Maude Baum & Co Dance Theatre

I think it is safe to say that Maude Baum & Co is the Capital District’s longest running modern dance company (37 years in 2011) and the only modern dance company in the Capital District that maintains its own theater (see eba theater). MB&Co’s dance repertory spans over a century as her company has recently performed some of the early works of Isadora Duncan (the godmother of American modern dance) to current pieces that are choreographed by Baum and/​or her company members. Baum encourages her dancers to create new works and challenge themselves each fall with Brave New Dances. This show is often the «think tank» for pieces that end up being polished for performance in the Spring Salon in April/​May.
MB&Co makes modern dance accessible to the Albany population in that she produces artistic, inspirational, intellectual, yet enjoyable and entertaining works. She also has a knack for costuming the dancers in surprising and interesting ways that lend to the «story» of the dance. Baum taps into human emotions, experiences, and references in a way that makes her work and her company members performances very approachable.
MB&Co also produces an annual «Cabaret» in which her highly trained dancers (also highly educated dancers, most of whom hold Masters Degrees or are enrolled or recently graduated from PhD programs) «let their hair down» to sing and dance to delightfully bawdy Broadway show tunes. This is a one a year fund raiser for an arts-​n-​ed program that MB&Co and eba sponsor. The «Cabaret» also gives neighbors in the Washington Park/​Center Square neighborhood to perform.
MB&Co has regularly been involved with First Fridays in Albany and has sponsored the children’s space at Lark Fest (which is awesome… bead jewelry making and creative movement for kids of all ages!)
Even though it is eba theater that hold such a giant foot print on the Lark Street-​scape, it is Maude Baum & Co that is the heart and guts of that theater and Lark Street.