The Rural We: Dawn Lane

“It is impossible to capture how deep Dawn’s contributions have been here at CATA (Community Access to the Arts),” says Margaret Keller, CATA’s executive director. She’s talking about Dawn Lane, CATA’s artistic director who is retiring after 28 years with the beloved Great Barrington organization. Lane joined it in 1994, and her work as a choreographer and director has been recognized through numerous awards, including from the New England Foundation for the Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, Massachusetts Cultural Council and others. IN 1997 she formed the Moving Company, a celebrated mixed-ability dance company for people with disabilities served by CATA, leading powerful productions that have shined a light on the talents of people with disabilities, Lane has also helped to launch partnerships with organizations across Berkshire and Columbia counties. “I feel very fortunate that I’ve been able to do what I love in a beautiful place,” she says.

I did my teenage years growing up in Stockbridge, where I still live, and started dancing at Cantarella School of Dance. I danced my way through high school, then went to Massachusetts College of Art in Boston to study design and keep moving. I met my mentor, Dawn Kramer, and decided that choreography was where I needed to focus my creative energy, and since then, I have been a choreographer. After living in Boston and southern Maine, the Berkshires called me back. I got my master’s degree at Lesley University and taught visual arts at Monument High School and started doing some teaching for Jacob’s Pillow.

In 1993 Sandy Newman, CATA’s founder, came to see an evening of my work at Jacob’s Pillow that had a cast of mixed-ability dancers — professionals and a cast of mothers and daughters. She asked if I’d like to teach for CATA. I was teaching 7 or 8 classes a week throughout Berkshire County, and then CATA added admin work, which grew into a full-time position for me.

When I was teaching a large Friday dance class, I noticed that some of the dancers had a passion for moving and an interest in their own moving invention. I founded the Moving Company to allow these dancers to get to another level. We’ve performed at the Kennedy Center, the Pillow, and every year at the CATA gala.

I’m retiring a year earlier than I’d originally planned, a decision that was largely pandemic based. I’m at a point where I’ve worked hard since I was 14, and I just don’t want to work this hard anymore. But I’ll keep dancing, keep my body moving. I have some dances I choreographed to be portable and easy to share with different groups of people. I hope to take those dances on a trip. Because I also studied visual arts in high school and college, I’m entertaining the thought of what my work might be in two dimensions, rather than the three in dancing. I’m curious what that might be.