PRINTIn good company
Karen Grundy took a leap of faith by leaving Las Vegas. Her reward is directing her own local company.
Andrei Pungovschi
Karen Grundy leads the warm-up for a weekly jazz class at Columbia Performing Arts Center, in which her students range from middle school to college age. Other courses at CPAC include classical ballet, modern dance, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical and tap.
February 8, 2007 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Backstage at the Missouri Theatre, Artistic Director Karen Grundy rushes up the stairs to the dressing room to offer her dancers yellow roses, something she plans to make a tradition. Grundy masks her nervousness with enthusiastic encouragement. It’s not stage fright that Grundy fears; she’s not performing. She’s the director and co-founder of the Missouri Contemporary Ballet, and this is the company’s first show.
Most directors are nervous when making their debut, but the lack of contemporary dance in Columbia also fueled Grundy’s apprehension. This absence also made it difficult for Grundy to anticipate how the city’s ballet patrons would respond to the first show, Twisted, on Nov. 19. Grundy expected an audience between 200 and 250 people, but to her surprise and delight, about 500 people came, causing a shortage in programs.
Grundy, right, counts as her students, including Elise Presser, front left, do push-ups during their ...
A couple of minutes before Twisted begins, Grundy encourages her dancers (from left: Asuka Takei, ...
At the end of the show, Grundy thanks the public for its support. “The reaction ...
Laura Jones, Matt Carney and Dan Harris perform in the Missouri Contemporary Ballet’s first show, ...
After her dancers put on a successful performance at the Missouri Theatre, director Karen Grundy ...
With such a large turnout, clearly a lot of Columbians had heard about the company. Dancer Laura Jones says, “I hope we become well-known in this city and in Missouri and throughout the country.”
Grundy’s roots lie in Las Vegas and New York, where she danced professionally. “I like everything about dance,” says Grundy. “That’s the only thing that I ever wanted to do and ever would do. I love the athleticism of it, I love the creation, I love the different movements, I love the expression, I love the blood, sweat and tears. Everything.”
In 2000, Columbia Performing Arts Center offered her a job teaching contemporary jazz. Grundy decided to leave Las Vegas, where the type of shows she enjoyed performing in had grown scarce. With a self-imposed deadline of one year, Grundy moved to Columbia to choose between performing and teaching. At CPAC, she fell in love with teaching and saw potential in the local dancers, leading her to co-found the Missouri Contemporary Ballet last July. “This is a ballet company where we take classical ballet movements, and we add a twist to them and create more interesting movements and ideas,” Grundy says.
The company, consisting of two men and four women, will put these twisted movements back on stage this April in its next show, Boundless. Grundy says Columbians should come see Missouri Contemporary Ballet because sports are valued so highly in this city. “And these dancers are just as athletic as any football player or basketball player, and then we also add that little appeal of edginess and sexiness and sensuality,” Grundy says. “There’s emotion throughout our entire show. They go up and down, and I think that’s important for people to experience the different styles and the different music that we use. There’s something for everyone.”
