November 29, 2007The Compelling Quality of First Person Dance NarrativesDancers have no obligation to write about and describe their work. Dancers who do not write about and describe their work are missing a huge opportunity. This missed opportunity is especially magnified when it comes to the Internet. Dancers who do not write about and/or document their work in pictures and videos are allowing others to speak for them. Why allow critics and bloggers to be the only voices when it comes to your work? Why not provide readers/dancegoers with your point of view? In the end, I believe, if I'm presented with two stories on a website/blog--one is a first-person dancer narrative about a work and the other is a review--I will almost always read what the dancer has to say about his/her work first. Yet, very, very few dancers are providing this first person perspective. People want to hear directly from artists. What are you creating? What's important to you? Who are you working with? What ideas are you exploring? Dancers Share Their Stories on Bourgeon Rob Bettmann of the dance blog Bourgeon is working with dancers, primarily in the Washington, DC area, to encourage them to write about their dancing. The latest posts features first person accounts from choreographers, dancers and teachers. I think that Rob's initiative is an important one and I hope more dancers explore different approaches to communicating about their work and sharing their explorations with online readers. Matt Gough has a related post "365s" about his desire to see more documentation of dance. Also, I hope more choreographers and dancers take me up on my offer to write first person narratives (text, pictures and/or videos) about works that they will be performing in New York City. So far, I've been linking to reviews in newspapers and blogs of local performances. But I definitely want to encourage dancers to write about their works as well - just use this form. You can either link to an existing write-up about a piece or you can enter the copy right into this form. Posted by Doug Fox at 9:16 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) November 26, 2007Distribution of Dance Coverage in New York CityNow that I've been linking to dance reviews for performances in New York City for the past two weeks, I'm curious to examine what does and does not get coverage. If you look at the right-hand column of the NYC dance review blog, you'll see that there is a significant imbalance in terms of what is written about. New York City Ballet (8 reviews) and Batsheva Dance Company (7 reviews) followed by Complexions Contemporary Ballet (4) and Pennsylvania Ballet (4). All the others have one or two reviews. (I should point out that I probably have links to about 80+% of reviews in newspapers and blogs and that this data covers only a two-week period). Why do some dance companies get more coverage than others? Popularity? Prestige? Venue? Or is it that the mainstream media (in this case dance critics who write for newspapers/magazines) has certain favorites? Actually, the mainstream media angle doesn't really work. If you take a look at the reviews for Batsheva Dance Company in particular, you'll see that a good number of the reviews are from bloggers. And on another front, do dance critics with the New York Times, The Village Voice and other papers only write about the most popular companies performing at the largest/best-known venues? Yes, to a certain extent but definitely not always. I link to three reviews of New York Times' writer Jennifer Dunning. Two are of the New York City Ballet and the other one is of Gesel Mason at Joyce SoHo. Deborah Jowitt of The Village Voice, on the other hand, reviews Douglas Dunn & Dancers at Dance New Amsterdam and Monica Bill Barnes & Company at Danspace Project. There are many ways to examine this aggregation of dance review data from over the past two weeks. But one thing is for sure: Most dance companies get virtually no coverage whatsoever - maybe one review or blog write-up if they're lucky. And the readership of dance reviews in the traditional media has been going down. The Village Voice would not have cut-back its coverage of dance if readership was increasing. And the New York Times would not have removed the link for "Dance" from its home page navigation bar (left side) if dance readership was steady or increasing. Given this overall paucity of coverage and shrinking readership, what then is the best publicity strategy for dance companies? Posted by Doug Fox at 8:30 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) November 19, 2007Update on New Blog with Coverage of NYC Dance PerformancesYou can visit the new Great Dance blog that links to dance reviews of dance performances in New York City. So far, you'll find links to recent reviews for performances from more than 15 writers. If you'd like to submit your own review, you can fill-out this submission form. Some Additions and Changes - In addition to linking to an existing dance review on a newspaper website or blog, you can also submit a review directly to Great Dance. Just complete the above form to share your thoughts about a dance performance that you've recently seen. We do review all submissions for relevance and suitability before publishing. - Of course, please post your comments in response to any of the reviews if you'd like. - I'll soon add a calendar of upcoming performances in the New York City area. And there will be a form you can fill-out to submit your upcoming performances to the calendar. - Choreographer and dancer statements and previews are welcome and encouraged - please read section that follows for elaboration of this. First Person Creative Statements from Artists This new blog to New York City dance performances does link to or feature dance reviews. But I