Derek Clifford and Aria Hansen

December 6, 2002

Dr. Earl Mulderink

DISCOVERING THE AMERICAN FOLK BALLET

In continued study of the American Folk Ballet, it is important and essential to understand the history of its founder and the components of the company. The American Folk Ballet is a definitive dance company due to the extremely original chorography and ground breaking themes. The person responsible for the company’s ability to stand out was the founder Burch Mann. Much of the following information was provided by those we interviewed for the video.

      Burch Mann was born and raised on her grandfather’s ranch forty miles West of Dallas, Texas. Her father followed the gold rush and moved the family to an oil boom town. It was then that Burch truly discovered dance. After Ms. Mann graduated from high school she traveled to New York to pursue her love of the ballet. During this time many of the Russian Ballet masters were fleeing to New York to escape the revolution in Russia. Burch studied under the greatest teachers in the world and toured with the Mordkin Ballet Company. One of those tours took her back to her home and performed in Dallas. Burch’s relatives witnessed the performance and didn’t appreciate the show. It was after the family’s reaction that she decided to create a revolutionary style of dance. The American Folk Ballet takes classical ballet and incorporates it into western themes of ranchers and pioneers. Their performances include the Native American struggle as well as the white mans trek for new lands. Ms. Mann was quoted as saying that “…creating the American Folk Ballet, I have thrown out none of the discipline and technique of classical dance, merely added to the vocabulary.” The American Folk Ballet strikes at the heart of our American heritage and brings out a national sense of pride and dignity

      Ms. Mann herself had a fifty year background in dance and dance performance. Through all her years in dance, Burch had said that she wanted to remember that art was not a spectacle. It is the simple and thrilling story of mans journey across the earth. Burch created an art form unique to an area and a culture that will hopefully last for a many years to come. The American Folk Ballet itself has a very interesting past.

      The American Folk Ballet is a twenty member professional dance troupe accompanied by singing and narration that is dedicated to presenting the heritage of the American spirit. The group was originally called the Burch Mann Dancers in 1960 and by 1965 they were a professional dance company in Los Angeles. The American Folk Ballet made their debut appearance in a concert sponsored by the president of the American National Theater Association. The group continued to grow and soon became one of the nations leading touring companies. AFB toured with performances in Russia, Latvia, Israel, and Greece. It is interesting that Burch took her dance troupe to the homeland of the masters she studied under. In addition to the international tours and appearances the company was featured on the Ed Sullivan Show 5 times and appeared on several national telecasts, including the Oscar’s ceremony.

In 1971, Mann moved to the company to Utah after she was invited to provide the choreography for the festival of the American West at Utah State University. The festival was penned by the former president of SUU Gerald R. Sherratt. Mr. Sherratt invited the troupe to Cedar City when he was president of Southern Utah University and Ms. Mann moved the company once again in 1982. Some may argue that Cedar City has become the location of the American Folk Ballet’s demise. In 1992, Burch Mann retired and sadly passed away four years later. The remnants of the company remain in Cedar with its office located in the former home of Burch’s daughter and a dusty old garage that contains some of the original costumes of the group. AFB is now under the artistic eye of Southern Utah University professor Gwen Grimes, who was one of Mann’s principle dancers throughout the history of the organization.

      Many of the Burch’s core dancers are still living in Cedar City and many are still dancing. As part of the video documentary, Aria and I chose to interview some major players in the American Folk Ballet organization and gather their information and feelings about the group. We spoke with Gwen Grimes, who is currently a member of the theater and dance faculty here at SUU. Ms. Grimes was one of the original core dancers and studied under Burch as a young girl. Her input was invaluable to communicate the significance of AFB. The next person we chose to speak to was Shauna Mendini who is the associate head of the theater arts and dance department at Southern Utah University. Ms. Mendini was a member of the American Folk Ballet as a young woman and continues to be involved currently. We also spoke with Kay Anderson, who is also a dance teacher here at SUU and was a member of the company. He spoke about the significance of Mann as a dance teacher. The next person we elected to speak with was Lise Mills who was also a member of the company and is currently working for the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Lise not only offered some technical insight into the AFB world but also had strong personal tie to Ms. Mann and her family. Finally we decided to talk to Former SUU president Gerald Sherratt, who is currently the Mayor of Cedar City. He was able to offer some information about the early days of the American Folk Ballet. All of those that Ms. Hansen and I spoke with expressed a strong emotional response to keeping the American Folk Ballet alive.

