Masterful use of venues such as Rosecliff mansion and the tall ship SSV Oliver Hazard Perry has shaped the Island Moving Company’s relationship with Newport and how its audiences relate to performances.
The company’s 30-week season includes October productions, the holiday-season favorite “The Nutcracker,” spring tours and a summer dance festival.
This year’s summer festival marked the company’s second series of outdoor performances in recent years. The mid-July event included about five companies from across the country and one from Italy.
With a total of eight different performances, larger crowds were hoped for this year. The festival, now in its 11th year, was traditionally held at the Great Friends Meeting Hall in Newport, before a repair issue led to a new venue in 2018.
Moving performances to the grounds of Saint Michael’s Country Day School was a significant change, but meant a break from the formality of attending the theater for audiences.
“Years ago, we performed outdoors, we’re just sort of going back to our roots,” said Miki Ohlsen, a founding member of IMC and its artistic director. “People love it, it seems more accessible for people, they can sit outdoors with their picnic and enjoy it.”
Festivals typically attract 700-800 people, but the audience dipped to about 600 last year for just five performances. This year Ohlsen was hoping for more, but understood shifting venues has its risks.
“It’s only the second time we’ve been outdoors,” she said. In the end, more than 1,000 attended, making the shift outdoors a rousing success.
Another type of venue change is ahead. Plans are in the works for a new building that will include three studios as a black box theater, as well as a home for its Newport Academy of Ballet.
The nonprofit is still raising money for the estimated $4 million project, which would be built on Broadway on property purchased from Newport. A capital campaign is underway, along with permitting, Ohlsen said.
The company hopes for construction to be complete in 2021.
Its current building, opposite the Newport Opera House Theater & Performing Arts Center, will be maintained and used as a performance venue as well.
Ohlsen hopes the new building’s significantly larger space keeps the company vibrant for years to come.
“We’ll be able to accommodate more students. We’ll be able to continue to do more of the programs that we already do,” she said. “We truly believe this will keep the Island Moving Company viable.”
Community involvement has been a mainstay of the contemporary ballet company, which provides movement instruction for thousands of public-school students in Rhode Island and Massachusetts each year.
Along with classroom lessons, the organization’s 11 classically trained dancers instruct about 180 students from age 3 to adults at the ballet academy, which saw increasing enrollment in the past year.
“We have survived these 35 years because of our very intimate connections with community,” Ohlsen said.
OWNERS: Nonprofit run by board of directors, artistic director, administrative staff and dancers
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Ballet performance
LOCATION: 3 Charles St., Newport
EMPLOYEES: 18
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1982
ANNUAL BUDGET: $1.2 million
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Graham@PBN.com.