Crains New York - July 22, 2013 - (Page 26)

by Annie Karni Continued from Page 25 She shares the stage with two others who have been racking up accolades, commissions and tours—Brian Brooks and Kyle Abraham—though Ms. Miller is further along the road to success. “These three are the leaders of the pack,” said Joseph Melillo, executive producer for the Brooklyn Academy of Music. “They are very strong personalities, and their work reflects an idiom of today in terms of an extreme physicality being used in dance.” with the wild and electrifying dances she creates. When she was just beginning six years ago, Jim Herbert, chairman of First Republic Bank and a major dance aficionado, visited five new companies looking to help a young choreographer get started. When he came to Gallim, Ms. Miller boldly asked for a $30,000 donation. She didn’t get the full amount, but her pluck impressed Mr. Herbert, whose bank is now a major supporter. Ms. Miller appears in Capital is scarce Achieving success in the dance world is quite the workout.The average dancer earns only $28,000 a year and has to take an average of four jobs simultaneously to make ends meet, according to Dance/ NYC, an advocacy organization. Capital for new companies is getting harder to find as well. The Greenwall Foundation, formerly a big dance funder, closed its arts program in 2011, and Altria, a major corporate funder, stopped donating to New York arts groups in 2007 when it relocated its headquarters out of the city. “Things have always been difficult for choreographers, and there’s just a handful that really emerge,” said Arlene Shuler, president of City Center. “It’s as much business sense as talent to say who succeeds.” Ms. Miller possesses that rare mix of artistic talent and entrepreneurial acumen. In just six years, she has started her own nonprofit company, found permanent studio and office space in a large church in Brooklyn near BAM, and grown her annual budget to $700,000 from just $3,000. A year ago, she hired an executive director— Meredith “Max” Hodges—a former employee at the Museum of Modern Art with an M.B.A. from Harvard University. She has seven permanent dancers and six board members. Ms. Miller, now seven months pregnant with her first child, takes as many chances trying to build her avant-garde company as she does Brian Brooks is ‘working to create sustainability’ ads for the bank and was featured in its annual report. “Andrea understands not only how to create compelling performances, but also how to inspire and lead a team,” Mr. Herbert said. Mr. Brooks’ goal is similar to Ms. Miller’s—to create his own nonprofit company that offers stable work for his dancers.His troupe, Brian Brooks Moving Company, had its first season at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires in July. In the past year, he has quadrupled his annual budget to $400,000, and last month hired his first employees, seven part-time staffers. He doesn’t have permanent studio space, and he runs his entire operation using Google docs and his cellphone, but he is working with a fundraising consultant and developing a board with the hopes of establishing his own 501(c)(3) nonprofit in a year. “I want to provide a professional and well-compensated environment for dancers,” Mr. Brooks said. “I’m trying to push the field into a more functional place.” The 39-year-old, who danced with Elizabeth Streb, has achieved a WHERE TO WATCH Upcoming performances in the New York area Abraham.In.Motion Aug. 1: Pavement Lincoln Center Out of Doors Manhattan Aug. 21-24: Pavement Jacob’s Pillow Becket, Mass. bloomberg news SOURCE All they want to do is dance BREAKFAST: ALICIA GLEN DUET: Brian Brooks with Wendy Whelan Brian Brooks Moving Company Gallim Dance Aug. 14-18: Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature, featuring her duet with Brian Brooks Jacob’s Pillow Becket, Mass. Oct. 22-26: BAM’s Next Wave Festival Brooklyn Academy of Music Sept. 22-23: Preview, Fold Here Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Manhattan Sept. 26-29: World premiere, Fold Here Montclair State University’s Peak Performance Series Montclair, N.J. 26 | Crain’s New York Business | July 22, 2013 slew of high-profile commissions and accolades during the past couple of years.The Juilliard School and the Vail International Dance Festival recently commissioned new works, and New York City Ballet principal dancer Wendy Whelan tapped him to develop a duet for her. In October,his new piece,Run Don’t Run, will be presented at BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Equally impressive, he is choreographing Julie Taymor’s highly anticipated production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which opens in November at the Theater for a New Audience. Kyle Abraham, a 35-year-old former dancer with David Dorfman Dance and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, is also working on establishing a nonprofit structure for his company, Abraham.In.Motion, which he launched in 2006. For now, his earned and donated income is funneled through New York Live Arts, a nonprofit dance organization, where Mr. Abraham has been awarded a coveted residency in which the nonprofit provides studio space, marketing assistance, a grant and the benefits of having an umbrella organization. Mr. Abraham’s budget was $300,000 in 2012, up from $260,000 the previous year. Last year, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater commissioned a new work, which premiered at New York City Center in December. Mr. Abraham was also chosen to create a duet for Ms. Whelan, someone he calls “dance royalty.” And he was among just 54 artists around the country to be named a