also think it's important for artists, choreographers and dancers to have their own voice on this blog as well. Many people who are thinking about seeing dance would be delighted to hear directly from the creators of the work they are about to see; they don't want to just read reviews. So I'll be setting-up a separate form on this blog that choreographers and dancers can use to share their first person perspectives about a work that they are about to perform. These posts can include video previews as well--actually, I hope many of them include video excerpts so that dancegoers can get a visual idea of the works that will be performed. By the way, I'm definitely not inviting choreographers and dancers to submit press releases. Press releases are not usually designed for human consumption. I get lots of press releases and I don't ever look at them -- unless they are the only source of specific factual information that I need. To me, press releases are filled with impossible to decipher hype that my brain simply can't process and people on the Internet do not communicate in "press-release speak." I realize that many dancers don't usually write about their work in the way that I'm proposing. Some dancers think that their work should speak for itself or they might not feel comfortable writing about their dances in a direct, more or less conversational style. All understandable. But I strongly believe that artists who don't share their vision online are simply missing out on an invaluable opportunity to communicate with their audiences and are letting others define their work--sometimes in inaccurate or unfavorable terms. I'm more than happy to work with dancers to help in the process of writing artist statements about work you are about to perform. Posted by Doug Fox at 7:10 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) November 16, 2007I Walked Out of My Dance Class Last NightI've been meaning to take a dance class at Broadway Dance Center. So last night I took beginner jazz with Andrea Brown. I walked out of the class in about 20 minutes because I was scared that I was going to get injured because of the instructor. I've taken a handful of dance classes that I didn't like but I've never taken a class where I thought the approach taken by the teacher was dangerous to my health. I was the only one who walked out last night so maybe the other 30 students or so don't feel the way I did. But here's what happened: For starters, Brown talked incessantly at the beginning of the class. She was trying to be helpful and give direction to new students like myself. But I go to dance classes to move. And when teachers talk too much, you're not moving and you're not warming-up your body. So 15 minutes into the class I felt that I had barely moved a muscle, which is unlike any other jazz class I've taken before. So maybe at the 15 minute mark, the teacher had us do an exercise that required us to move very abruptly from one position to the next. I don't have this exactly, but imagine the following: You're standing in a wide second position and you're leaning over with a flat back. Then you have to very quickly roll your back down so that your head is between your legs and you are holding your thighs. I'm not objecting to this transition - I've done the same or similar hundreds of times. I'm objecting to the fact that it wasn't done gradually. When I'm not warmed-up, I refuse to move my body, especially my back, in any abrupt way whatsoever because I know I'll get hurt. So overall, her exercise consisted of a couple abrupt movements (about 90 degree changes in the position of the back) that I probably wouldn't want to do at any point in the class even if I was very loose. By the time we were doing the above exercise, I was already following along in slow motion because I wasn't about to do the exercise as the teacher was demonstrating/describing. So she walks over to me to help me do the exercise correctly. And while facing me, she puts her hands on the back of my head/neck area to guide me into some kind of rolling of my back. Putting aside that she didn't do this very gently, a teacher cannot lead my back by putting pressure on the back of my head or neck. That seems like a great way to injure somebody. Plus, she has no idea what the state of my health is, especially my back, so she's taking way too many risks. I've had many teachers push various parts of my body into different positions and I've always appreciated it. Without having an instructor physically move my shoulders, head, hips and other parts of my body, I would simply not know what the correct position should be. But there are proper ways to adjust a student's body that are safe and there are other ways that are dangerous. Teachers have to know what the difference is. About two minutes later I grabbed my things and walked out of the class. After I changed I went to the registration desk. I ended-up having a conversation with Lizzy, the manager. I told her exactly what happened and that this was the first time I had ever left a dance class in the middle. She said that they had had complaints (or some type of problems - I don't remember her exact words) with this instructor. And that the other classes at Broadway Dance Center were not like the class I had just taken. I asked Lizzy if she'd give me back my $18 and she did - I was surprised she gave me a full refund. I appreciate that Lizzy was very honest and open to hearing what I had to say. But our conversation does beg the question: Why is a teacher continuing to teach if there have been multiple complaints about her? Posted by Doug Fox at 7:01 AM - Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0) November 15, 2007New Great Dance Blog Devoted to Reviews of Dance in NYC Now in BetaYesterday, I wrote about an upcoming blog on