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Topic: Is Dance an Important Art Form for the 21st Century?
Replies: 52   Pages: 4   Last Post: Aug 11, 2005 3:16 PM by: jaime longoria

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Anna Thompson

Posts: 9
From: College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University
Registered: May 23, 2005
Re: Is Dance an Important Art Form for the 21st Century?
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:19 PM
  Reply

Hi Link- I also think the adaptability of dance to change with society and to reflect issues that are current- allows it to reach more and younger audiences. The dancers and choreographres of today seem to be able to speak with a voice that reaches a broader range of humanity. AMT

Lane Czaplinski

Posts: 9
Registered: May 23, 2005
Re: Looking for dance in all the wrong places...
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:22 PM
  Reply

The physical body and the live experience of witnessing it move isn't necessarily threatened by a mediated experience via technology. In discussing the future of the form, it is clear to me that choreographers are more and more excited by the potential of technology to amplify the live experience, not take away from it.

Colin Rusch

Posts: 1,435
Registered: Oct 16, 2002
Re: Looking for dance in all the wrong places...
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:24 PM
  Reply

Mary and Judith,

These thoughts on interactivity, shared presence, and spiritual vitality are great. I have been intrigued by the notion proposed by many scholars that artists have used their bodies as a medium in times of significant social and economic changes. It seems to me to be a sign that experience is felt rather than thought. And while ideas and theory take time to develop, experience is immediate. If thought about this way dance provides a realm to begin grappling with emerging concerns.

Colin

Lane Czaplinski

Posts: 9
Registered: May 23, 2005
Re: Is Dance an Important Art Form for the 21st Century?
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:24 PM
  Reply

In Seattle, we're experiencing the opposite phenomenon. Our community is attending performances by local choreographers with a greater frequency than they are those by non-Seattle choreographers. This presents a slightly different problem as we want people to be open to a larger global context.

Mary Easter

Posts: 7
Registered: May 23, 2005
Re: Is Dance an Important Art Form for the 21st Century?
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:25 PM
  Reply

Hi, Judy,
I also spoke to my students today on this subject. One woman began by saying she worries about next year because she won't be dancing or singing and she doesn't know how her life will proceed without those things. Another spoke about the need for early experience of the arts because her stepfather had only just now seen one ballet, one opera, one live concert and he found no entry point in them mainly for lack of any previous contact. The idea of arts education kept coming up as we looked at the future.

Lisa First

Posts: 13
From: Link Vostok
Registered: May 23, 2005
Re: Is Dance an Important Art Form for the 21st Century?
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:25 PM
  Reply

> Except that young audiences don't necessarily trust
> traditional spaces and haven't grown up with that
> conceit framing how they view culture. I think the
> "safety net" approach can actually sap the creation
> and presentation of work of all its vitality and
> relevance.

Hi Lane. I agree. I think the minds that haven't grown up with "that conceit framing how they view culture" are refreshing in that they offer an invitation for change.
Interesting how youth presses the minds and choices of those who came first and I agree that the "safety net" approach doesn't encourage growth of the form.

Colin Rusch

Posts: 1,435
Registered: Oct 16, 2002
Re: Is Dance an Important Art Form for the 21st Century?
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:27 PM
  Reply

Lane,

That is really interesting about the audiences in Seattle, Do you know why that's happening?

Colin

Anna Thompson

Posts: 9
From: College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University
Registered: May 23, 2005
Re: Looking for dance in all the wrong places...
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:28 PM
  Reply

As well as the capabilities of technology to record more accurately the work of choreographers- so that it is not lost (or at least as a work was set on a particular dancer).

We have not addressed how any art form requires a past to have a future. Without a baseline of some kind- (even a passive one in a theater) audiences cannot relate with the same depth to a performance. Of course we could get into dance education here and the lack of it in the school so that EVERY child would have that experience not just those whose families can afford to study at a studio.

I agree that the best introduction is one that allows participation thats why we include residencies with the companies we present (at least a week)-it priovides a context for the "virgins" and allows for a more active realization of what dance is-AMT

Lane Czaplinski

Posts: 9
Registered: May 23, 2005
Re: Is Dance an Important Art Form for the 21st Century?
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:30 PM
  Reply

Strong Northwest pride. A genuine interest in supporting a traditionally strong dance community. Perhaps a narrow view of what is accecptable and interesting meaning that different approaches from different places draw a lot of scrutiny.

