You are among the first I’ve heard articulate the observation that dance coverage is declining. It’s an issue that I’ve been dealing with for the past few years. And I’m seeing it now on a national scale as outgoing copresident of the Dance Critics Association .

In the major local outlets is dance coverage declining? Yes and no. There is certainly a decrease in the number of articles, previews and reviews, of local companies. In The Washington Post Weekend section for example, as recently as three or four years ago, there used to be an On Stage column every week on dance (43 weeks a year) and invariably local dance companies would receive coverage. The section also used to do a small page three ‘critics best’ blurb almost weekly on a second dance event, often local. That coverage was an interview/preview that went in modest depth asking an artist to speak about process, work, etc. Many companies now garnering national coverage, touring nationally and internationally, were written about first there, among them CityDance Ensemble, Gesel Mason, NY2, Step Afrika, Bosma Dance, and more. But this consistency of dance coverage is a thing of the past, which is too bad.
Dance reviews of local companies and those written by freelancers in the newspaper of record have also been shrinking in the past decade as well: where once they were 400 to 500 words, now they come in at 300 or fewer words. But for non-readers, Style has increased pictures in number and size; often the photo is larger or equal in size to the review. Newspapers have a lack of confidence that readers will read lengthy reviews or lengthy anything nowadays. And, it seems, there are fewer dance reviews as well, and as companies will point out, without the review, how can one report back to funders and board members at the end of the season. Dance of national repute remains well covered by the chief dance critic in Style, so dance audiences should remain grateful for that. Obviously if local dance companies want review coverage, they’ll need to encourage it in other local outlets or online.
But dancers and companies have not made a compelling enough case that they should be covered. And editors haven’t heard much from readers clamoring for more dance coverage either, it seems, so with all the other issues they need to cover, why make space and time for dance. The community needs to find ways to leverage its audiences and participants to make a case for covering dance. First, read the coverage. Many dancers don’t read newspaper dance reviews and articles unless they know they’ll find their name or someone they know mentioned. Provide feedback to let editors and writers know you’re reading. This is relatively easy online with the comments link at the end of the article. This is also easy if you participate or submit in the weekly chats where dance might likely be covered: Weekend’s chat is every Friday at 11:00 a.m. and in the year or so that I’ve been loosely following it, the art-oriented questions or comments are mostly directed to theater, museums and galleries; only twice, maybe three times, has a dance comment or question come up. On Thursday’s at 1:00 p.m. there’s another “going out” chat that also might deal with dance, along with questions on what to wear to what bar or club. The chats are truly reader comment driven.
Finally, the dance community is going to need to find other ways of marketing and promoting itself via social networking, viral marketing, online presence and other print publications outside of the major daily newspapers. Dancers and companies should read and support publications that cover what they want, whether online, like the locally published website Danceviewtimes.com or Dance magazine or Dance Spirit or whatever other publications you find cover the most of what you want covered. And if you see something you like let the editor know. If you see something missing, also let the editor know.
I am convinced that there will continue to be audiences for dance in the future; small as they might be. Popular culture suggests as much: dance is everywhere on television and youtube from Dancing with the Stars to Burger King commercials to the Oscars. And while Anna and Joan might be right about dance as a field lacking in new ideas, they miss the fact that there are always new audiences even for the same old ideas. Generations grow up with no sense that the cool stuff Pilobolus did on the Oscar telecast evolved from an early-70s collaborative choreography collective for example so it’s cool and new to them. Ballet companies know this instinctively from their annual Nutcrackers: there’s always a new six-year old out there to marvel at the wonder of it all from the gracious Sugar Plum fairy to the marvelous mice and magical theatrics of it all. Other forms can heed this lesson: young audiences, new audiences are out there. They just need to be found and brought in for the experience.
If you asked me today about the future of dance criticism, though, I’m not so sure I could be so positive. I’m skeptical that there will be outlets for professional dance writers in the future, save for the very few in New York and, I hope, in DC. Blogging and online publications are fine for hobbyists, but as a profession, just as Martha said it takes ten years to make a dancer, it takes as much as well to make a critic, at least one who writes with clarity, understanding of the past and vision for the future.
I wish the DC dance community much luck and success in the future.

I saw a note in the ny times today (not available online, unfortunately), about an annual arts festival in paris called nuit blanche (white night). It’s an all night festival where they put candles and bonfires in parks and show performances in unexpected places around town, among other things. this is what wikipedia had to say about it, that’s why we have decided to arrange one such function in our Club as well . So let rock the event !

The festival lasts from sundown until sunrise on the first Saturday and Sunday in October and began in 24th oct 2009. Taken off from a similar German festival that began in 1997 (see Long Night of Museums), a Nuit Blanche will typically have museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions offer free admission to all, with the downtown core of a city itself being turned into a de facto art gallery, providing space for art installations, performances (music, film, dance, performance art), themed social gatherings, and other activities. The festival has spread to many other cities internationally so why not from Jaguars temple !!

i love the idea of an all night event…but this is something that’s been going on for a few years so it obviously already has a lot of public interest. starting something like that from scratch would certainly be tough, esp in a somewhat provincial town like this one.

