back to Salt Lake around the same time I was finishing college, and I feel lucky to have been there to start the work of loveDANCEmore with her.
It was also a very fruitful time for her artistically and I danced in several of the early pieces she made as well as in guest artist residency such as those she produced with New York artists Diana Crum and Regina Rocke.
Contact Info:
- Website: lovedancemore.org
- Instagram: @lovedancemore
Image Credits
Mitsu Salmon