       In order to get this project started we had to get the okay from Ms. Gwen Grimes, and then after that we had to set up times with the librarian in special collections to do research and to tape interviews.  We then had to set up times with the following people: Gwen Grimes, Shauna Mendini, Gerald Sherratt, Kay Anderson, and Lise Mills for their personal interviews.  These were people who were members of AFB and had a hand in bringing AFB to Cedar.

Our hardest contact to get a hold of was someone with editing equipment.  I went and talked with communication department to see if we could use, or pair up with a student who could help us edit our video.  We got a big negative, so we turned to the library.  The library has editing equipment that the faculty can use.  The librarian at the information desk told us to ask a faculty member for their permission to use the equipment.  From there we went to Professor Mulderink to get permission.  He told us that he would look into it, but he never got back to us.  So we were unable to get our hands on the editing equipment.  So we went primitive and did it all by hand.

      The workload for this project could have ranged from a semester to two.  We managed to do it in a semester.  We spent the month of September researching through materials in special collection in the Library.  We also used the Internet and talked with Ms. Grimes quit often.  She let us look through some old videotapes of AFB performances, and old interviews with the founder of the company Burch Mann.  We were hoping to use some of the old footage in are video, but the tapes were very old and would not stand a turn over to another tape—editing equipment would have made it possible.

      In October, we began setting up interviews with Gwen Grimes, Kay Anderson, and Shauna Mendini.  In November we finally got a hold of the Mayor, and Lise Mills, who had gotten back from her vacation.  We tried setting one up with her in October, but we found out that she was on vacation, and that no one knew when she would be back.  We were afraid that we would not get her, but we were glad that we waited to edit the video because she had valuable information!

      Before we started putting our video together, we made a story border.  A storyboard helps organize the order, and sets a format to follow.  The storyboard consisted of what order we wanted the interview to go in.  What topics we wanted to touch upon and give the most emphasis to.  During the Thanksgiving break Aria pieced the video together.  There was so much good information that we couldn’t keep it all, or it would have been 2 hrs.  Originally we had planned to make this documentary 20 to 30 min. long, but due to no editing equipment, and the rich information we received it turned into an hour long video.  We did not follow the storyboard completely, we ended up modifying it so it was easier to edit.

      Some of the technology we used for our project was the AFB website.  This page can be found if you go to www.suu.edu/pva/afb/.  We filmed all our interviews with a digital camera that we burrowed form Aria’s father.  To solve our editing problem we used a TV/VCR combo.  Editing was a very length process in which we had to go through all the footage, and the pick and choose what footage to keep and what not to keep.  IT was hard without editing equipment to make good clean cuts, but we felt like we did a good job with what we had to work with.  The upside of editing equipment is that you can add titles, subtitles, and footage from other video sources.  This was our original hope to add these in, but made another will be able to.

      From the very start of this project we felt that not too many people took us seriously, from Dr. Mulderink to Ms. Grimes.  As we progressed with the project and started setting up interviews, then people started taking us seriously.  One of our biggest supporters from the start were the librarians in Special Collections.  They liked our idea so much that they requested a copy for their collection so students and history classes could enjoy the rich history of this company and its founder.  We also had requests from all those who participated for a video and they will receive a copy as well.

The special collection section in the library is called the Burch Mann and San Christopher Reading Room.  Burch Mann was a history buff, and all the books in Special Collections belonged to Burch Mann.  Most of these books are history books.  One might ask what does AFB have to do with history.  All of Burch Mann’s choreography is based on the heritage of early America.

The purpose of this project and what we hope to accomplish by creating it is drastically evident. We hope that the American Folk Ballet will continue to touch lives and spread the story of the American struggle. It is our wish that this video will be the first step in finding a permanent home for the American Folk Ballet. As one can see from the video tape, the AFB has not only touched audiences but dancers as well. This project could be the beginning of a massive public relations tool. The American Folk Ballet is in desperate need of funds and organization and our hope is that this can help to give AFB the exposure it needs to continue to create a bond between the arts and our community heritage.