An Opus for the Upbeat: the Chrysalis Dance Company Meets Ragtime in Texarkana

by Mid America's Performance & Community Programs Staff

Chrysalis rehearsing at the Perot Theater. Photo by Gregg Felkins.

In the winter of 1999, Ruth Ellen Whitt, executive director of the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council (TRAHC) was having coffee with visiting ragtime composer Scott Kirby of New Orleans. They discussed various ideas and directions for arts programs that they thought would bridge the cultural and state gap in Texarkana. Texarkana, located on the border of Texas and Arkansas, is composed of two cities with the same name. They are connected by the state line, which runs through the center of downtown. TRAHC, also unique, has offices located on both sides of the state line, making it more accessible to both cities. Ruth Ellen had invited Scott Kirby to Texarkana to talk to students in TRAHC's ArtsSmart program.

The goal of the ArtsSmart program is to develop an environment where teachers are more interested in and more effective at using the arts to reach their curricular objectives. There is increasing evidence of the positive effects of an arts-focused education on student achievement, attitude and overall school success. For a limited number of ArtsSmart school campuses, TRAHC becomes a partner to whole faculties, providing a year-long series of comprehensive arts education programs and resources designed to serve their needs and to accomplish the ArtsSmart goal.

Prior to meeting with Scott, Ruth Ellen was working on a project for the upcoming year's ArtsSmart program involving the Chrysalis Dance Company of Houston, Texas. Having grown up a dancer, she knew the joy it brings to people and decided that she wanted to include dance as a component in the ArtsSmart campuses. Well aware of the many opportunities other communities have had to host dance companies and have them work in residence with diverse community members, Ruth Ellen was determined to make that opportunity a reality in Texarkana.

She was drawn to Chrysalis Dance Company's reputation for taking work into communities, to reach and engage both students and adults. She decided to call and engage company artistic director, Linda Phenix, in a conversation about a residency and was delighted to learn that the company would be available to be in Texarkana for two weeks to work in the schools and in the community.

Students from "Arkansas Side" rehearsing for the performance.

Remembering the ideas that she and Scott Kirby had discussed over coffee for bridging the gap between various race, color, gender, economic, and even the Arkansas and Texas state lines through ragtime music, Ruth Ellen asked the Chrysalis Dance Company if they would be willing to include Scott as part of the final performance at the Perot Theatre. She went on to point out the significance of ragtime to this particular performance, with Texarkana, Arkansas being the home of Scott Joplin. It didn't take much convincing. Chrysalis was immediately taken with the idea of integrating Scott Kirby into the performance, and thus An Opus for the Upbeat began to take shape.

An Opus for the Upbeat is a collection of segments related to the theme of connecting people in our fast-paced world. Chrysalis, known for blending humor into its performances, could not resist a subtle reference or two to the unique duality of the Texarkana state line. In fact, residents of Texarkana are often reminded that if they are to be successful in the future they must learn to work together. That is why celebrating their connections through ragtime music and dance seemed appropriate. "The show mixes fun with human nature, and ends on an upbeat note in a finale with the entire cast that celebrates through dance and music the best of humankind," says Phenix.

About a month before the residency was to take place, Phenix made an advance trip to Texarkana to lay the groundwork for the two-week residency. During that visit she met with all of the potential program participants. Members of the Chrysalis Dance Company were in Texarkana for an exciting and innovative project from March 6 through March 18 of 2000. The company worked with a diverse population of the community to construct a piece that celebrates community and the joy of coming together as symbolic of success in the new millennium.

An Opus for the Upbeat, a culminating event of a two-week residency, included 60 members of the Texarkana community in various segments. This gave them the opportunity to use the skills they had learned while participating in the workshops that Chrysalis has provided in Texarkana. Although Chrysalis members carried the performance, the community talent that was skillfully integrated into the work gave it a local flair. For part of the concert Scott Kirby accompanied the performers, playing works by Scott Joplin as well as his own original works. The finale began with the Chrysalis Dancers presenting the premier of a new work by choreographer, Sean Curran, formerly of Stomp, commissioned especially for the company. It then presented An Opus for the Upbeat, which included the entire cast performing to Scott Kirby's beautiful and emotional Belasco.

For two weeks prior to the closing performance, the Texarkana community/cast members had rehearsed daily with the Chrysalis dancers. Students from ArtsSmart Arkansas campuses located at College Hill Middle School, Fairview Elementary School, Trice Elementary School, and C.D. Franks Elementary School had the time of their lives, while school administrators, teachers and parents provided total support. The local dance community was instrumental in the success of the performance as well. Advanced dance students, dance teachers and other Texarkana adults with a passion for dance met every night to create and perfect their contributions to the final performance.

While the company was in town they also performed on three Texas ArtsSmart campuses (Westlawn, Fifteenth Street, and Pleasant Grove Middle School) through a special grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Chrysalis Dance Company, under the direction of Linda Phenix, was founded in Houston, Texas in 1983 by Christine Lidvall, whose mission was to develop a professional contemporary dance company with repertory by national and regional choreographers. Although described as a modern dance company, the style is hard to categorize, with choreography drawing on different traditions, including jazz and lyrical ballet. In addition to their diverse dance style, Chrysalis may be best known for their strong outreach program, including work with juvenile offenders. In 1991, the group initiated the nationally recognized Street SmArt program, in cooperation with the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department, and in 1997, the company was awarded the "New American Community Award" by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Bringing that level of dedication to Texarkana was important to TRAHC.

The primary theme for this project was "connecting." Whether it was connecting ragtime to dance, Texas to Arkansas, young to old, or professional to amateur, everyone had come together be a part of something powerful, uplifting, and contagious! The partnerships and friendships that have developed will have a lasting impact on the community. Linda Phenix summarized her experience of working with TRAHC as feeling the "connection" from the moment she arrived in Texarkana. "I'd never seen a community buy into something so uniformly," said Linda about the community's reception of An Opus for the Upbeat. Linda went on to say, ". . .She [Ruth Ellen] knows her community and knew how to get them involved. . .and they were some of the nicest people to work with!"

According to Ruth Ellen Whitt, "The Chrysalis project was inspirational and exciting from start to finish. The idea of connecting dancers to the community, and the community to the dance worked on many levels; tying our ragtime roots to the project expanded its impact tenfold. The finale moved us all as we watched old and young, black and white, male and female, artist and amateur, moving together to live ragtime music."

Mid -America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) is proud to fund projects like this with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Initiative. It is through such programs that M-AAA is able to carry out its mission to transform lives and build communities by uniting people with the power of art.

National Endowment for the Arts
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