PRESS - The Business Journal, Winston-Salem, NC

The Business Journal
April 30th - May 6th, 2004

"Dancer Meets Her Business' Needs On Her Toes"

By Tom McGohey

"You want an education in business? Forget the Harvard MBA. Want to learn how to run a company? You don't need to win "The Apprentice".

Instead, follow around Karola Luttringhaus, founder of alban elved dance company, a dance company based in Winston-Salem, for a few days and you'll learn quickly. Sharp vision of your goals; unshakeable conviction in the value of your product; insatiable curiosity in how to make things work; a knack for fixing problems on the spot; boundless energy; and, a touch for inspiring loyalty in company members.

You need all these qualities when you are a producer, artictic director, choreographer, booking agent and graphic designer of a dance company. ...

Modern dance? What exactly is that, people often ask Luttringhaus. It's not pretty ballerinas, Fred AStaire in black tails or swinging kids in a Gap commercial. It's challenging and provocative movement, often with a political or social theme, that pushes audiences to see the world from different perspectives.

...But this is not a self - indulgent art for art's sake. Luttringhaus believes that all art serves a "social glue" " that holds a community together. She views dance as a means of communicating new ways of feeling and thinking to lead to more creative and open-minded lives for anyone, not just for dancers.

...Dancers don't get paid much, if at all, so why do they do it? According to Andrea Lieske, assistant director, they do it because Luttringhaus provides something unique not found in many other dance companies - world class choreography combining innovative movement, emotional depth and expressiveness, theatricality and subtlety. All of it adds up to a profound vision of what it means to be human. ...