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Mandala was an American folk dance performing group based in the Boston, Massachusetts area, which presented programs of dance and music from around the world [1] starting in the mid-1960s. [2] The group's first director (1966-1968) was Robert Leibman. [3] Subsequent directors included Arthur Saltzman, Paul Johnson, and Harry Brauser. Mandala became a collectively run ensemble [4] in 1971. In the early years they used recorded music for their performances; they added their own orchestra [5] in 1973. A full cast consisted of up to 35 members. [4]
Stage performances were the group's primary focus, with dance suites choreographed for the stage. Some of the choreographers for the Mandala suites were Dick Crum, [6] Sandor Timar, [7] Mary Wolff , Normand Legault, Juan Manuel Lozano, [1] Fernadina Chan, [7] Jacek Marek, Elsie Ivancich Dunin, Eva Maria Kish, Andre Stegman, and Dulal Talukdar. A typical Mandala performance lasted about two hours, [8] consisting of a 16-dance program from 12-15 countries. [1] Their repertoire included a wide variety of ethnicities, primarily European (Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian, Russian, Hungarian, Romanian, English, Scottish, Irish, Swedish, etc.) plus Mexican, American, Armenian, Chinese, French Canadian, Spanish, and more. [8] The group strove for authenticity in the traditions they represented. [5] Many of their costumes were authentic; they created others from authentic models. [2]
Mandala performed in the Boston area and throughout the northeast in up to 40 performances per year, [1] including at the Fox Hollow Festival in 1974, Carnegie Hall [9] in 1980, and multiple performances each year at John Hancock Hall. [4] Mandala also gave six performances [10] at Jacobs Pillow in July-August 1986, [11] in a program shared with the Mexican dancer Pilar Rioja. [12]
Mandala represented the United States in hour-long performances at several international festivals. [13] They performed in Rattvik, Sweden [4] in 1982, Drummondville, Quebec in 1983, Oloron, France in 1984, Billingham, England in 1987, and Pécs, Hungary in 1992. Their repertoire at international festivals were dance suites of American dances, [13] included Charleston, Cakewalk, New England contradance, Southwest swing, Lindy Hop, a suite of dances from the 1950's with hula hoops, [14] and Appalachian clogging. [8] The group also participated in the 1991 movie Once Around, directed by Lasse Hallström.
They received several grants from the National Endowment for the Arts [1] as well as from the Massachusetts Council for the Arts and Humanities [15] and the New England Foundation for the Arts. [16] The purpose of the National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1984 was to add new choreography from North Africa and promote a self-produced home season [17] in 1985 to produce a color booking brochure and in 1986 to hire a part-time development director.
