This letter is written to clarify the history of Dance in Central Florida
Dated: 5/23/2007 Written by Kip Watson; Edited by Barbara Riggins
The first qualified dance school in Orlando was The Ebsen School of Dance. Buddy Ebsen of TV fame was a son of the original owners. Edith Royal and her husband Bill Royal moved to Orlando in the mid 40’s and Edith started teaching at the school. Both my sister Barbara Riggins and I took our first classes with Edith and our Mom, Phyllis Watson started designing costumes. In the late 40’s Edith and Bill moved to Winter Park and opened The Royal School of Dance. My Mom joined them and became the office manager and costume designer. The school was noted for the number of dancers who moved to New York, and had successful careers in dance. When you reached the age of 15 and were still dancing she required you to take the Dance Master of America’s teaching course, and she and Bill would take you to New York to study and see Broadway shows and dance concerts. By the time that they retired they had 4 dance studios operating in Central Florida.
Patti Watson Walsh another Royal dancer and I worked and lived in New York for over 10 years; we then returned to Orlando and opened a dance studio. The first school was called “The Kip Watson Dance Studio” and was located in Altamonte Springs. We soon grew beyond the space and built our own studio named “The School of Performing Arts”, at that same time we started our first dance company called “The Performing Arts Company of Florida”. At this point my sister Barbara returned from New York and started teaching ballet at the school. We then changed the name to Southern Ballet Theater and the company became involved in the Regional Dance Movement that was growing in America. As the regional dance movement grew, a group of us came together and founded The Florida Dance Association. This became the gathering place for the many new professional dance companies springing up in Florida.
Through a federal funded program we started paying dancers at Southern Ballet Theater. The company moved out of the Performing Arts School and for a number of years became gypsies and had 4 different homes. Russell Sultzbach decided to finish his professional career with the Joffery Ballet and Milwaukee Ballet and joined us as the Ballet Master. As Co-Founder I became the Executive Director and Barbara as a Co-Founder became the Artistic Director. At that time The Nutcracker Ballet was performed at the Bob Carr by the Royals and the Florida Symphony Orchestra. Most professional companies relied on The Nutcracker for financial survival but we were unavailable to play in our home town and decided to market small theaters in the southeast and presented The Nutcracker on tour. We received support from the State of Florida as one of their official touring Companies.
This meant that our designers and touring crew had to create The Nutcracker ballet with no fly space available to make the magic of the ballet work. We played in over 25 theaters bringing great joy to thousands of people in the Southeastern States
In this same time period we joined with the Orlando Opera and with financial help from The Dr. Phillips Foundation raised 5 million dollars to restore OUC’s power plant number two creating a home for both groups. It is interesting to note that my Grandfather was the architect when the building was built in the 20’s. At this point Edith and Bill sold their studios and we became free to negotiate with the Symphony concerning taking over The Nutcracker at the Bob Carr. After many months and pressure from many of the local officials we were granted the rights to the ballet. Our first Nutcracker was choreographed by Russell Sultzbach the ballet master of SBT.
1993 marked my 48th year in the dance world, and with this anniversary, I wanted to explore other options. The board kept finding reasons for me to stay, and after months I finally said good bye, leaving the company with a million dollar budget and a surplus of $345,000. After all those years, I still have that final financial report. A short time later, Barbara decided that it was time for her to leave. She now works in Seminole County at the Midway Elementary and has developed a dance program for the kids at that School which has been recognized state wide. Russell Sultzbach, Ballet Master with SBT and Phyllis Watson Sultzbach, a dancer with SBT came back to the School of Performing Arts and have now taken over the ownership from Patti Watson Walsh. Lloyd Riggins son of Barbara Riggins was a soloist with The Royal Danish Ballet and is now dancing with the Hamburg Ballet, Her son Chris Fleming danced with The New York City Ballet and now choreographs and stages ballets out of Philadelphia and her daughter Edye danced on Broadway. We feel very proud at what we have accomplished in dance in Orlando, The state of Florida, the USA and Europe.
We need to now address the issue of Southern Ballet Theater being called by some people as “an average professional dance company”. We never desired to be a classical ballet company but modeled our self after The Joffery Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and other American companies. Our goal was to introduce to the small town of Orlando all forms of dance. In that time period we had choreographers from all over the world eager to work with SBT. It is important to remember that in 1993 Orlando had a population of 99,000 people. In 2007 that number was 320,000 and growing.
We spent our money bringing many well renowned companies and choreographers to town. We were interested in growing an audience of educated dance lovers. AND WE DID JUST THAT!
Today we are the “big town” of Orlando and Orlando Ballet is a classical ballet company with wonderful technical dancers. By going this route the company has made it easier for them to raise the funds needed to support the company. The community is now ready to support a classical ballet company and we wish them great success.
Well it’s been 12 years and I am back in dance at the age of 67! Eliza Harwood-Watson, a former company dancer and later in charge of the apprentice company of SBT, started a dance school 10 years ago and soon out grew her space. (sounds familiar) She now has a 5000 square foot building which includes the following: An Art Gallery, 2 studios and a theater with sprung floors, theater drapes and thanks to Johnny Holloway a wonderful full lighting system. The School is called The Harwood-Watson Dance Studio located just 2 blocks south of Baldwin Park.
Our dream was to promote up and coming Central Florida choreographers with a place to rehearse and perform. There were many choreographers who did not have a dance company and we put together “The Happenstance program” to bring dancers and choreographers together. We were most interested in supporting Modern and Jazz Dance forms. Since we started we have supported Soul Play, CineDance Jazz Company, Voci Modern Dance Company, Drip-paint in motion, Still Moving-Dance, The Florida Dance Theater and through the Happenstance programs have provided an opportunity and financial support to 17 choreographers and over 60 dancers. Our space has become known as the place to rehearse and perform cutting edge dance.
The new kid in town is The University of Central Florida Dance Department which had their first concert in April of this year. Eliza and I and the Orlando Ballet were asked to perform and Barbara Riggins received the first Dance Award given by the Dance Department. It was a great pleasure for us to watch the young dancers reach this new experience on stage and we are thrilled that the department is here for all of Central Florida to enjoy! It took us 60 years but Dance has finally taken its rightful place in the Central Florida Art Scene.