EMAV 10 Bites: Benjamin Tucker, Dancer & Choreographer

In every neighborhood, there is someone who makes the Arts a part of their life, and our community. You'd be surprised to discover how many different people use the arts to improve the quality of life in our hometown. EAT MORE ART! VEGAS will feature them regularly in our series "10 Bites."

What kinds of art do you enjoy, create, or perform in?

Ever since my first class, I have always loved dance. The discipline of a ballet class and the comradery I feel with the other dancers in the room is something very special. I also love the creative process of choreography. With my company Ballet120, we have a strong focus on the creation of new work and I love the collaboration that thrives in that environment.

Why do you do it?

As a dancer and performer, I did it because of the challenge, both physically and mentally. Now as the director of a company, my inspiration comes from all the dancers. Their work is incredible and my job is to make sure it is seen. I believe there is a place for dance and ballet here within the greater Las Vegas community and my goal is to make it an integral part of our community.

Ballet 120 collaborated with Henderson Symphony Orchestra and the City of Henderson in Oct 2020

What’s your favorite production/performance experience so far?

To date, my favorite experience has been when Ballet120 performed our first ever live-streamed show at The Space lv in October of 2020. When the pandemic hit, it obviously changed everyone's world. And the dance community was no exception. I am very proud we were able to find a way to evolve and keep going.

What jobs have you done other than being an artist, or what do you do when you are "at work?"

I enjoy refurbishing vintage bicycles and have had that as a side job throughout my dancing career. I enjoy the restoration of it. Taking something that might be viewed as worthless and transforming it into something seen as beautiful is something I take pride in.

What is an Arts experience that you will never forget or a memorable response to your work?

A response that I've often heard after a Ballet120 performance is how people are stunned at the versatility of the dancers. The dancers often go from one extreme in the art form to the next in a "gala style" show. I take that as a huge compliment and something I strive for within building a show and the choreography I choose.

What would you be doing if you weren't performing, creating, or enjoying the Arts in Las Vegas?

This is the hardest question because quite frankly I'd be lost without all of these aspects of the arts. I guess I would put more time into bicycles. Perhaps I would travel more.

Name something you love about Las Vegas, and why.

I love the possibilities that are here. Las Vegas is a constantly evolving city. I feel I have a lot of freedom here when it comes to creating new work and finding performance spaces. As an example, Ballet120's upcoming show is going to be at MEET Las Vegas. MEET isn't a performance venue per say but everyone there has been beyond accommodating and so supportive in making the performance happen. I don't know if you find that in other cities.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Some of the best advice I received in my career was being told not to be afraid to try new things/ don't back down from uncharted territory. If it doesn't work out, it's ok. Then you know for next time and you can change course. But you'll never know unless you go for it. That has been hard to live by but when I'm able to, I'm able to live without regrets.

What superpower would you have and why?

Anyone who knows me knows I am perhaps the biggest Superman fan of all time! If I were to have a superpower, I would pick to the ability to fly. I think flying would make me better at dancing, allowing me to turn more and jump higher.

@ballet120 - ballet120.org - info@ballet120.org

What future projects are you looking forward to?

I am most looking forward to Ballet120's upcoming show at MEET Las Vegas. This is the largest undertaking for the company to date and it is going to be a full evening celebration of live performance, which is something so many people have been craving.

Click here to get tickets to Ballet 120 at MEET on May 21st: A unique dance experience that you will not get anywhere else in Vegas!

Are you a local artist of any discipline? Do you work with a company as a designer, stagehand or administrative staff? Do you love to experience it as the audience? We'd love to get your 10 Bites to share. Fill out a form here, and you might be featured in a post!

CHECK OUT OUR 10 BITES FEATURE GALLERY HERE

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“Struggle” is on the boards

Art, performing art in particular, is in for the fight of its life. Literally.

I don’t know how many millions tuned in to the Mouse’s streaming of “Hamilton,” but I know millions signed up for Disney+ just to see it. And millions watched the live versions of “Rent,” “Grease,” and “Hairspray” on broadcast television.

For the foreseeable future, theatregoers, this is what we’ve got.

For example, Broadway is preparing and planning on moving forward on production of “Diana,” a musical about Princess Di, which will live stream before it hits any stage with an audience. “Diana” is being filmed with multiple cameras for Netflix. As Broadway producer Ken Davenport (“Kinky Boots”) said, “Now, the question is . . . will other shows follow? Which ones? And will it happen during the pandemic? Or when Broadway comes back? And will “Diana” sell more tickets because of this stream?”

See the anxiety there in those questions? The fact is, we are all anxious to return to “normal.” To get back into the theatre and see a good show. But, no one is more anxious and eager for a return to the boards than regional and local theatres; particularly those organizations that have venues for which they’re trying to pay rent. And insurance. And all the other costs that don’t go away just because there is no current production.