Great Dance that would include excerpts of reviews of dance performances in New York City. You can visit this new blog, which is in beta, and you can submit dance reviews by filling-out this form. I'm saying it's in beta because there are a number of things that still have to be figured out. One of them is how performances, festivals, film showings, installations, site-specific works and other types of dance will be categorized. If you visit this new blog and scroll down the page a bit, you'll see the "Categories" section in the right-hand column. I'm going to keep adjusting these categories over the next couple of weeks - if you have thoughts about what makes the most sense, please share your thoughts. Also, I want to come-up with a title and sub-title for this blog that makes it clear that readers can find reviews for all types of dance in NYC not just concert performances. But I definitely encourage writers to submit their reviews now. The blog is fully functional and I'll be linking to it from the Great Dance home page. Posted by Doug Fox at 10:14 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) November 14, 2007Access New York City Dance Reviews from a Single BlogI'm about to launch a series of new blogs that will feature brief excerpts from all online dance reviews within a specific geographical area. The first blog in this series, which will launch this week, will be dedicated to dance performances in the New York City area. Essentially, you'll be able to visit and subscribe to this blog to access brief excerpts of online reviews in newspapers, blogs, community forums and on other sites. If a review interests you, you can click a link to be take directly to the entire article or post, whether it resides on Great Dance or any other website. I'm creating this centralized dance review resource for a number of reasons:
What Dance-Makes Can Do To Build Audiences A central location of links to all dance reviews, I believe, will be helpful to dancers and dance companies as they work to build their audiences. But dance-makers also have an opportunity to rethink how they work with dance writers for mutual benefit. One of the perennial problems with traditional dance reviews is that by the time these reviews are published, the dance performances are over. So even a spectacular review won't sell more tickets if there are no more performances to see. But what would happen if dance-makers increased the number of days between the writing of the first review and opening night? Say there was a four to five day time-frame during which reviews were being written and dance enthusiasts were talking online about your upcoming performance even before your first show? The inevitable result would be that you would be getting much more free publicity than ever before and many more people would be talking about your dance company. The odds are that you would sell more tickets. There is a catch however. Are you willing to invite dance writers--critics with newspapers, dance bloggers and others--to write about works that probably are not finished? If you invite writers to see your work 5 days or so before opening night, you may have quite a ways to go before your work is ready for the stage. So the basic question is: At what point are you willing to show your work to people who will write about it so that you can build in as many days as possible for conversation about your upcoming performance to peculate throughout the online world before the curtain goes up? You might decide, for example, that you'll invite writers to your dress rehearsal but not before than. In addition, I think that as part of this process of expanding the "perculation time-frame" it's worth cultivating relationships with non-traditional dance writers who are blogging about the performances they see or posting their reviews to message boards. For starters, is your publicist reaching out to these writers and encouraging them to cover your dance company? Are they being invited to rehearsals and opening night? Are You Writing About Dance in New York City? I already know many people who write about dance in New York. But you may want to drop me an email in any case to let me know about your website/blog or other online writings. I'd like to put together a comprehensive list of writers that I can share with dance companies, presenters, publicists and others who might want to reach out to you. You can email me at doug@greatdance.com. With the launch of this centralized dance review service, first for New York and then for other cities, I'm going to start selling ads on Great Dance to presenters, dance companies and other organizations connected to the dance world. If you'd like to discuss advertising possibilities on Great Dance, I'd be delighted to hear from you. Since I'm in the beginning stages of structuring various ad programs, it's a perfect time to hear from likely advertisers about the specifics of how you would like to benefit from your participation in our advertising programs. You can email me at doug@greatdance.com. Posted by Doug Fox at 7:41 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0) November 9, 2007Share Your Comments - Conversations From Around Dance Blogosphere- In comment to "Dancing to Combat Global Warming" in my Dancing into the Future blog, Harriet, a performance studies student at Worthing College in West Sussex, England, wants to learn about dance companies exploring global warming and environmental issues. - In his post "Challenges in Making Site Work" in Third Rail Projects blog, Tom Pearson asks: "To other artists who have created site work for spaces that they have had only limited access to: what were the greatest challenges for you and what methods were successful in preparing for the unknown?" - Taylor Gordon on The Winger wants your thoughts and