United States Artists fellow last year. Knowing the pitfalls Caught on his cellphone while he was scouting for costumes for an upcoming performance, Mr. Abraham had time to answer just a few questions. Dance experts say he is not preoccupied with building a large nonprofit. “Kyle is more interested in getting his work out there, not so much in developing a company,” City Center’s Ms. Shuler said. Despite their current successes, these choreographers know the industry’s pitfalls all too well. Mr. Brooks said the 2008 financial crisis hit him so hard that he was ready to “throw in the towel.” His troupe didn’t perform for more than a year, but he used that time to develop a new piece. Then the Joyce Theater offered a booking in June 2011, other venues began to call, and he was back on his feet. “Things are great now, but touring is so volatile,” Mr. Brooks said. “I’m working to create sustainability.” Ms. Miller echoed her colleague’s sentiment. “I would love to reach the point where we have a stable operation, where we can make great work, provide artist residencies, pay our dancers more and provide health insurance for them,” she said. Ⅲ In Citi Bike, Goldman eyes good investment F or 12 years, Alicia Glen has held onto what she believesisone of the most coveted jobs in the New York City development world: She heads the Urban Investments Group at Goldman Sachs, which since 2001 has committed more than $2.8 billion to development projects in low-income neighborhoods. Her mandate is to improve communities, but it’s not philanthropy. The investments are supposed to earn Goldman solid returns. Ms. Glen worked as assistant commissioner for housing finance at the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development from 1998 to 2002. Most recently, she helped put together the deal to fund the city’s bike-share program. Although Citi Bike doesn’t carry Goldman’s name,the investment bank saw an opportunity. It put up the money to fund the project’s infrastructure and expects to make a profit eventually. Why did you fund Citi Bike? These programs, if they are successful, don’t need to be subsidized by city government. But it costs a lot on the front end to buy the bikes and the stations. It’s like an enormous startup business. We made a commitment of $42 million,and most of that money has been drawn down to literally pay for the bikes, the technology, the staff and the docking stations. We will get paid back through two sources: Citibank for paying for their naming rights over time, and the program itself also has to perform. It’s a smallbusiness loan. In theory, we could lose money. The problem is I have such a great job. You’re sort of hard-pressed to think of a better job. I worked in city government, and I think regardless of who the next mayor is, New York City is blessed with a largely effective and transparent government, which allows all of this to happen.I would take anybody on when they pooh-pooh city government.New Yorkers should appreciate how fantastic we have it. Do you think this work helps change the view of evil and greedy banks? Smart, progressive banks do not need to be an oxymoron.It sounds like one, but it isn’t.We’re trying to use our capital to do important and interesting things. On our projects, if they don’t make money, then nobody’s going to do more of them. If we make solid returns and have made a significant contribution, we’re going to get more money.We’re not all evil squids.We’re nice little calamari. WHERE THEY DINED SARABETH’S 423 Amsterdam Ave. (212) 496-6280 www.sarabeths west.com AMBIENCE: Homey, country feel with comfortable seats and homemade jams decorating the tables WHAT THEY ATE: Ⅲ Fruit bowl, coffee Ⅲ Farmer’s omelet, orange juice TOTAL: $41.29, plus tip Does it bother you that most people don’t know about Goldman’s involvement in Citi Bike? We’re not a retail bank. Citibank, Chase—these are retail banks that spend hundreds of millions of dollars globally on advertising. We’re an investment bank, and we didn’t need to have our name on something. You’ve been approached in the past for jobs in government. Are you ever tempted to go into the public sector again? What kinds of returns do you expect on your projects? High single digits. We’re taking risk, but we’re not trying to make gazillions of dollars. How many projects do you fund at any given time, and how many projects that ask for funding get it? We try to do 40 or 50 deals a year, and we focus a lot in New York and northern New Jersey. I would guess 20% of stuff that’s pitched makes it through the first screen. And then out of that 20%, about 50% gets through our underwriting. These deals are really complicated, and there are a lot of stakeholders. What are you working on right now? I’m excited about Kalahari Two, on West 116th Street. It’s a development with affordable rentals in the back,a new gym and a community facility.The building is designed to deal with the mix of incomes in Harlem, which is changing dramatically. We never want to be gentrifying neighborhoods and displacing people. We’re building 80 market-rate units and 110 affordable-housing units. It was a vacant lot before. Ⅲ INSIDE TIP: Ms. Glen chose the restaurant because it’s close to her home on the Upper West Side, where she lives with her husband and two daughters. http://www.sarabethswest.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - July 22, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
REAL ESTATE DEALS
SMALL BUSINESS
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REPORT: INFRASTRUCTURE
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE BREAKFAST
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - July 22, 2013