Talking about us talking about dance

Apollinaire Scherr's fantastic dance blog "Foot in Mouth" is well worth checking out.
I mentioned her in the last post, but want to raise another point she makes regarding topics for dance writing, and the relationship of these topics to dance talking.

What we write matters, and we need to be mindful of how dance is presented in the media. "What's the story? Same as it ever was" (halfway down the page) is an exposition of the shift in topics in dance writing. I would argue that this has a gigantic impact on how dance is perceived, received and how we as dance artists are not only identified but also our ideas of our own identities.

Here it is:

"What's the story? Same as it ever was

I'm not sure when it started, but the center of gravity for dance writing has now shifted from reviews to features, profiles, and trend pieces.

Flacks love the previews -- advocate for them, are hired to make them happen -- because in the short term they get people into the seats. But they do little in the long term, as they don't adequately prepare a person for what she's going to see.

They tell you about the inspiration for the dance, but not what the dance might inspire. They tell you about the occasion of its making, but not the occasion the dance itself invents. The terms that a preview establishes for the dance can only be approximate, whereas a review -- if it's given enough room and knows what it's doing -- can be precise.

Issues and personality drive features and profiles, while structure and impersonality -- or at least the distillation of the personal -- drive dances. As Croce notes, dancer Sara Rudner is great not because she looks sexy or because she has terrific sex after hours, but because onstage she transmutes disco exhibitionism into lyrical wit. We're not watching Rudner so much as the character of her dancing.

If you ask of dance the classic, cigar-chomping newspaperman question, "What's the story?" the answer will always be, "The dances." Forget the back story -- the drama is in the dances.

Because we have not been writing about these dances particularly well, more and more we're being asked to skip the story. We need to find our way back, with our editors -- and their editors -- in tow. "

That's it. For now.

- R