Windhover Dance Festival

CONTACT:

PO 2249
Rockport, MA 01966
978-546-3611
www.windhover.org

Ina Hahn

DESCRIPTION:

Windhover is also one of the premier arts organizations in Massachusetts -- a first-class dance and theatre workshop.

Windhover began on a wing and a prayer in 1968, as an arts camp for young girls, situated idyllically on a 5 1/2-acre former farm in Rockport's Pigeon Cove on Cape Ann. By the early '80s it was drawing students from all over the United States, Canada and Europe to its 12 rustic buildings sited around a grassy common, like a miniature New England town--2 dance studios, an indoor theatre with stained glass windows, a dining hall, several dormitories, and at one end a large outdoor stage set in a natural amphitheatre.

In 1982 it was incorporated as a performing arts center for adults, with the mission of developing new audiences and increasing appreciation for dance and other performing arts through professional classes, workshops and performances. Audiences come from all over New England and New York, to see guest dancers from the Kirov, prominent Boston artists, local talent, and fabulous programs: in 1995 a season- long celebration of Doris Humphrey, one of the pioneers of modern dance in America; in 1997 they produced a full-blown musical, "The Battle for Pigeon Cove Harbor" -- a commemoration of the successful and morally heroic effort in 1993 by local fishermen/lobstermen to save their harbor from an encroaching marina. All six performances sold out to rave reviews, so a ten-performance run was scheduled for the Fall.

Though modest, this is an excellent arts institution. Its Director draws no salary and is still literally the chief-cook-and-bottle-washer around the place. Almost all its "staff" are volunteers who labor out of love; some admissions are free; they scrape by. Let's give them a boost.

(1997: CULTURE: Arts: Performing: Music and Dance)