Harper Theater Dance Festival.

The Harper Theater Dance Festival (1965-1979) presented Chicago audiences with more than a decade of annual performance seasons from a variety of celebrated dance companies. Originating in 1965 as the brainchild of Bruce and Judith Sagan, proprietors of a series of local, neighborhood newspapers in Chicago, the Festival also served as an important milestone in American modern dance as the pilot program for the National Endowment for the Arts Residency Touring program. Favorite performers included Merce Cunningham, Alwin Nikolais, Paul Taylor, José Limón, and Murray Louis.

Contemporary ballet companies, such as the Boston Ballet, Robert Joffrey's City Center Ballet, and the fledgling Pennsylvania Ballet Company, also found a place in the Festival in the early years (1965-1966). In later years, Judith Sagan, then sole producer of the Festival, brought newcomers such as Louis Falco, Bella Lewitzky, Wendy Perron, James Cunningham, Donald McKayle, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, and Viola Farber to Chicago (1970-1979). In an effort to diversify Festival offerings (and reach out to new donors), Mrs. Sagan also started the Chicago Dance Film Festival in 1974. Unfortunately, audiences in Chicago never reached the level necessary to continue funding the Festival and it was eventually abandoned in 1979.

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