I reached out across the country to a variety of organizations. Most community theatres rent show by show; either a civic-owned property, like libraries, or other space. But there are local and regional theatres struggling to keep a hold on their facilities.

LVLT's main stage went red for the nationwide We Make Events "Red Alert" pandemic relief event on Sep 1st, 2020.

The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles is one such organization. Founded approximately 30 years ago, it’s a small house (under 100) and a professional company; they pay the actors, directors, stage hands, etc. They do some new and original pieces, and have won many awards over the years in a critically tough market. According to Producing Director Simon Levy, they are working diligently to keep the name out in front of their patrons’ eyes.

Among a variety of Saturday matinee performances by guest artists, and interviews with directors and playwrights, they’re doing readings of plays that cover current issues. “We’re also about to launch our first foray into Pay-Per-View with a fully rehearsed, digitally enhanced, story-boarded, and edited reading of ‘The Ballad of Emmitt Till,’ with the original director and cast of the Fountain’s award-winning production to mark the 65th anniversary of Emmett Till’s murder and the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington.

“Online theatre, and engaging with audiences over the internet is here to stay,” added Levy, “and will become an even more important, permanent part of our future programming to augment the live experience….”

At the other end of the spectrum is Blue Fire Theatre, a fairly new group in Florida, in business for less than a year. While they’re nomadic, they still have incidental bills to pay; insurance, website-related costs. Without a fully-realized and dedicated fan base, they are becoming more active on social media. They tried Facebook Live interviews and workshops. According to founding member Toni D’Amico, even that “quickly became mundane. Now, we try to remain in the public eye by posting something every day or every other day. Relevant articles about Broadway, or reposting things from our community partners.”

Here in Las Vegas, while the ballet and philharmonic worry – along with their host venue The Smith Center – about how to stay alive with the bills racking up, smaller organizations, that are greatly (some might say ‘egregiously’) ignored by the local mainstream media, have it even tougher.

Rent is due along with the incidental necessities of a business. It piles up, and income is at a standstill.

Poor Richard's offers storytime with local actors.

Poor Richard’s Players has been around for a long while now but had only recently rented and renovated a space. Ben Loewy, Artistic Director, says, “Still have it…for now. Hanging on for dear life.”

They tried the streaming thing early, introducing “Playhouse Storytime” in March, featuring entertainers from across the valley reading their favorite stories. “The audience reaction was very positive but the scope of viewership was lower than we had hoped,” Loewy said.

Las Vegas Little Theatre has had the same type of response to its two attempts at streaming, and the royalty fees for the latest seemed not to consider the financial strain community companies are under.

Poor Richard’s will try again in mid-September with a full production of “Three Viewings” by Jeffrey Hatcher. Tickets will be $20 per household. Adding to the enticement this go-round: “Once The Playhouse reopens, the $20 spent on “Three Viewings” can be used toward a ticket for a live event.”

The same stories can be found across the country. What makes all this even more bitter: In times of darkness and political upheaval, society typically turns to entertainment to help weather the storm. The difference is that - especially here in Nevada – even though movie houses are now able to operate, live performances will most likely be the last thing allowed to reopen. Without help, your favorite theatre company may not make it off life-support. Unless…unless we embrace this new medium of entertainment in the short term.

It took more than 30 years for Las Vegas to lose the ‘cultural wasteland’ reputation. We can’t let that character status return. We need to fight against it. While nobody is asking, as one politician is in encouraging people to go without food in order to send her money, I certainly do hope you’ll make a donation to local theatre. Or buy tickets to streaming productions. They may not be as fancy and slick as the Mouse’s, but it will ensure that local theatre is able to greet you when the doors open again.

NV Producers to LEAP team: "There is no COVID recovery without the local, independent arts industry"

For more information about joining the alliance or other inquiries, visit palsnv.org.

Several independent performing arts organizations in the Las Vegas valley have come together to form the Producers Alliance of Southern Nevada (PALSNV) in a move that is not only long overdue but essential to our region's economic recovery in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After years of deliberation between local theatre makers about organizing a coalition, Kate St-Pierre of The Lab LV reached out to colleagues Troy Heard of Majestic Repertory, Daz Weller of Vegas Theatre Company, Mikey Bilbray Philips of Poor Richard's Players, and Sarah O'Connell from The Asylum Theatre and Eat More Art Vegas to consider the idea. In a matter of 24 hours, producers from an additional dozen companies signed on.

The organization seeks to facilitate cooperation between both commercial and nonprofit stakeholders in the arts, culture, and entertainment industry. Their first collective action was a letter seeking a direct line of communication with the LEAP officials appointed by Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak to manage the state's COVID recovery "Nevada United" plan.

