Back to the Future: The NEA Survey on Arts Participation
The NEA survey’s primary function is to serve as a snapshot: here is the state of the art at this particular time. It serves this function well. But it’s not enough, nor does the NEA claim it to be. Whereas the survey provides a valuable data point that can kick-start forward-thinking dialogue, the practical impact of the survey is limited by the rapid rate of innovation that has taken place over the past few years.
An Open Letter to Barack and Michelle Obama
The use of the arts in community service programs in a systematic fashion, for example, is an excellent way to ensure that innovative and engaging activities reunite, reskill, and repower citizens. And dance, of all of the arts, teaches us to do those things by thinking on our feet, outside the box, and with each other.
Diplomats of Dance: U.S. Companies Step into Role as Cultural Representatives Abroad — Part 1
Fifty years ago the U.S. government was one of the biggest promoters of American dance abroad. Over the past two decades, government funding for international dance tours by American dancers practically disappeared. Guess what? It’s back.
Düsseldorf, Dance/USA, and the Case for American Engagement — Part 2
Increasing funding so that the Americans have at least a fighting chance of matching the support dedicated by other countries is one of the keys to ensuring a greater U.S. presence in the international dance world. It is also about stretching existing assets and using them in a smarter and more cost-effective fashion, collaborating to leverage new resources, and cooperating to share the knowledge, burdens, and costs that come with doing business.
Düsseldorf, Dance/USA, and the Case for American Engagement — Part 1
A number of U.S. choreographers and dancers continue to spend a fair portion of their time creating work and teaching in Europe—having decided that rather than sitting in America and complaining about how much more funding is available on the other side of the Atlantic, they’d rather crash the party and avail themselves of some of it. These resultant cross-cultural collaborative projects are a vital (perhaps even the most significant) part of the ongoing dialogue between the United States and the rest of the world.
Dancing Lessons: What Can We Learn from ‘So You Think You Can Dance’?
Taio Cruz’s rousing hit “Dynamite” played on loudspeakers as I joined the queue last week outside the cavernous Reliant Arena in Houston. Families, young professionals, and hordes of teenage girls swayed to the rhythm as lines grew longer and longer, far past the parking lot port-o-potties. Ushers hastily scanned so many electronic tickets that together their hand-held devices made one long, sustained electronic beep.
I rushed the souvenir stand with everyone else, and then hit the men’s room to change into my new $35 all-cotton T-shirt. Resisting the $25 color program booklet as well as the frozen tropical drinks at the Maui Wowie Tiki-stand, I settled for an $8 hot-dog-and-cola combo before making my way to a seat slightly above stage left. “Perfect viewing,” I thought as I enjoyed the promotional videos. This wasn’t a high-profile rock concert, however, it was a dance performance. I made calculations in my head: parking, food, souvenir, and the ticket totaled $119, an amount I hadn’t paid for a dance event since I saw The Royal Ballet years ago at London’s posh Covent Garden.
The Sally Field Problematic: Preserving Entertainment, Artistic, and Cultural Value in the Dance Field, or You Love Me, You Really Love Me!
The arts industry – from education to funding – is increasingly closed to new needs or wants from society at large, and in so doing we exacerbate the industry’s financial crisis through reduced cultural value (to funders) in both individual product and aggregate impact.
Where Are Women Leaders in the Ballet World?
With all the women in professional companies, why do more women not find themselves in the top positions of leadership of our nation’s larger companies? Women have founded many of the country’s top regional ballet companies, so what keeps them from the role of artistic director? Has progress been so slow in our country since women’s suffrage 90 years ago? I was stunned to find out that currently in the U.S. only four women direct ballet companies with budgets of more than $2.5 million.
Dancing Beyond Genres
To talk about dance in the 21st century, one must reach far beyond the genres of Western concert dance. Ballet, modern, jazz and contemporary dance are merely starting points for current discourse.
10 Things the Dance Community Should Be Talking About in 2011
It’s 2011 and APAP – the Association for Arts Presenters booking conference – is here, which means we get to enjoy 2011 for a few days before we spend a week talking about 2012 and 2013 and, in keeping with the theme of the conference, 2021. So let’s look back, look forward and seize the decade.