Judith Brin Ingber

Posts: 10
Registered: May 29, 2003
Re: Is Dance an Important Art Form for the 21st Century?
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:32 PM
  Reply

I wasn't implying that dance should exist without technology and only in a proscenium space. but I was saying that by witnessing dance and dancing ourselves we are interconnecting people--not necessarily audience versus performers--and we need to interconnect whether we are "local dancers" or dancers brought in, whether we are technies and techno informed or not. this very forum shows we're interconnecting and that's what we crave. I think all the horrors of cities gone awry where they become dangerous places is that we have lost interconnectedness and we need technology AND artists to put us back together.

Lisa First

Posts: 13
From: Link Vostok
Registered: May 23, 2005
Re: Looking for dance in all the wrong places...
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:33 PM
  Reply

> Mary and Judith,
>
> These thoughts on interactivity, shared presence, and
> spiritual vitality are great. I have been intrigued
> by the notion proposed by many scholars that artists
> have used their bodies as a medium in times of
> significant social and economic changes. It seems to
> me to be a sign that experience is felt rather than
> thought. And while ideas and theory take time to
> develop, experience is immediate. If thought about
> this way dance provides a realm to begin to grappling
> with emerging concerns.
>
> Colin


Hey Colin, I'm latching onto your introducing the concept of using bodies as a medium in times of significant social and economic changes. Maybe this is why Russia has been such fertile ground for new dance forms? Although times of political unrest and uncertainty are uncomfortable I am seeing more performance seeming to stem from a political perspective than in recent years, indicating less complacency and the willingness to take risks on behalf of artists.

It is the immediacy of dance that is so appealing especially in that no moment can be repeated in the same way.

Colin Rusch

Posts: 1,435
Registered: Oct 16, 2002
Re: Looking for dance in all the wrong places...
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:37 PM
  Reply

> The physical body and the live experience of
> witnessing it move isn't necessarily threatened by a
> mediated experience via technology. In discussing the
> future of the form, it is clear to me that
> choreographers are more and more excited by the
> potential of technology to amplify the live
> experience, not take away from it.

Also, in contrast to many assumptions, technology offers opportunities to work less expensively and be more precise in our communication as artists. Certainly video has changed how dances are documented and recreated. Also, it not only amplifies the live experience, but changes it altogether. I use video in my work often, it allows me to layer meaning in very particular ways impossible with movement alone. That frees me to make the movement more particular and know that it only needs to carry or embody part of my intention.

Lisa First

Posts: 13
From: Link Vostok
Registered: May 23, 2005
Re: Looking for dance in all the wrong places...
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:38 PM
  Reply

Dance reflects the individual but also our culture. That is my inherent interest in combining people from different cultures, mixing approaches, attitudes, personal and political histories and culture and coming up with something new. Cross cultural interactions breed fresh ideas that might not otherwise evolve.

Anna Thompson

Posts: 9
From: College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University
Registered: May 23, 2005
Re: Is Dance an Important Art Form for the 21st Century?
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:38 PM
  Reply

I'm not sure my use of the word "safety net" was taken within the meaning meant- i.e. familiar. Theaters who have an "edifice copmlex" will not attract young audiences (I agree there)-but those that do not- will offer those first experiences that can inspire, attract, new people to dance. I was one such audience member who saw my first company at 28- and could not get enough of it from there on out. My son another at age 8- then he studied for the next 8 years and continues to take master classes and attend performances. Y father (a redneck) his first ballet due to his grandson at age 82- and he was very impressed by those strong male dancers "even ifit was a little sexy". Everyone has a different point of entry.If the art form is to survive in this century it has to be present in more places than just the urban centers and the coasts.

Mary Easter

Posts: 7
Registered: May 23, 2005
Re: Looking for dance in all the wrong places...
Posted: May 26, 2005 7:39 PM
  Reply

I recently introduced a video element into my composition class specifically to present the possibility of "another self" with which a live self could interact.
That ultimately led to experiments in which the camera was turned on the audience looking at itself and seeing also the "dancer" seen now outdoors through a window behind the audience. Hard to picture, I know, but I'm trying to transcribe that experience to get out of the "safety net" notion. I don't feel like the live experience need be in competition with the technological image.

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