Fort Wayne Dance Collective

Founded 1978

Founding: In the summer of 1978 five women — Cathy Craighead, Ranny Levy, Liz Monnier, Krista Schloss and Lisa Tsetse — met at a modern dance workshop sponsored by the Fort Wayne Women's Bureau, most accounts placing it at the Arts United Center, and decided to keep going. The Collective's first classes met at the Unitarian meeting house and its first performance came in December 1978. Where the Ballet pursued the classical pipeline, the Collective's founding idea was dance as a community practice — all ages, all abilities, many forms.

Course: In the summer of 1979, with help from federal CETA grants, the Collective took its first official home at 1126 Broadway, living within a first-year income of $7,000. Monnier served as artistic director for more than three and a half decades — accounts put the tenure at 36 or 37 years — before leaving the administrative post in 2015. In 1992 the Collective moved to the Hall Community Arts Center, its home since. Mandie Kolkman was artistic director by the fortieth anniversary in 2018. Its touring ensemble performs in schools and community centers across the region, and its studios teach everything from ballet and contemporary to hip-hop and West African dance.

Sources:

1. Fort Wayne Dance Collective, organizational history (via its company profiles) — the summer 1978 workshop, the five founders, the Women's Bureau sponsorship; Whatzup, "Sharing A Passion for Dance" and "Celebrate Future of Dance" — the December 1978 performance, the 1979 Broadway studio, the $7,000 first year, the 1992 Hall Center move, Monnier's tenure, Kolkman.
2. Liz Monnier, biography (lizmonnier.com) — 37 years as artistic director (variant), the 2015 departure from the administrative role.