Autism-Friendly Performances Offer Potential To Bring In New Dance Audiences
For parents of children on the autism spectrum or families coping with a
member with social cognitive disorders, finding artistic and cultural activities that are appropriate can be challenging, if not impossible. A number of theater and dance companies are beginning to offer these families options for a non-judgmental, expressive theater-going experience. Read on to see how companies are adapting classics like The Nutcracker and creating new works for this small but important — and growing — segment of their audiences.
Authenticity: The Best ‘Best Practice’
The art world is too small to have competition among administrative teams, write Jennifer Edwards and Sydney Skybetter, either from different organizations or within organizations. Read more about our need for
need multiple thriving arts organizations in each community to grow a healthy arts market overall.
EDA: One Piece of the Audience Engagement Puzzle, Part 2
Catch up on Dance/USA’s Educating Dance Audiences research and best practices with this report by EDA director Suzanne Callahan.
Reforming the Rules of Engagement, Round Two
This
moment of reformation [in the arts field] is not a threat … It’s an
invitation for us to think more expansively …. Yes, we have been
obsessed with the performance or the exhibit … [and] with
contextualizing or introducing audiences to [them] or with talk-backs.
But forward-thinking organizations are asking new questions.
— Ben Cameron, program director for the arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Speech for Arts Fund, Atlanta, December 2012
Read on to find out more about how Dance/USA through Educating Dance Audiences (EDA) has begun to harness new thinking to create new models for 21st-century dance organizations.
The Sustainability Dance
What does sustainability look like in the making and presenting of professional concert dance? We turned to Dance Exchange for some sustainable practices to consider.
PETITION TO THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
The Child’s Bill of Rights in Dance requests equal access and opportunity for all persons in the United States regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status, interest or ability. Dr. Radi Shafie recently posted a petition on the White House website seeking 100,000 signatures to support the bill of rights. Read on to learn more.
Dance/USA’s Engaging Dance Audiences Awards Nearly $1 Million to 20 Members
Twenty Dance/USA members receive nearly $1 million to support innovative audience engagement activities that will serve as best-practices models for the field. Read on for details of the grant recipients.
Two Shoes, Same Foot: Vernacular Dance & Concert Dance, Part 2
As a teenager I was reluctant to openly study hip-hop dance although I
loved the music, like much of my generation, because I had a vague fear I
might be “stealing” it. It took a lot of pain and discomfort from many
areas of my dance training to realize that no matter what my focus was
going to be, racism was an element of so many stories in American dance
history that it could not be avoided – and that ignoring it would not
make it go away. It might make it worse.
Dance: Is It a Field Endangered? What Can We Do?
Join Dance/USA and From the Green Room in an online discussion on the state of the field. Here is where the discussion to implement change and share new ideas, models, methods or practices that can help us acclimate to this shift in the field. What do we want: stability, job opportunities, long-term contracts, insurance? We look forward to your fruitful and productive contributions to this conversation.
Two Shoes, Same Foot: Vernacular Dance & Concert Dance
Does concert dance happen in a concert hall? Master Juba or William Henry Lane performed in
theaters and halls across the United States in the mid-19th century. Does “concert dance” imply
some level of professional commitment or success? Lane, a black percussive dancer, toured
internationally, receiving top billing over his all-white
minstrel troupe. Does “concert dance”
suggest some level of peer review or development of craft? Percussive dancer Emily Oleson ponders these issues and others. Read on.