A new season means new opportunities at the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute. Artistic Director Janie Taylor discusses season highlights, plans for performances, and a sneak peek at what’s ahead for the future home for Dance at the new Colburn building.
In just a couple of weeks, the dance studios at the Colburn School will come alive as students begin classes in Youth Dance, Dance Academy, or adult dance programs. But it’s not just another year of classes for the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute. This year marks its final season before the School unit moves into its permanent home at the Dance Center within the new Colburn building. Set to open in September 2027, the Frank Gehry design will expand facilities dedicated to Colburn’s Dance programs, including a convertible 100-seat dance studio theater, four oversized dance studios, one of which is a specialized tap studio, along with dressing rooms, a learning library, and a gathering space for guest artists. (Click here to read a recent Secret LA article spotlighting the Colburn campus expansion.)
Given the significance of this season, Artistic Director Janie Taylor discusses what is ahead for Colburn’s Dance students as well as what she envisions for the inaugural season in the new Dance Center.
Taylor: We’ve added a six-week course for older students called Duet with Film, led by Kelly Hargraves, who’s the executive/artistic director of Dance Camera West. More dancers want to film their work or make dance work to be seen on film, so it feels natural to offer instruction on how to do it well for dancers, choreographers, and filmmakers. It’s the beginning step toward offering courses that are not specifically dance classes, but about art forms that usually intersect with dance.
Also new this is year is a teacher exchange between the Dance Academy and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Many of our students are interested in the company, and the company tends to like our students, accepting many of them into their Professional Development program. A teacher exchange allows all of our students to benefit from the experience by becoming familiar with their teachers, and for their instructors to get to know our students beyond a single audition. I think it’s also great for Dance Academy teachers to go into a different environment and have a fresh experience with other students, learn from the company, and share what we do here.
Of course, we’ll continue to have our much-anticipated performances, such as Counterpointe and TapFest, and conclude the year with the Spring Dance Festival and TapWorks. See the Music, Hear the Dance will be really exciting this year, featuring guest artist Jason Fowler, primary stager for Christopher Wheeldon. He is setting Wheeldon’s Polyphonia for the LA Ballet, which Fowler performed as one of the original cast members with the New York City Ballet. We’ll have two duets performed and then Fowler will share his experiences as a dancer and stager. He’ll touch on the importance of preserving choreographic work as well as Wheeldon’s sense of musicality and dance.
Also, Dance Camera West and LA Pops Up film festivals will return in 2027. Of course, we’re really excited to have Melinda Sullivan as our new Tap chair. (Read more about Sullivan’s role in this month’s Colburn in Focus.
Taylor: Over the past two years, Katherine Cowgill, a Dance faculty member and dancer with the LA Ballet, has held a series of discussions on what it’s like to be a professional dancer. Katherine has a passion for facilitating discussions between herself and a guest based on sharing personal experiences from their lives as professional dancers, helping students by learning about real-life examples of hardships that can come with working in the professional arena. They then offer ways she and others have overcome or even gained from these moments. This year, we’re broadening it by holding discussions throughout the year with touchpoints on the music side of the School, the college fair, and building on the positive responses to last year’s dialogue with parents, focusing on expectations of success for our dancers so parents have better tools to support their kids.
Taylor: It’s very exciting to watch it take shape. Every time I tour the site, I see more of what every space is going to look like beyond just my imagination. We’ve done some photo shoots with the dancers at the construction site as a way of documenting the process as it’s being built. Asking students to be in their pointe shoes in the dirt outside the building was, for some of them, a kind of crazy thing, but they really liked the experience of being in this skeleton of a dance space, something out of the ordinary, outside of a classroom, and off of a stage.
I think it’s very meaningful to have a dedicated building to help serve our Dance students with exactly what they need by having spaces that are really made just for them. I think that shows the importance of dance to the Colburn School.
Taylor: With the new building, we have two responsibilities: to better serve the LA dance community and to enhance our students’ education. By serving the dance community, we naturally enhance dancers’ education by having professionals use the same space. It will be great for students to see every part of the process, from the seed of an idea, through the process of creation, and then to a fully realized work happening with guests or other artists who come into our space. Additionally, I foresee any artist using our spaces will provide direct opportunities to our students through master classes or open rehearsals of what they’re working on during their residency or time in our studios.
I also hope to institute craft courses, similar to this year’s Duet with Film. It’s important for dancers to have a deeper understanding and respect for everything that goes on around them, bringing what they do to life. Scenic design, lighting, and costume design, for example, all play a part of the bigger picture of their performances. Many dancers have a natural interest in these other art forms and I think it’s important to offer them a window into them at this point in their young lives.
Finally, we’re looking at creating classes to accommodate more students where we have waitlists already, as well as some fun date-night classes for adults to encourage a night of dinner and dancing on Grand Avenue in DTLA. Bring your partner!
The Colburn School has a long-held dream to build a major theatrical space that would prepare young musicians and dancers to perform on great stages around the world. We are grateful for the visionary donors who are bringing it to life, but success depends on participation at every level! You can join us in building the future of performing arts in Los Angeles through various opportunities, such as our Name Your Seat campaign–dedication of Studio Theater seats are $500. Click here to make your gift by end of December 2026 to ensure your dedication is in place for our grand opening.
Additionally, the David Kobrin Fund for Dance Excellence was established in anticipation of the opening of the new Colburn building. Inspired by his parents, Beverly and Donald Kobrin, David created the fund to help ensure dancers have access to the most inspiring and confidence-building learning and performance spaces in the world. The David Kobrin Fund for Dance Excellence supports and celebrates our core activities to inspire and train the next generation of performing artists.
We extend our gratitude and appreciation to all who have contributed to the Campaign for Colburn, and look forward to welcoming our supporters when the doors open next fall.