feedback. "For my [thesis] I would like to explore the changes that the internet and new media are bringing to arts journalism, specifically dance criticism." - In "Tools of the Trade: Rethinking Social Networks" in Misnomer Dance Theater blog, Jaki Levy asks, "How are you using MySpace and Facebook? What other online social networks have yielded good results for you? Why do you have MySpace pages? I'd love to hear your feedback and thoughts!" You can address similar topic in Dance Goes Digital blog. - Many one-word summaries in the comments section in response to Dance Theater Workshop post that features behind-the-scenes video footage of David Neumann/advanced beginner group at CultureFest. How would you describe this important documentary footage? (Also watch video of David Neumann at Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) at Florida State University - via Danciti.) - In comment to "Five Strategies for Engaging New Dance Audiences," John Cavenaugh believes that overcoming people's fears is critical and that "Dancing with the Stars is definitely putting dance back on the map for the American mainstream." What do you think? - In multi-blog conversation, posts address topics about the challenges faced by modern dance and how experimental artists treat their audiences - Lisa Traiger, Amanda Abrams, Daniel Burkholder and Anna Brady Nuse. What's your take? - In My Kingdom for Your Story, Peter DiMuro invites readers to share their traditional and non-traditional family stories in text, photo and video formats for upcoming performances of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's Funny Uncles. - In "Creating Dance Works Specifically for the Internet" in Dance Goes Digital readers share examples of dance videos and Second Life dance performances. Have you created dance performances for the online world? What have you done? - Wheelchair dancing is a nightmare when the stage slopes - read "It's Official: Panic" from Wheelchair Dancer. - How should dance-tech list evolve? Matt Gough on "Community." My post from earlier this week. New dance-tech social networking group on Ning. Also visit The(Inter)Mission from The Winger, a general dance social networking site created by Kristin Sloan. - How would you choreographer a Parkour video? Watch video from Vancouver Film School student Eric Morrison on Da...nce. - Don Baarns of The Unlikely Salsero on my on-going struggles to master Salsa music. After more reflection, my challenges are not just with the rhythms of Salsa but are actually with many different types of rhythms. How do you help students/dancers connect with music? - Shallom of Moving Space and Time blog shares dance translation exercise that consists of passing-on choreography from one dancer to the next. "Thoughts? If you want to use this idea, please feel free. If you do, I'd love to see the results or hear some comments about the process. Posted by Doug Fox at 10:02 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) November 7, 2007I'd Like a "Sense" of The Dancer When I Visit a Dance WebsiteI, of course, have visited thousands of dancer and dance company websites. And it struck me that I very rarely get what I'm after when I visit these sites. What I want is a really simple home page. At the top there are three to four sentences about the dancer/dance company. Then beneath this intro there is a large, high-quality video clip of the work the artist is most proud. That's it. What else would I want? Then I can access all the other details (history, profiles, works, upcoming performances and contact info.) Posted by Doug Fox at 4:09 PM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0) November 5, 2007How Can Dance-Tech Community Embrace the Internet?This morning I posted the below message to the Dance-Tech discussion list. (Here is the link to the post I submitted). Since I started my blog on Great Dance more than two years ago, I've hoped to learn about and cover the latest developments, research and works in the dance-tech field. Unfortunately, I haven't covered the intersection of dance and technology as they pertain to performance except occasionally. The reason that my coverage has been sparse is because just about none of the academics, researchers and practitioners has been willing to share his/her work online in a comprehensible, accessible and meaningful manner. To put simply, even when I do come across websites that are promoting upcoming performances/installations/demonstrations of dance-tech work, I can't for the life of me fathom what is being communicated. The design and layouts of the sites are not standard, the text is too small, the pictures are hard to see and there's often no video. But even more importantly, I can't get a grasp of what the work is about on the most basic level. So I can't blog about something that I can't understand. By the way, I've looked at hundreds upon hundreds of such websites and there are very, very few sites that do not fit into the pattern I just described. So, I have to say that when I read Johannes Birringer's criticism of blogs, social networking, video sites and the distributed nature of the Internet in general, I was surprised. As Tony Schultz (of Dance Machines and The Winger) points out, just about the only online conversation taking place dealing with dance-tech issues and developments is in the blogosphere and it's also on MySpace and YouTube. So I do find it odd that Johannes does not have first hand experience with Mark Coniglio's online efforts and that he is so hostile to Mark's selected communications medium: (last summer, Mark Coniglio invited feedback to his latest video/performance/site specific project, but I think the piece was shown/displayed on a blog site or YouTube and commentators left their viewpoints there-else, And continues by