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Hot Topics in DanceFebruary 2007: International Views about American DanceIntro from Andrea Snyder For the last three years, the Dance Working Group (DWG) has hosted an Open Dance Forum just prior to the start of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Annual Booking Conference. The first year’s theme was focused on artist/presenter relationships. The second year incorporated one panel looking at trends in dance and a second panel offering models for fundraising. This year, the DWG determined that international cultural exchange was a “hot” topic, and in particular, perspectives about American dance from international colleagues. Given Dance/USA’s role as an umbrella for American artists, presenters and managers at the International Tanzmesse in Germany and an advocate for the dance field, I was happy to organize and facilitate this three hour conversation. Carolelinda Dickey, performing arts strategist and liaison to the Tanzmesse, graciously accepted my request to help design the content and moderate the discussion. She communicated with each of the speakers in advance and prepared them with a set of questions to consider for their remarks. The invited international guests included: • Cees de Bever, director for performing arts, Consulate General of The Netherlands; Below are three varied reports for your benefit and appreciation of the dialogue; each will download as a pdf: The Forum discussion was rich, provocative, respectful and honest. Folks who attended took away a lot of information; the dialogue resonated deeply and continued to reverberate through the halls of the conference for days after. No doubt, there is plenty of food for thought, and hopefully for future action. November 2006: Catch the Dance Craze I know the latest reality craze about dancing with stars is not necessarily on the same page with concert dance. But I can’t help thinking that there must be some ways the nonprofit, professional dance community can capitalize on all the buzz, good vibes and interest from this reality program and other dance-focused mass entertainment (the upcoming movie “Happy Feet,” “So You Think You Can Dance”), not to mention the upcoming tour of “Dancing with the Stars.” The article from yesterday’s New York Times resonates. The Dance/USA, Dance/NYC and Dance/MetroDC staff recently did a little quick brainstorming on the subject. I also mentioned the conundrum to Spider Kedelsky out in Seattle, who responded with a concept or two. These might be applicable for companies, presenters, service organizations, partnerships, collaborations, or whole communities. A few ideas: ~ Create a “Dancing with ___________ (fill in the city’s name) Stars” in your own community as a fundraiser for a company or institution. Local celebrities would be partnered with local dancers to do "routines." They could partner with professional ballroom types, or dancers from companies. It might be a nice way to bring the two communities together if they were mixed. This would take some organizing, but could be a big draw. ~ Hook into the tour of “Dancing with the Stars” and invite the host and several of the participants to join company members for a backstage talk about dance training. Open it to the public as an income producer. ~ Create a dance party in connection with the opening of “Happy Feet” or with the incoming tour of “Dancing with the Stars.” ~ Dance/USA develop a list serve for marketing and development staff of member organizations to share ideas, solutions, out-of-the-box concepts for implementation or replication. Let’s hear what folks are doing in their own communities. Okay, it’s out of my head now and into yours. Disregard if you think this has no relevance for you, or pass it along to others in your organization who might want to dream a little. Better still; let us know if you want to brainstorm more. To add your thoughts, email Dance/USA September 2006: Media Coverage Our Hot Topic for September is one that has been talked about for a while now, but as the article below indicates, newspaper coverage for the arts - specifically dance - is seriously looking like a thing of the past. So what is the future? How has your organization found creative ways to get the word out? Send an email to Dance/USA to share your thoughts and experiences and any tricks of the trade. Postings will be added to the website weekly. Village Voice Dismisses 8, Including Senior Arts Editors By Motoko Rich In a move that decimated the senior ranks of its arts staff, The Village Voice, the New York alternative weekly, yesterday dismissed eight people, including Robert Christgau, a senior editor and longtime pop music critic who had been at the paper on and off since 1969. In a statement released yesterday, Village Voice Media described the layoffs as an effort “to reconfigure the editorial department to place an emphasis on writers as opposed to editors.” The company added, “Painful though they may be in the short term, these moves are consistent with long-range efforts to position The Voice as an integral journalistic force in New York City.” Hate ballet? Love ballet? The following links will connect you to two separate articles. The first article, written by Lewis Segal, was published in the LA Times on August 6th. In his article, Mr. Segal, using often colorful language, describes his unfavorable opinion of professional ballet. In response, the second article was written by NY Times dance critic, John Rockwell, and was published August 8th. Dance/USA realizes that the words - in either article - might evoke strong feelings in those who read them. We offer the articles only as food for thought and welcome any reactions, thoughts or diatribes of your own that you would like for us to share not only to the rest of the membership, but also to the authors themselves. You may forward any comments via email to Ann Norris. Read some responses below... Five Things I Hate About Ballet by Lewis Segal Ballet as a Dance Form Some Just Love to Hate by John Rockwell Readers respond: As much as I hate to agree with Segal's diatribe he is correct about ballet dancers being perpetual children, always being told exactly how to look and act and dance - sad but true. That is exactly why I had to quit taking ballet classes from a particular teacher while a dance major at [Name Removed] College; on the one hand I was in college and being encouraged to think on my own and question as well as learning a lot about anatomy and I had a ballet teacher who wanted all of her students to do exactly the opposite. She would also torment and taunt any student who took modern dance classes. I have always seen that experience as the dichotomy between ballet and modern dance: modern dance asks the student to always question and be aware while ballet just wants you to be a robot. Don't get me wrong things are definitely changing in the ballet world and for the better. I do have to say though that I still prefer to watch a modern dancer who obviously has had a lot of ballet training. - Christina ~~ My response is that history seems to keep repeating itself. It seems at the turn of each century, someone or something tries to "destroy" or "demean" the classical dance form. Just because the critic in LA seems bent on doing this without knowing the true history of our art form, but only bits and pieces from his viewpoint; and without even realizing that there are new works in classical dance out there that are uplifting our audiences, and will become classics, too, because they speak to the heart. Just because he has not seen these new works does not mean that they do not exist. I find his article a little naive. If Mr. Segal really feels this way about classical dance, based on his perspective, then, I submit that, maybe he has not seen very much in the way of true classical dance, for if it is not performed with perfection, then it is not classical, nor will it touch the heart of the viewer. Mr. Rockwell, on the other hand, gives a more even handed and objective article, though still maintaining that there is something wrong with classical dance. To him I say, that it is in the imperfect education of our dancers, both in our country and world-wide, and also the lack of enough properly coached and choreographed presentations to show true nature of classical dance that allows him to draw the conclusions that he draws. I hope my contribution will help to dispell the myths concerning true classical dance and stop the obvious damage that incomplete knowledge and deliberate misinformation, or just plain ignorance can do to peoples' understanding and appreciation of this beautiful and inspiring artform. Yes, there are fakes, and just plain bad performances out there, just like there are in any discipline, but that does not mean there are not worthy and inspiring artists too. -Peggy Willis-Aarnio, Ph.D. ~~ I am the artistic director of a very small professional company in Jacksonville Florida - a city that even its most arts oriented citizen would admit is more focused on its football team than any of its arts organizations. - Laurie Picinich-Byrd,
Artistic Director August 2006: Streaming Video Interested in getting video of your performances on the web? There are hundreds of websites that make this possible. From MySpace and Friendster to Google Videos and ITunes there are unlimited ways to get your videos on the web. Read some interesting opinions on public websites, like YouTube.com, where anyone can upload videos: UPDATE: OCTOBER 2006 YouTube: Another Casualty in the Copyright Wars? YouTube's new policy says: we own your content. If you've had experience - success or failure - with putting streaming video on the web, email Dance/USA about your experiences so that we can share it. Check back here soon for posted responses.
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