Shall We Dance?

Lisa Conlin was destined for an athletic future from a young age. With sports-players making up the majority of her immediate family, she was bound to find herself in that realm. But she ended up the self-described “black sheep” in that regard when she devoted her professional career to dance—a no less athletic but perhaps more artistic endeavor.

“I started when I was four years old,” she said. “My dad put me in dance because he used to date the dance teacher in town.”

But thanks to that decision, Conlin’s teacher offered her exposure to a variety of dance events throughout middle school in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles—and she was hooked.

“I knew when I was about 12 years old that I wanted to dance professionally,” she said. “That was my goal. So I just tried to take advantage of all the opportunities I could.”

This drive included taking classes locally in Grand Forks, N.D., as well as a summer stint studying with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

“What I like about ballet is how hard it is,” said Conlin, who at one point danced with a classical ballet company in Minneapolis. “Now, when I train dancers in ballet, I know how difficult the technique is. I appreciate it now so much when I watch it. It’s kind of its own beast in itself.”

Lisa Conlin performing alongsIde Raena Rasmussen (Credit: Rachel Person)

Her adult life has offered her many such opportunities to hone her craft in a variety of environments, including the Continental Ballet Company based out of Bloomington, Minn., and, a particular highlight, Ballet of the Dolls, where she had the opportunity to debut original dance pieces by company founder and choreographer Myron Johnson.

“Being able to finally dance and get paid after all the lessons, all the workshops,” said Conlin, who spent her spare time working in her dad’s restaurant and teaching classes on the side to pay for her instruction and travel. “Finally getting paid for my profession was a huge highlight for me.”

It was in Minneapolis that she had the chance to perform pieces such as Giselle and Cinderella, as well as direct and choreograph her own piece, Blue Heaven, a study of the stages of grief.

“That one is really near and dear to my heart, because I came up with it after both my parents passed away of cancer, as well as my mother-in-law and three friends,” Conlin said. “I was really experiencing grief and I needed to do something with it.”

That ignited passion for choreography led Conlin to start the Renovate showcase at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis in order to offer fellow choreographers a chance to show their work.

“When you get into a dance company, you get your foot in the door and it gives you so many opportunities,” she said. “But there were a lot of choreographers and artists that wanted to be able to perform but weren’t part of a company.”

The grant-funded project included several productions in the Twin Cities, as well as in Sioux Falls—which brings us to the current place that Conlin calls home.

Conlin’s husband Mick was working in Sioux Falls while she continued dancing professionally in Minneapolis. And it was on one of her visits to the South Dakota city that she grabbed the phone book and looked up dance studios.

She took notice of Balleraena Dance Studio, signed up for an adult jazz class while she was in town and the rest is, as they say, history. After the class, studio owner Raena Rasmussen asked Conlin if she was interested in teaching.

“Somehow she got my number and she ended up calling me and asking me if I’d moved to Sioux Falls yet,” Conlin said. “I started to guest-teach in the summer (at Balleraena) before moving to Sioux Falls officially.”

There was just one problem—Sioux Falls didn’t have a professional dance company to call its own. So Conlin called up Rasmussen about the possibility of bringing what she’d had an opportunity to experience in Minneapolis across the border to South Dakota.

“She didn’t even wait a second before she said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’”

They founded LiRa Dance Theatre Company, an organization that’s currently in its fifth season, with a roster of 24 dancers, preparing a show this August.

“To be able to have a dance company here in town and to give dancers the opportunities that I had back in Minneapolis is amazing,” Conlin said. One such dancer includes Conlin’s daughter, Georgia, who’s developed a similar passion and was recently one of only 40 selected applicants from about 500 to the Chapman University dance program in California.

In her many endeavors in the dance world over the years, one thing that has never escaped Conlin’s attention is the power that dance can give a practitioner, as well as an audience member.

“With LiRa, it’s so exciting for me that some of these performers danced professionally elsewhere and even as adults they get super excited about learning new material and new choreography,” she said. “They can really understand intention behind the movement and bringing characters to life on stage—really telling the story.”

Her work with LiRa has led to may other community collaborations, including with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Augustana University and the Good Night Theatre Collective, something she’d like to continue into the future.

“I love connecting with different artists,” she said, “so that’s kind of the goal—to keep creating and collaborating with theatre groups, dance groups, musicians and composers.”

And Conlin is prepared to pull inspiration from her surroundings and continue performing, choreographing, directing and connecting in the years to come.

“When somebody produces art, whether it’s as a director or choreographer or producer or teacher or student taking a class or watching a fellow student or professional dance on stage—when they’re giving you a piece of their heart, that’s inspiring to me. It makes me feel something.”

Find out more about Conlin and Rasmussen’s local professional dance company at LiRaDanceTheatreCompany.com.