sharing his contempt for blogs: (I seldom read blogs any more as i have simply not time to follow up all the blig links i get sent),. Just to clarify, Troika Ranch has a MySpace page. And a video channel on YouTube: Mark and Dawn Stoppiello have used the included blogging functionality of MySpace to describe their work under development and share their thoughts and reactions. Plus, and what makes this initiative very important, is that Mark and Dawn have been open to getting public feedback about their work, both good and bad, and responding to these comments and questions. I posted a number of questions in response to one of Mark's posts that he was kind enough to respond to. In addition, Troika Ranch has also posted five videos to their YouTube channel. The posting of these videos along with the blog posts raises a number of worthwhile questions and issues regarding how choreographers/dancers can communicate with audiences in new ways outside of the confines of the physical and time limitations of the performance stage. So how can it be acceptable to disregard blogs, social networking sites and video sharing sites? These are among the three most important recent developments on the Internet. To not follow what happens in this space, is not to be on top of what is happening on the Internet, with digital technologies, online communities and distributed communications. And by the way, it's easy to subscribe to RSS feeds and video channels to stay abreast of anything that you want to track. I read/monitor hundreds of feeds a day via a single application. I would have always thought that the dance-tech community would have been at the forefront of embracing the Internet to share and discuss their work both with fellow practitioners and the general public. But this simply hasn't happened except in a very few cases. Why has this not happened? I think it's very important to consider possible answers to this question. A Need for Larger Dance-Tech Voice There's also a related downside to the dance-tech community having a very limited presence on the Internet: when you want to express your views and criticisms, very few people read what you have to say. Take the critique, which jump-started this thread, of the interview with Sandy Strallen. So when Douglas Rosenberg offers the following critique that appears to be shared by Helene Lesterlin and Johannes The article puts forth a view of dance film that is historically inaccurate, skewed toward a Hollywood model an[d] one that exhibits a complete lack of understanding about film and media art culture in general. In short it furthers an agenda that pits the commerce of art against the art of experimentation. who is the intended audience? Just the dance-tech community? Or would you like to have a larger platform? As things stand now, you don't have meaningful distribution. If you want to reach a larger audience, this list is not the way to proceed. Questions - Why is it that Troika Ranch is one of the very few dance companies to document their dance-tech work online and respond to feedback? - Why is Tony Schultz one of very few (only?) academics to host a blog for his dance-tech students to explore and discuss their research? - Why is Matt Gough one of the very few academics in this space to share thoughts and reactions about dance-tech related issues (and other topics) via his Tumblr blog? - Why does the dance-tech community appear to be so cut-off from many channels of discussion and exploration? - And what is the best medium for communication for this group? It could be stronger moderation and guidance of this list as Matt suggested. It could be a social networking site as Marlon Barrios Solano recommended. Or it could be a distributed conversation via blogs/video sharing sites. There are many possibilities. But for any of these forums to work, participants in the dance-tech field need to contribute, need to be part of a larger conversation and need to be willing to listen and respond to diverse voices from both within and outside the field. As Matt said at the end of a recent post: one of the things i like about students is they ask or pose seemingly obvious questions. until you realise that no one has formally articulated them (or at least not in a single text). To me, this type of openness (to student questions, distributed collaboration and the contribution of new knowledge/insights back into the network/loop) is what the Internet ought to be about. I look forward to thoughts, criticisms and reactions to my post. Best, Posted by Doug Fox at 10:49 AM - Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0) November 1, 2007Uncovered and New Dance BlogsHere's a round-up of new dance blogs as well as blogs I've recently come across or omitted before. I find increasing diversity of voices and perspectives very enjoyable to follow: - Critical Correspondence blog - From Movement Research: In their most recent post, you'll find video clips from October 15th performances at Judson Memorial Church. Including this one A Genda, choreography by Barbara Mahler and performed by Mahler and Jeremy Laverdure: - Dynamic Stillness: Reflections on Dance: Choreographer Aynsley Vandenbroucke writes about Map Me by Charlotte Vanden Eynde and Kurt Vandendriessche in her post, "Is it Dance?" (Roslyn Sulcas review in New York Times): The movement in Map Me did not come out of a ballet class or a modern dance class. It came out of life. It was sparse and imaginative and wacky and poignant. I cannot strongly enough state how much I believe in this approach to performance making...Any human body that is alive is, however subtly or radically, moving. It follows, then, that a live human body moves even in "stillness." The movement within stillness includes breath and the many subtle ways we communicate deep parts of ourselves. 
