Louise Reichlin and Alfred Desio’s long personal and artistic association made the marriage of two dance forms in one company a very natural and exciting idea when Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers (LA C&D) was founded in 1979.
Under the LA C&D umbrella we were two companies, Louise Reichlin & Special Dancers (which later became Louise Reichlin & Dancers) and Alfred Desio, Tap Dancer (which later became Patanaxy and finally Zapped Taps™/Alfred Desio). That same year, Reichlin’s critically acclaimed work The Tennis Dances premiered under the LA C&D name at the Anson Ford Theatre at the first Dance Kaleidascope and the company gave its first joint concert at USC’s Bing Theater.
Although the two companies often performed and toured separately, the diversity of the two dance forms was an important element in introducing many new audience members to a dance experience. Over the years LA C&D supported six major collaborations of the two dance forms.
However, the company’s first steps were not always smooth. While producing the New Works Dance Festival at the Pilot Theatre that spring, a diva choreographer walked out during dress rehearsal. The festival went on to fabulous reviews, though the company disbanded for a short time.
A special interest of the company has been producing the work of other Los Angeles based choreographers.
Through the 1980’s and early 1990’s we made tremendous leaps forward, addressing issues such as war, homelessness and race, long before they were hot button topics. Our educational activities began with 50 performances for the Intergroup Cultural Awareness Program (ICAP) for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and continued to expand through residencies, touring and other programs for students from elementary to college age. In 1985 Desio introduced his innovative Taptronics™, a system whereby a dancer can play synthesizers through their taps, garnering him television and film appearances and a prestigious National Endowment for the Arts grant.
Reichlin’s choreography blossomed as well. She was commissioned to write and choreograph special programs for the 1984 Olympics and the Los Angeles Zoo, and her six-part suite Urban and Tribal Dances received a rave review from the Los Angeles Times. In 1995 Reichlin started the Southern California Dance Directory, a website with links to 699+ dance organizations.
Today LA C&D continues to create innovative and imaginative dance works, the latest being Reichlin’s Reboot! Reboot!, the reimagining’s of Urban and Tribal Dances as film, A Jewish Child’s Story, Invasion and Tap Dance Widows Club, while keeping a solid repertory alive. The Tennis Dances (which had not been performed in its entirety since 1999) and Tap Dance Widow’s Club were both performed in celebration of our 35th anniversary in 2015, and The Tennis Dances, A Jewish Child’s Story, and The Patchwork Girl of Oz as part of our 40th. All of the works were performed for a presenter in Las Vegas in 2018 in four of their theatres, keeping our concert work alive. Our site-specific Dance at the Stone House ran annually for four years beginning in 2007. Our educational work expanded in 2018 with touring across Los Angeles area schools with two programs through grants and educational contracts. We’ve been involved with producing the San Pedro ♥ Festival of the Arts since 2007 and it is now an official company project.
The company has suffered from losses and hardships, though. Company co-founder and Reichlin’s husband Alfred Desio passed away in 2007 at the age of 74. His innovative work is still being carried on and his memory was the inspiration that kicked off Reichlin’s The Baggage Project and Tap Dance Widow’s Club.
In 2008 the great recession caused massive slashes to education funding and our contracts with the LAUSD were canceled mid-season. With our budget cut in half and the company in danger of going under, Reichlin stepped forward onto the steering committee of the LA Arts Consortium, which grew out of the demise of the Arts Community Partnership Network (ACPN) and also onto the Advisory Board for LA County Arts Commission’s Education Roundtables/Arts For All. This was in addition to her Professional Designation in Arts Education in the California State Content Standards and our twelve educational programs that have earned their way onto the www.LAArtsEd.org which morphed into lacountyartsedcollective.org/models-resources/community-arts-educators (it’s long, but that’s our company’s photo on the lead page) and the Santa Barbara Creative Arts Project roster. Through Reichlin’s outreach and by diversifying into new school districts our educational programs were saved and today are a key part of the company’s foundation both in terms of budget and our mission.
Now in winter of ’21-’22, having gone through a year of totally virtual educational programming, we are back with live teaching artists in the schools again.
LA C&D has extensive experience touring both in the states and abroad. Our dance/multimedia family show The Patchwork Girl of Oz, which started in 2000, continues to tour throughout the country. Desio used his Broadway background when directing the wildly entertaining Caution: Men at Work TAP with Reichlin choreographing three numbers for it. The show traveled throughout the US from 1998 to 2002 and to China in 2010. Louise Reichlin & Dancers also choreographed and toured with the cirque-type production Dream Scapes about the same time.
Now as we have forty plus years of presenting high quality concert works, enriching the lives of Los Angeles area students through arts education and spearheading special projects to bring dance to underserved audiences, LA C&D celebrates our past, works hard in our present and looks forward eagerly to our future.
In 2022-2023 Louise Reichlin/ Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers received a grant -For Writing/ Research/ Online Presentation, Education, Performance on Alfred Desio, creator of electronic tap and a brilliant performer. This project is supported in part by the Changing Times Tap Initiative, a division of Changing Times Tap Dance Company, Inc. New York, NY. Louise Reichlin Director of Project, Zoe Lesser Manager of Project.
COMING SOON!
Details & Photos: 1979-1989
Details & Photos: 1990-2000
Details & Photos: 2001-2011
Details & Photos: 2012-Present