Money Managers

Dance on the Trading Floor

BAM's annual Next Wave is "a global performing arts festival." Its $3 million 1998 budget, "50 percent box office and 50 percent from subsidy, contributions: individuals, corporations, foundations, government"-bought imports from France, Germany, and India. Since 1983, "international representation of dance companies and individual artists has always informed its profile," in part due to retiring executive producer Harvey Lichtenstein's background as a dancer. "Americans are at a disadvantage; they don't have the kind of funding that European communities with a heritage of a lot of governmental support have," Melillo observes. He selects artists, then negotiates "a fee plus expenses, hotel, per diem, transportation, freight." He must see artists live. BAM pays expenses. "I travel a lot." Last year he went to Peru. This month he'll scout Buenos Aires "to represent Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking cultures at BAM during the 2000-2001 season....That's an exclusive."

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