AUGUST 27 • 2020 | 45

Arts&Life

dance
Digital 
Dance 
Discussion

Former Metro Detroiters 
to discuss the art of 
dancing in JCC program.

T

wo Southfield-raised representatives 
of the professional dance world — one 
who formed a dance company and the 
other who transitioned into neurosurgery — 
will discuss the art of dance during a digital 
program arranged by the Jewish 
Community Center (JCC). 
The event is part of the series 
“Conversations: Bringing the 
World Into Your Living Room” 
and will feature Dr. Allen 
Maniker interviewing Carolyn 
Dorfman, choreographer and 
founding artistic director of Carolyn Dorfman 
Dance, based in New Jersey. The presentation 
begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27, and recalls 
some of the doctor’
s earlier stage credits.
“I want to talk about how one develops a 
career as a professional choreographer,
” said 
Maniker, now a New Yorker. He previously 
danced with the Alvin Ailey American Dance 
Theater in the city and the Israeli Bat-Dor 
Dance Company, closed after almost 40 years. 
“I will ask about the problems and difficul-
ties of maintaining a professional dance com-
pany and what she has seen as problematic 
in returning to creative work in this time of 
pandemic,
” he told the JN.
Maniker and Dorfman, who attended 
Southfield High School at the same time, 
recall sharing stage experiences as they 
worked on the musical Camelot — she as cho-

reographer and he as a cast member. While 
her early dance lessons were with Julie Adler, 
his were with Harriet Berg at the JCC. 
Both went on to the University of 
Michigan, where Maniker double majored in 
dance and pre-med. After one year, he trans-
ferred to Juilliard, earning a degree in dance 
and continuing in the field until deciding, in 
the 1980s, to work toward a medical degree.
Dorfman earned a bachelor’
s degree in 
dance from U-M and a master’
s from New 
York University Tisch School of the Arts. In 
discussing the focus of her company, which is 
now in its 37th year, she points to the connec-
tivity of the art form — physical connection, 
connection between artists and connection 
between the artist and the audience. 
“I am interested in communicating,
” said 
Dorfman, currently giving attention to social 
justice issues with a troupe of 10 that has 
toured internationally. During the ongoing 
COVID-19 pandemic, “I had to learn how to 
attempt to break barriers on the screen.
”
The choreographer has used the digital 
medium for both performances and instruc-
tion and hopes to show excerpts during the 
upcoming broadcast. 
“I have been into technology for a very 
long time,
” said Dorfman, the daughter of 
Holocaust survivors who motivated her devel-
opment of pieces that reflect Jewish heritage. 
“We learned how to create on Zoom and 

make an artistic entity. 
“We have created curriculum that we’
re 
licensing to a school district and produced 
lectures. Some things are synchronous with 
students in the audience, and some things are 
asynchronous where I produce content sent 
somewhere and watched at leisure.
”
Dorfman said she feels a lot of pride for the 
dancers in her company, especially during the 
pandemic when one has been coping with 
COVID-19 — and all show resilience. 
Maniker, retired as chairman of neuro-
surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in 
Manhattan, credits Dorfman with motivating 
him toward a dance career, which he pursued 
through age 26. 
Maniker continues active interest in 
dance as board chairman of the Steps 
Beyond Foundation, associated with Steps 
on Broadway, a dance studio in New York 
City. To foster continuing education, he 
moderates panel discussions and planned a 
lecture-demonstration about ballet for the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he is a 
docent.
Knowledge of his New York programming 
led to establishing “Conversations,
” which has 
featured Met curator Kathryn Calley Galitz 
and will introduce Alicia Graf Mack, Juilliard 
Dance Division director, on Sept. 10.
“Plus, I’
m a performer,
” Maniker said. “
And 
these ‘
Conversations’
 are performances.
” 

Carolyn Dorfman

details
To access information about “Conversations” 
programming — and learn more about the 
dance discussion beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, 
Aug. 27 — go to culturalarts.jcc.org. 

WHITNEY BROWNE

Dr. Allen 
Maniker

JCC

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER