I Was a Dancer - Jacques D'Amboise [180]
“How the hell did you ever start NDI?” is a common question.
“Without thinking,” I respond. “I’d go to the principal of a school and say, ‘Do you want a dance class for free? Starting with boys only. Not during lunch, not after school, and it shouldn’t interfere with their play if they do sports, gym, or recess. Give me any place—a hallway, a corner of a gym, a lunchroom, or the roof.” Or outside on the sidewalk.
I paid for my own pianist and a drummer with a full set of drums (which meant two cabs there and back for every school). Initially, there were four schools and a community center out in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The first performance, in May 1977, was at the New York State Theater between matinee and evening. A composer friend, Lee Norris,1 put some musician pals together: “Come on, we’ll make some music, only I can’t pay you!” The stage crew left the lights on for me; a couple of usherettes volunteered to work extra to seat parents and friends out front. Only about thirty of the eighty or so boys I was teaching showed up for the performance. The director John Avildsen2 came with a film crew (all volunteers too).
The show was a little over a half hour, starting with a teaching demonstration and improvisation, ending with maybe five minutes of a choreographed dance. The little film John made, Dance on a May Day, I took to the Ford Foundation, and Marcia Thompson, a ballet aficionado, helped me secure a $25,000 grant. I was supposed to use the money to hire an executive director/bookkeeper. Instead, I used all of the money to pay more dance teachers and musicians and expand the program into more schools. The following year, the Ford Foundation gave me—I think it was $17,000—stipulating, “You must use this money to hire an executive director.” I didn’t.
To the rescue came Sam Montgomery, a corporate psychologist and balletomane. “You need help,” Sam announced. “I’ll throw a lunch for NDI, and I’ll invite two of my clients, Celanese Corporation and McKinsey and Co.” Celanese Corporation came in with money, always welcome. Then, at lunch, Sam questioned the McKinsey executive, Pam Bronk, “What are YOU going to do for NDI?” Surprised but cool, Pam responded, “I’ll see what I can do.” She persuaded her company to underwrite a study: “What Does NDI Need?” Ultimately McKinsey paid for Pam to serve as NDI’s first executive director to help us organize and create a true institution, while she conducted a search for her replacement. Within a year, she joined our board of directors. Sam also persuaded a friend, Jean Schumacher, head of a public relations firm, to work for NDI pro bono.
We have always had great music. Every dance class in every school we partner is graced by a superb pianist or percussionist, and live music is central to every one of our events. Stellar musicians, singers, and narrators abound. From 1979 to 1989, our Events of the Year were held at the six-thousand-seat Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden. For that decade, Lee composed and orchestrated hundreds of compositions for our Events, and conducted them all. Galt MacDermot (best known as composer of the musical Hair) composed and conducted a sensational score for one of our Events, The Shooting of Dan McGrew, based on the poetry of Robert Service. Subsequently, Jed Distler, Neal Kirkwood, Peter Mansfield, Dave Marck, Tim Harrison, and, today, our musical director, Jerry Korman, have waved the baton and given NDI the best in musicianship.
The internationally admired composer and eccentric genius David Amram composed and conducted several shows for us, and no one was more fun. David is a farmer (a real farmer). He kept his chickens, goats, and vegetables clustered on a few acres in New York State, a couple of hours north of Manhattan. A world traveler, David didn’t need to know languages; he’d play music—any