Lisa Dworkin Kerr

Lisa moved to Anchorage from Portland, Oregon in 1979, just after marrying her husband Bruce as he had taken a job in Anchorage. She had been teaching on the faculty of Portland State University, which had a dance certificate program, and had completed her master’s degree in education with her work in Dance. At PSU she taught Jazz Dance, ran a folk-dance troupe, and was a choreographer and performer in the PSU performing dancers. She had secured a job choreographing the musical, “Chicago,” for the University of Alaska Theater Department when she first arrived, but after that, she had no idea how she would continue her passions of choreography and teaching dance.

Lisa started working for the Anchorage Arts Council. Her supervisor was Darl Schaaff. She began outreach teaching in the schools, and notably at the Women’s Correctional Institute. It was rewarding, but not enough. Darl suggested she start her own non-profit dance company. With his help and encouragement, as well as the help of her accountant husband, Bruce, and her lawyer friend, Jack Clark, ACDC was born in 1981. Their first concert was May 1982.

Lisa taught Dance for Musical Theater at University of Alaska as well as many dance classes at Anchorage Community College where she met other dancers and instructors such as Jill Flanders Crosby and Irene Miller, artistic director of the Anchorage Community Theater Dance Ensemble. Jill contributed many pieces of choreography to ACDC as did dance master Jon Von Erb. Several guest choreographers came from other companies to set pieces, notably Catherine Evleshin and Bonnie Merrill. The company had two major concerts a year and made themselves available for many musical theater productions such as “West Side Story” and “Little Shop of Horrors,” both produced by the Anchorage Light Opera Company as well as appearing in the Anchorage Opera Association’s production of “Rigoletto.” They were the original chorus line of Alaskan animals for the Anchorage Visitors Association promotion, choreographed by Lisa.

She found there was no shortage of wonderful dancers in Anchorage such as high school students John Heginbotham, Lael Conway and Laura Ramirez, and even military recruits stationed at the nearby Elmendorf Air Force Base. The company began to grow and put on many performances, including choreography such as “Room With a View” based on the Edward Hopper painting of the same name and most notably “The Man Who Killed Sleep” staring Ken Williams and Lael Conway based on an Eskimo story by the same name. Annually, on Halloween they produced a spectacular “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” with story and conception by Darl Schaaff, choreography and character development by Lisa, and the fabulous costuming and puppet construction overseen by Fran Lautenberger.

Ira Perman, executive director of the Alaska Concert Association, brought in many incredible dance performances, and offered these artists to teach master classes to ACDC and community dancers. These included Alvin Ailey, Martha Graham, and Eric Hawkins, to name a few. It was a wonderful opportunity and was only possible due to a fortunate confluence of timing, money, and the hard work of so many Anchorage people to promote and grow the arts in Anchorage. Lisa and her business manager actually got to spend the day with Alvin Ailey driving him down to Alyeska to see the sights! Where else could that have happened? In 1987 the company changed its name to “Alaska Dance Company” as it was felt that ACDC had too many other connotations associated with the name, however, most people continued to affectionally refer to the company as ACDC.

That was a wonderful time to have a dance company in Anchorage. The City, the State, and the National Endowment for the Arts, all were generous in their support of ACDC. Local newspapers and Eric Wallace of KSKA helped promote the company. Many talented guest artists from the Pacific Northwest and beyond set choreography on the company. Lisa had some spectacular choreographic opportunities, such as working with the Anchorage Opera Association, the Anchorage Light Opera on multiple musicals, and with Perseverance Theater and Barry Lopez in Juneau (Douglas) Alaska on the Ford Foundation funded “Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping with His Daughter Coyote Builds North America.” The production toured Alaska.

Lisa will forever be grateful for the fantastic opportunities she had in Anchorage. The dancers, the support of other organizations, the funding, the talent of artists from such a wide variety of mediums---it was all more than a dance lover could ask for! Thank you, Alaska!!!!