Dance for Life Grows Up Fast
Dance for Life was started by Keith Elliott, a dancer for nine years with the now defunct Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre. Elliott came up with the idea in the summer of 1991, when the Holmes company was on hiatus and Elliott was looking for something to do with his free time to benefit the AIDS cause. “I hate being bored,” he says. The first Dance for Life, held at the Organic Theatre, raised about $18,000. The top ticket price that year was $75, nowhere near the $500 now demanded for the best seats at the Shubert. This year’s cheapest ticket goes for $35. Dance for Life ticket holders paying more than $125 get a light dinner along with the performance, but not the lavish spread benefits typically give for such hefty outlays. “This event is really about raising money,” says Dance for Life coproducer Ben Bodelson, who estimates this year’s offering will gross $300,000. Last year’s event at Navy Pier had a top ticket of $250 and grossed close to $220,000. The net proceeds from the Shubert performance will go to Open Hand Chicago, the organization that provides meals to homebound people with AIDS, and to the Dance for Life Fund, which was set up by Elliott in 1994 to provide financial assistance to local dancers with AIDS.
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While Flatley has clearly succeeded on the international dance scene, he was a struggling young artist when he lived in Chicago. Local publicist Cindy Raymond recalls working with Flatley for eight months, trying to get him media exposure. But back then, Raymond says, it was difficult to get Flatley the kind of press coverage he so easily attracts today. “Nobody knew who he was,” she says, “but he was very determined in his desire to be a star.” Raymond says Flatley couldn’t always pay her fee, but he still managed to get some of the trappings of stardom, including a Mercedes. “He definitely liked to live on a larger-than-life scale.”