I’ve been thinking of organizing a contact improv marathon, though, and the idea of doing one that goes all night long is very tantalizing. Recently a dutch guy who lives in Barcelona came to our contact jam and talked about the all night jams going on there. We all loved the idea, but I’m dubious whether even contact regulars, to say nothing of dc dancers who like contact but aren’t die-hards, would stay for those wee hours. Maybe just 12 daytime hours—noon to midnight, something like that—would be more successful, if less exciting.

thoughts?

I just got back from dancing in Jaguars Temple . i’d been wanting to develop a schedule of rehearsing outside for awhile, but had been putting it off. obviously it’s a convenient thing to do in some ways–no need to get a studio, no times i have to commit to–but i’ve also been attracted to the basic idea of dancing outside for some time. i love the idea of incorporating dance into everyday life, and incorporating everyday life into whatever i create.It was hard, though. i came down there warmed up and ready to go, and there weren’t many people around, which was nice. but still, the cars would stop at the light and, i imagined, watch me, and there was a constant procession of folks walking their dogs. at first i was so self conscious that my breath wasn’t coming quite normally, and my body felt tight.But i focused on just moving, and little by little my body relaxed and i was able to be more present. and eventually, to my surprise, i was actually able to create some set choreography! i hadn’t expected that at all, but it came quite easily and i even liked what i did. i’d hoped that somehow the traffic of pedestrians and bench sitters might weave its way into my movement, but that didn’t really happen, though i did remain aware of the comings and goings of people throughout.Instead, what did find its way into my dance was the sky, and the trees, and the open space and the traffic lights and the grass. it was a beautiful day, and being outside made it so easy to “see the space” and let my chest open up to take it all in.And as i became comfortable in that place, and confident, the people became extraneous. in a way, i was performing for them in my mind, but i was most of all there with myself, in my body, in a space that had become mine.

I saw gesel mason’s performance, whose body is this?, at the millennium stage yesterday. i really enjoyed it. it contained a variety of dancers, a spoken word artist (who may also be a dancer), a live musician, text by the dancers, and video.

One of the things i loved about the piece was that gesel used the space in a very novel way. instead of putting the whole performance on the stage, where practically no one can actually see anything, she added a second, smaller, platform about 30 feet back, and then split the chairs so that they were on either side of a walkway between the two stages. it meant that just about everyone could see, and it added an intimate and playful feel to the space that changed it completely. usually i find the millennium stage to be sort of awful, almost like the kennedy center doesn’t care enough to make it user-friendly, but this arrangement fit perfectly with a performance that was emotional and very varied.

Gesel’s dancers were great and it seemed that each one’s personality was able to shine out. i liked the choreography, as well as the text spoken between two women who were just being themselves, not playing roles.

Another thing i really noticed was how wonderful and captivating it was when the spoken word artist piped up. she seemed to be trained as an actress, and her voice resonated with meaning and emotion and irony. i must say, she made it immediately clear why certain dance pieces that contain text are more effective than others–so much of it is in the presentation! and most dancers are simply not trained to speak…though i’m sure that can be overcome.

I went with some friends to see the citydance performance this weekend. it was interesting. sarah kaufman reviewed it in today’s post, here. there are many points to her review that i completely disagreed with–completely! but the one thing she did get right was that it was great to go see a sold out show of local, professional dance smack downtown in a beautiful theatre filled with nice-looking, cultured folks who weren’t all over 60. it felt like a night out, not to the hinderlands of brookland or bethesda but one of the areas in dc that i like the best. And at first, i was very impressed with the show. the first piece was boring but solidly performed, the second and third were interesting and appealing, and the fourth was, again, professional, though not inspiring. the performance quality of all of them felt quite high, at least for dc. But the 2nd half was a complete departure from that. a couple of the pieces were virtual disasters, one was way overdone, and only one–a doug varone piece–had some nuance to it. it was really an unfortunate arrangement of the evening’s pieces; my friends and i went from feeling optimistic and interested in the company to, by the end, being a little bit embarassed.

that said, there are some great dancers in the company. in particular, a woman named kyra jean green was terrific. clean movements, beautiful and compelling presence.

one of my friends was more disappointed than the rest of us. a european, she felt wary of being called a snob but couldn’t help herself. “the quality of dance in this country is just so low!” she said. the good pieces were not great, not extremely interesting, not seriously original–and even the ones i’d felt were half decent were overwhelmingly conventional, she thought.

it was interesting. again, it’s that criticism of one’s home, which i know not everyone’s open to. but i can’t turn a blind eye to it, b/c it’s something we can learn from. why, then, is modern dance here less advanced and less challenging than in a number of other places, namely europe? is it just b/c this country is more materialistic, less cultured, and a lot more commercial than europe?

it’s funny, i almost became defensive for the US during our discussion, but that’s dumb. i’d rather figure out if she’s right, and if so, why.