- Dance Theater Workshop Blog: And on the topic of DTW, they've recently launched a new blog. Here they capture footage of their large orange banner being carried through streets of Manhattan to reach new dance audiences - plus, you can watch one of their flash performances: - Seeking System: Writer Anna McDonald shares her experience at ABT premiere: I carried my copy of Alastair Macauley's ABT recap with me to City Center on Saturday night with the intention of looking it over in my seat before the show began, figuring out which parts of it I had to try and agree or disagree with, but it was too electric in the lobby and in the grandstands to get in any good alone time with the Arts section. For $27, I was seated in the left rear mezzanine, a chilly region so far north of the stage that the dancers are rendered before you as tinily as they look on the cover of your program. Saturday night was my first premiere, and with it came its donors in all of their uptown splendor: bejeweled and upper-easty and cocktail-dressed (and fighting gravity). It didn't feel like old New York (whatever that is), but it did feel energetic and tipsy, and somehow that audience pulse transferred straight through to the dancing (or maybe all along it was the dancers projecting their energy into us). - En Pointe with Houston Ballet: Principal ballerina Sara Webb wrote post in October "A Nine Month Pas De Deux": There was a time, not too long ago, when pregnancy meant retirement. It was unheard of for a dancer to have a child and return to the stage. Fortunately, times have changed, and so have our options. Today, many ballerinas take time off to have children, find their "grace" once again, and return to those bright lights and pink tutus. Stanton Welch, born to a ballerina mom, encourages dancers to have children when they are ready. Houston Ballet has had many ballerina moms over the last decade. Some have come back and some have retired, but it's great to know we now have the choice. 
- State Street Ballet: Ponders the benefits of ballet blogs and discusses what it takes to create a successful blog: Of course, just like perfect ballet technique (or feet), this technology is but a tool which can be used well or badly. An interested, knowledgeable, enthusiastic human still has to fill the blog with interesting and relevant information, and they have to do it regularly. Think about the websites you visit often: how many haven't posted any new information in a while? I couldn't have said it better. - Carl's Dance Blog: "A critical blog on vernacular jazz dance, lindy hop and tap.": Carl Nelson covers the world of swing dancing with lots of videos. Here's fun clip from the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2007: - Boredom: Chase Granoff covers the intersection of art forms. In "Turn on, tune in, ....." Granoff writes about Performa07, the second biennial of new visual art performances taking place through November 20th. Although PERFORMA features dance performances and dance related happenings, including a number of events surrounding/exploring the influence of Judson Dance Theater, the New York dance scene was largely disregarded by the curatorial team. This is a disappointing move especially considering that PERFORMA director, RoseLee Goldberg, states that PERFORMA is trying "to open the doors and windows between the dance and art world, to find the conceptual underpinnings where there could be a crossover." - Stay: Nancy Garcia writes about and links to her You've Got Moves Website, a choreographic, movement project that seeks audience participation via the contribution of video "moves" - this is part of an academic assignment that is in alpha testing stage. - Barefootblogger - thoughts on dance: Minneapolis-based James Sewell Ballet dancer and independent choreographer Penelope Freeh blogs about life and dance. In October 17th entry, she writes about performing at the Joyce The second piece, Schoenberg Serenade, had gotten most of the kinks out in the afternoon. For the most part, we were able to bravely tackle our highly technical requirements with artistry and animation. My solo went pretty well. I was happy with it, though it wasn't perfect. It rarely is, with its extremely technical quirkiness en pointe. I use the shoes in all possible ways, from cocking my feet and turning with bent knees, to balancing doubled-over in a parallel sous-sous and rising to upright, hands flexed above my head. 
Posted by Doug Fox at 9:20 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0) |
| ||||
|
© 2007. All rights reserved. |