Increasingly, community outreach is just the tip of the iceberg for some dance companies, and artists and social justice organizations are finding mutual benefits to deeper and more prolonged partnerships. That deliberate choice of engagement, as opposed to outreach, seeks to erase some of the traditional hierarchies between dancers and community members.

[Read more →]

Why is it that, often, when I read choreographers’ biographies in performance program notes, I can’t find any information about their artistic evolution: who they studied or danced with, who was their mentor, or who inspired them to become a dance maker? I miss learning about dance artists’ choreographic development.

[Read more →]

Someone should choreograph a dance about the sweeping importance of social media and the ups and downs of trying to manage a social media presence. No sooner does an arts organization begin to use “the next best thing” when something new, shinier, and sexier takes its place.     

[Read more →]

American Ballet Theatre soloist Daniil Simkin examines individual branding and marketing: “I am branding myself. No, I am not applying a hot iron to my buttocks as cowboys do with steers. But I am doing something that, at least among some of my colleagues, is equally as controversial. I am attempting to make myself into a ballet product.”

[Read more →]

It’s important at times like these to remain actively engaged with our elected officials. This might mean contacting them about the important role of government funding for the arts and arts education, the role the charitable deduction has in strengthening the arts in every community, or the value in making sure that the nonprofit arts sector is considered in any legislation benefitting employers.

[Read more →]

Many of us working in larger cities take exposure to high-caliber arts for granted. We are presented with a myriad of professional performance options on a daily basis. This is not the case, however, across the country particularly in dance where touring is getting more expensive, presenting is getting riskier, and selling tickets is more and more challenging. 

[Read more →]

Perhaps then, teaching dance-lovers the importance of entering the conversation may be a better project to undertake. Dance writing, whether it appears online or in print, begs a response from the community. With the advent of new media, dancers, choreographers, and dance enthusiasts have more opportunities than ever to share thoughts and opinions and so sustain their field.

[Read more →]

Amid the intensity to embrace and understand the new, it is worthwhile to consider enduring dynamics that apply to an old yet evergreen story: the care and feeding of a volunteer patron base. With an eye toward continuous improvement in how we manage relationships and cultivate commitment from patrons, it is worth reviewing – and recommitting to – skills that have always made a difference in forging strong relationships with our most dedicated supporters.

[Read more →]

The purpose of dance, of any art, is to offer the world what it does not have enough of otherwise; so compromise, capitulating to the world, makes no sense at all.

[Read more →]

In terms of creative work, I think we can offer the most by sitting—or dancing—away from the moment.

[Read more →]