The letter:

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August 7, 2020

From: Producers Alliance of Southern Nevada

To: Nevada Local Empowerment Advisory Panel (LEAP)

Re: Independent performing arts orgs ABSENT from LEAP and Nevada United plans

Dear LEAP Panel :

On January 31, 2020, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern and our local, independent production arts industry was the first to take a hit as the corporate event cancellations rolled in due to public health concerns. The total loss of business for the Nevada nonprofit arts and culture sector soon followed with Governor Sisolak’s “Declaration of Emergency” on March 12th, 2020 and mandated social distancing closures.

The recent record-setting 32% drop in GDP comes as no surprise to members of the arts and culture sector. We understand that prior to the pandemic America’s nonprofit Arts industry generated $166.3 billion in activity every year, employed 5.1 million people, and provided $877 billion (4.5 % of GDP) to the U.S. economy, adding more value than transportation, agriculture, or tourism. Performing Arts organizations and independent artists added a combined total of $52.2 billion to the U.S. economy in 2017. In Nevada, this resulted in over 40,900 jobs, $8.7 billion, or 5.5 percent of Nevada's GDP.

According to the “Nevada Creative Industries Report” there were 4,942 arts-related businesses operating in our state in 2017. The Nevada Arts Council, Nevada Humanities, and around 83 individual organizations received a combined total of $1,210,873 of investment from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) CARES funds. Most of these awards were less than $5K. An additional undisclosed amount was awarded by WESTAF to 3 Nevada companies, though none were allowed more than $20K as per their guidelines. Clearly, the federal allocations to Nevada fall short of the billions in arts sector payroll, goods and services, and rent checks now lost due to mandated closures and travel restrictions.

The temporary lifelines offered through SBA grants and loans as well as programs established by Clark County are also insufficient to protect our sector and empower our community’s recovery. Our nonprofit organizations are wrongly excluded from workforce development opportunities reserved solely for commercial businesses (or those without independent contractors) despite our contribution to the overall GDP of our state (see the county Stabilization Grant). Here in Southern Nevada, the City of Las Vegas offers scant resources to its hundreds of independent, local arts organizations and arts-adjacent businesses but many are considered to be a “city problem” due to their location and are disqualified from county initiatives (see the county Retrofit Grant). Our local performing arts groups are prohibited from combining their nominal CARES awards from the NEA and NEH with partial relief from COVID rent programs and forgivable PPP or EIDL loans (see the county Rental Assistance grant).

Loss of revenue is not the only resource that has evaporated from the local arts and culture sector. Many of our nonprofits rely on community partnerships to offer venues for their programming. With restrictions now in place at CCSD and UNLV, there are few affordable options for rehearsal, performance, and meeting space.

In addition to a funding blind spot, our sector is overlooked when it comes to pandemic public health policy. Small venue operators are inappropriately subject to the regulations intended for casino showrooms and large concert arenas, if included at all. This leaves the task of establishing best practices up to us as individual producers. Smaller venues have the best chance of reopening immediately when deemed safe to do so, but we must have specific attention from the LEAP committee to ensure the health of our workers and establish public confidence in the safety of our experiences. As of this moment, smaller, independent arts organizations have not been included in any collaborative conversations with LEAP about the COVID crisis.

It is ironic that the true plight of nonprofits and businesses focused on taking the stage has gone unnoticed by leaders at the state and local level, but under the shadow of the Strip and far from Carson City, this is precisely the case in Southern Nevada. Our local small venues, performing arts organizations, and independent arts industry can no longer withstand the neglect.

Venues may be closed well into 2021 due to safety concerns posed by large gatherings, permanently impacting our entire community’s cultural ecosystem – artists, stagehands, chefs, administrators, educators, production managers, radio/social media/tv/print advertising, event companies, and many others. The common “survival jobs” for Arts workers in the hospitality and service sectors have also been decimated by this crisis and the competition for them will remain an ongoing challenge.

The voters and taxpayers who depend on the arts and event industry for income relied on the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program to pay their bills during these unprecedented times. Arts workers now face instant financial devastation, including eviction due to its expiration which disproportionately impacts communities of color. If our artists lose their homes and hope of a career, we lose their talent and engagement. It is imperative to the social fabric of Southern Nevada and our ability to attract investment that we avoid a “Brain Drain” similar to the aftermath of last decade’s “Great Recession.”

In Southern Nevada, there is no recovery without a specific strategy for our local arts economy. Our diverse population relies on the economic mobility, social cohesion, and opportunity that the independent arts and culture sector provides. Work with us now on a strategy to protect the local arts and culture community and you will empower the most impactful force multiplier we have in Nevada’s economy.

We look forward to speaking with a member of the LEAP panel or your staff as soon as possible to address the needs of your cultural constituency.

Sincerely,

The Producers Alliance of Southern Nevada

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For more information about joining the alliance or other inquiries, visit palsnv.org.