With nearly $5 million budgeted for the 2023-2024 season, its largest ever operating expenditure level, Smuin Contemporary Ballet is working to make up a roughly $112,000 funding reduction from San Francisco Grants for the Arts (GTFA). GFTA, which is Smuin’s biggest single donor, reduced its commitment to the dance company due to a decline in tax revenues and new grantmaking scoring criteria.
“We will be putting in a new application with GTFA, paying attention to changes in the scoring criteria, tightening our belts, and welcoming donations in kind, like wine for auctions. We will also continue offering access through streaming digital video, which we started during the pandemic. Further, we will encourage giving outside the City by performing in other areas,” said Lori Laqua, Smuin Contemporary Ballet managing director. “Dealing with this shortfall has made us more resilient and creative. We have so many wonderful performers, choreographers, and students at Smuin. That motivates us to be optimistic.”
Next year Smuin will celebrate its 30th anniversary, with a February program paying homage to the company’s founder, Michael Smuin, to be performed at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Michael Smuin danced with the American Ballet Theatre and San Francisco Ballet before serving as SF Ballet’s co-artistic director from 1973 to 1984. He founded the dance company that features his name in 1994, after choreographing works for film, Broadway, and Las Vegas productions. He died of an apparent heart attack in 2007.
Smuin’s approach to dance involved combining classical ballet training with the rhythms of popular American culture. The result was highly physical pieces that might include notes from Broadway. Smuin was known for injecting humor and liveliness into his ballets, as well as relying on a range of scores, including Gershwin, bluegrass, and the 1930s cantata Carmina Burana.
Smuin typically holds more than 60 recitals a season, with ticket prices between $25 and $119. Most performances are presented at the Blue Shield of California Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, and Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Cowell Theater at Fort Mason and Sunset Center in Carmel also serve as venues. Approximately half of Smuin’s dancers teach ballet classes at the Smuin Center for Dance, the company’s Potrero Hill home, or other Bay Area sites.
Smuin is among many nonprofits impacted by reductions in revenues received by GTFA due to the COVID-19 pandemic. GTFA is funded by hotel taxes. In 2018, Proposition E, Hotel Tax for the Arts, passed with 74 percent of the vote, authorizing a 14 percent duty on lodging stays of less than 30 days. It was expected to generate more than $15 million a year by 2021. However, the pandemic devastated the hospitality sector, with associated reductions in hotel tax income. In fiscal year 2022, GTFA expected proceeds to be roughly 30 percent less than in FY 2020.
In 2022, GTFA changed how it granted funds to comply with 21G of the City’s administrative code, which requires departments to maintain fair granting practices. GTFA now gives higher priority to organizations that served communities in San Francisco, and ones that have a positive economic impact on surrounding neighborhoods and the City as a whole.
“For granting cycle 2024, fifty percent of a nonprofit’s score will be their economic impact, 35 percent will be their community engagement and impact, and 15 percent will be their fiscal accountability. The term “economic impact” goes to whether the organization is based, has hired artists and staff, and is holding events in San Francisco. The term “fiscal accountability” looks at an organization’s fiscal health and if the organization has diverse funding resources,” said Vallie Brown, San Francisco Grants for the Arts directors.
Smuin, which moved into the former home of Metronome Ballroom, at 1830 17th Street, in 2019, was significantly dependent on GTFA funding. Since it holds performances outside the City, it scored lower under the new criteria. The company also saw a drop in funding from other organizations that supported the arts, including the William + Flora Hewlett Foundation.
“The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 assisted us in getting through the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are thankful for that but want to be better positioned to connect with audiences as they return for live performances and classes,” said Laqua.
Friends of Smuin, an auxiliary and social group of “Smuin aficionados,” has been a driving force to encourage support for Smuin.
“Before the pandemic, we were a group of 10 to 15. Now we have almost 35 members. Together, we have encouraged donations and raised approximately $50,000 over the past two and a half years. We have also organized special shows at Roche Winery & Vineyards in Sonoma and pre-show get-togethers at the St. Regis Bar,” said Leslie Taglio, Friends of Smuin co-president.
Richard Binkoff, a Carolina Street resident, has offered his guest dwelling to visiting Smuin choreographers.
“Large ballets have budgets in the millions. Smuin’s budget is far less, and in-kind contributions help a great deal,” said Binkoff.
John Orr, founder of Jettison Creative, a San Francisco-based production agency and studio, films Smuin performances for digital audiences to view pro bono. Orr, a Castro resident, is also a real estate agent, and sold Smuin the building in which it’s housed. He was a Smuin dancer from 2009 to 2013 and 2020 to 2022. His wife, Terez Dean Orr, currently dances with the company.
“It’s truly a joy to be close to Smuin in so many ways, for performances, to see my wife in the company, and film dancers as they practice and teach. For a time, I separated myself from dance. Now I see Smuin as a touchstone to which I can return,” said John Orr.
Benjamin Warner, community engagement manager and rehearsal assistant for Smuin Contemporary Ballet, said the company creates a lively and warm welcome to audiences and students.
“During the first years of the pandemic, online and hybrid performances through Stellar encouraged audiences to share experiences in real time. As we’ve come back to in-person classes and performances, that has resulted in real bonds,” said Warner. “Smuin is looking to form partnerships with other businesses on the Hill and in Dogpatch. We’re members of the Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association. Many of our dancers often visit local institutions like Connecticut Yankee.”
Smuin hosts movement classes for three- and four-year-olds attending Potrero Hill Montessori School, located across the street. Starting this month Smuin will offer a free weekly dance class, ConfiDANCE!, for six to nine-year-olds, funded by the Rotary Club of San Francisco. The program will expand to 10 to 13-year-olds later this year. Smuin regularly holds Class for a Cause dance fitness classes, which collect donations for local causes. Recent recipients included The Food Pantry at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church and the Bay Area Chapter of the American Red Cross.
“I’m very excited about being a part of Zorro!, a piece in which women dance with whips. I look forward to seeing The Man in Black, which features one woman and three men all performing in cowboy boots, to songs recorded by Johnny Cash,” said Cassidy Isaacson, a Smuin dancer.
Danny Pham 
Chaitanya Tondepu