Linda Shelton is the Executive Director of the Joyce Theater Foundation*

As the lights dim, the curtain rises, and the dance performances begin, part of what inspires Linda Shelton is the collective appeal of the choreographed movement. Shelton is the executive director of the Joyce Theater Foundation, a home for dance in New York City that invites and presents all kinds of dance companies, everything from flamenco to tap, hip hop to ballet. What impresses her about dance, Shelton says, is its universal allure. Regardless of differences in background, the audience can relate to the kinetic beauty of the method.

"Someone who doesn't speak the same language as me can look at a performance and understand it," Shelton says. "Dance allows a lot of room to see what you want in it."

For more than ten years, Shelton has directed and managed the Joyce Theater Foundation, which oversees two locales, a 472-seat theater in Chelsea and a 75-seat space in Soho. Soon, the Joyce will include yet another sought-after dance venue. Just last month, city and state officials selected the Joyce as one of the four cultural institutions that will provide programming at the arts center to be built at the World Trade Center site.

The Joyce presents an average of 48 weeks of performances

Shelton's passion for dance began in the classroom. At age 10, she enrolled in some modern-jazz classes at a local school in her hometown of Totowa, New Jersey. By the time she reached high school, though, Shelton decided to pursue dance more seriously. She took out the phone book and looked for a new academy in which to study.

"The first school listed was the Academy of Ballet," Shelton says. "Luckily, they took that name because it was the first one in the phone book. So I stumbled on this wonderful ballet school not too far from where I grew up."

Eddie Verso, at that time the principal dancer at the Joffrey Ballet, directed the school. While she enjoyed the hours of practice in the academy's studio and the discipline that classical ballet demanded, Shelton ultimately chose to attend college rather follow a career in dance.

"They knew that I wanted to go to college, that I didn't really want to try and pursue something professional in dance," Shelton says of her teachers. "So they suggested that I study dance in college."

Heeding their advice, Shelton enrolled in New York University, completing a B.A. in 1981 in dance education. After graduating, she taught for a brief time in some public schools, trying to figure out a way to stay involved in dance. One possibility, she thought, was to learn the business end of the field.

"I started thinking that there was a way that I could work in the management and administration side of dance, which I knew absolutely nothing about," Shelton says. "I didn't even know if it existed."

That changed when she accepted an internship with the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). There, Shelton, still in her early twenties, began studying the skills of administration, the ins and outs of how dance companies stayed afloat financially. She analyzed funding statistics for the NYSCA Dance Program, for instance, and coordinated auditors to write critical evaluations for artists requesting funding.

"I thought fundraising was really interesting," she says. "I thought that combining the corporate side with the arts was fascinating."

Beverly D'Anne, director of the dance program at the NYSCA, remembers Shelton's dedication to her internship.

"She had a great deal of potential," D'Anne says. "She was intelligent and detail oriented and had a real commitment to the field."

Building on her new administrative skills, Shelton moved on in 1982 to work for world-renowned choreographer Twyla Tharp. For the next six years, Shelton worked as the manger of Twyla Tharp's dance company, helping to plan and create new works, handling national and international bookings and contract negotiations.

"I took them on tour and traveled all over the world, which was something I hadn't done before," Shelton says. "I made a lot of connections to presenters in this country and abroad. It really laid a nice groundwork for what was to happen in the future for me."

The Joyce presents all kinds of dance, from flamenco to hip hop

"Most presenters are multi-disciplined," Shelton says. "They present music, dance, and theater. They have a multiple mission. I loved the idea that the Joyce only presented dance. To me, that was it. It doesn't get much better."

Shelton was awarded the position of executive director at the Joyce in January 1993, assuming responsibilities for overseeing the finance, development, marketing, and programming at the theater, which at the time was still just about a decade old.

The brainchild of choreographer Eliot Feld and his executive director Cora Cahan, the Joyce officially opened its first full season in September 1982. The theater, which used to serve as an old movie house, was established in large part thanks to contributions from New York philanthropist LuEsther Mertz. In appreciation of Mertz's generosity, the theater is named after her daughter.

The renovation of the theater took two years to complete, with builders gutting the entire interior to create an elegant, cozy 472-seat venue designed specifically for small- and medium-sized dance companies. The space, located at 175 Eighth Avenue, provides a more personal environment for dancers and the audience, according to Jonathan Wolken, co-founder of Pilobolus, a Connecticut-based modern dance company that performed its 17^th season at the Joyce this summer.

"A long time ago we decided to try the idea of a regular presence in New York City," Wolken says. "When we spoke with all the possible venues, the thing that struck us about the Joyce is how intimate it is. You really sense what's going on stage. It's nice to see the expression on people's faces, to see how the magic is created."

To bring even more dance companies to the Joyce's stage, Shelton decided as executive director to broaden the theater's reach, to make sure that more of her colleagues both around the country and the world understood what the theater could offer.

"When I got here, the theater was beautifully run," Shelton says. "But I think one of the things we were able to do was become less isolated. We needed to travel more to see what else was available to put on the stage."

Shelton increased the Joyce's visibility in the dance community by joining the Dance/USA board -- serving as chair from 2000-2002 -- and began traveling the world to view dance performances with the Joyce's director of programming, Martin Wechsler. Shelton traveled to Australia, France, Cambodia, Japan, and throughout Eastern Europe, seeking out performers to present.

"There was some international programming before she came," Wechsler says. "But it has grown as the theater's profile has grown, and that's all been under Linda's leadership."

Hundreds of artists use the space at Joyce SoHo every year. Photo by Sava B. Martin

Wechsler highlights still another contribution Shelton has made to the Joyce: the theater's acquisition of its space in Soho. The Joyce Theater Foundation established Joyce SoHo in 1996 to create a venue for dance artists, a place where they could rehearse and perform. The center, located at 155 Mercer Street, houses three studios that are available to choreographers and dance companies at a highly subsidized rate. More than 350 artists use the space every year.

"The purchase of Joyce SoHo is one of her very significant contributions to the Joyce and to the field of dance," Wechsler says. "At that time, artists were moving out of Soho. The Joyce was able to purchase the building and keep it for dance."

Besides the venues in Chelsea and Soho, the Joyce will soon add a third locale to its roster of premier theaters. In June, state and city officials selected the Joyce as one of the four cultural institutions that will offer programming at the new arts center to be built at the WTC site.

The Joyce will oversee a dance center which will include a 900- to 1,000-seat theater where it will present one- or two-week engagements by approximately 30 different dance companies. It will also offer education programs for school groups, community workshops, open rehearsals, lectures, and other public programs.

The space will fill a current void in the New York City dance scene, according to Shelton. While there are currently smaller, 500-seat theaters available, as well as larger auditoriums, there is a lack of medium-sized venues downtown. The planned theater will meet that need for companies who have played to smaller crowds and are now prepared to perform in front of bigger audiences.

The new dance center will also play a role in the revitalization of Lower Manhattan more generally, Shelton says, just as the theater's space helped reinvigorate Chelsea.

"The arts often act as a catalyst to rejuvenate neighborhoods," Shelton says. "I think that dance offers an opportunity to have an art form with a universal language. It seemed to me to be the right thing to offer there. We're not so big that we'll overrun the neighborhood. We fit in very well here in Chelsea. We're good neighbors. And we'll do the same downtown."

*Photo by David Lubarsky