A sad day

I already posted a notice today for our community's loss here in Atlanta of Antonio Sisk, and then I see the news that Merce Cunningham has passed! He was 90, but still, what an icon of modern dance, and he was still making work! A link to the NY Times article.

Thoughts on gloATL

Read the review of "rapt" by Cynthia Bond Perry at ArtsCriticATL.com

And some thoughts from keif about the show (not really a review):

Atlantans glo’d

What a great way to enjoy dance… great creation, dancers, venue, and summer evening. Equally enjoyable at this past weekend’s performance of rapt was the mass of people who were along for the ride—a large and diverse audience that packed the Woodruff piazza in anticipation, an audience that made the most of the social atmosphere, an audience that morphed as it moved, an audience that danced and chatted, an audience that lingered. Dance as a happening breaks down barriers to our craft and engages audiences.

Lauri Stallings and the collaborators of gloATL met all expectations of their namesake by creating a wonderful opportunity for “a group of individuals who congregate to witness a unique event.” In doing so, they did much to invigorate audiences and supporters of dance in a way that will benefit the entire dance community. They also demonstrated why local dance and the experience surrounding it are a great investment for arts organizations like the Alliance Theater and the Woodruff Arts Center who sponsored the event. Thanks and congratulations, Lauri & gloATL and everyone who supported their vision.

keif schleifer
president
brooks & company dance

In Memoriam: Antonio Sisk

From Melanie Lynch-Blanchard:

Family, friends, students and colleagues will come together on Tuesday July 28^th to celebrate the life and spirit of Antonio Sisk, who passed away on July 23, 2009. He was an amazing artist, mentor, teacher and friend whose legacy of amazing work far exceeds his years with us. Details on services are listed below, as is a link to offer condolences to the family. Please consider making a contribution to the Roswell Dance Theater in his honor.

Services for Antonio will be held on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at the Roswell Funeral Home, located at 950 Mansell Road, Roswell, GA 30076. The viewing is from 11 am – 1pm, followed by the funeral at 2pm.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Roswell Dance Theater
Antonio Sisk Memorial Fund. Please send your contribution to:

Roswell Dance Theater Antonio Sisk Memorial Fund
10400 Building D Alpharetta Street
Roswell, GA 30075

Offer you condolences online at http://www.legacy.com/atlanta/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=130344995

Antonio’s full obituary can be found at ajc.com (http://www.legacy.com/atlanta/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=130344995)

Dance across the categories in CL's "Best"

I'm copying an email below from Joanna Brooks, artistic director of brooks & company dance. The idea is to have all the dance lovers in Atlanta vote in Creative Loafing's "Best of Atlanta" (deadline is July 31) not just for their own companies in the "Best Dance" categories, but to put dance in as many other categories as we can creatively fit it! Make the editors notice that there's a voice for dance in Atlanta! Comment and let us know of other places you can think of to add dance to the categories. Have fun with it!
And thanks to Joanna for the shout out for the Best Local Arts Blog!
I'm adding my suggestions here:

• New thing about Atlanta: Every new dance piece created here
• Local Athlete: dancers
• Free thing to do in Atlanta: (ok, I'm going to put in an SDC suggestion here...but feel free to add any free event your group produces) Several Dancers Core's "Lunchtime in the Studio"
• Annual event: Modern Atlanta Dance Festival, Inman Park Dance Festival
• Local YouTube video: insert your favorite local dance on youtube here (SDC's videos)
  
• Place to score affordable art: local dance performances
• Local Singer/Songwriter: (another SDC plug) Dee Adams accompanying CORE Performance Company's THREE
• Uplifting news story: Dance-related (e.g. Katrina, Katrina Love Letters to New Orleans, by PearsonWidrig presented by SDC)

And from Joanna:
"Howdy, folks!

I just had a few ideas about the Creative Loafing BEST of ATLANTA voting that could bring some more attention to dance here...

Of course we all have our personal alliances for Best Dance Company and Dance Performance, (and OF COURSE I'd love to have everyone vote for brooks & company dance and CRUX, respectively) but there are some neutral categories we might be able to agree on and get some attention for dance in Atlanta...here are a few suggestions! Most are strictly dance-related but I threw out some other options for the ones that aren't.

AND...the cool thing about this year is that you can go back to your ballot once they have sent you a the confirmation email! You can also vote from each different email address so let's make the Creative Loafing readers take a look at DANCE!

Most Underrated thing About Atlanta: Dance

Best Arts Event: Modern Atlanta Dance Festival

Best New Trend: Dance

Local Arts Website: Atlanta Arts Critic, Atlanta PlanIt or Atlanta Performs

Local Arts Blog: Atlanta Dances

Here's the link:
http://clatl.com/bestofatlanta

Good luck to all the companies and happy voting!

-Joanna Brooks-

Article on Dance 101's upcoming show

Check out the new dance article on ArtsCriticATL about the upcoming performance, "Incarnation," by Dance 101 students, directed by Charles "Bubba" Carr, with guest artists.

Goals for dance in Atlanta?

We've had a couple meetings, some of us involved in dance organizations around town, and brought out the idea of a staffed dance organization that would serve the entire community, similar to the ones from other places that I mentioned in my
first post. One of those meetings took place today at the Fulton County Arts Commission (and for those of you on Facebook, you can join the group "Peer to Peer: DANCE" and get updates about these meetings.)

I'm pasting below a proposal (thanks to Aly at the Atlanta Ballet for writing this up for us!) for the steps to creating a community dance organization and what it should eventually look like. I've included a few of my personal thoughts in perintheses. This is a draft and we really want your feedback!! Please post comments with any places you disagree with me, ideas of things you think we've left out, or other ways you think we can make it realize. We'd love to have you at a future meeting about this as well, so please let me know if you're interested in joining us! Thanks!

ATLANTA DANCE

Atlanta Dance Resource Proposal

Phase One: Planning Stage

X Create Blog to start the conversation and provide a sustainability resource for the dance community during the current economic crisis (done, you're looking at it!)

_ Monthly meetings to discuss action steps and findings (this is being wrapped into the FCAC bi-monthly meetings, with a committee that will meet independently to look at funding possibilities)

_ Survey dance organizations to inventory the challenges of the dance community and identify what elements are ideal for an Atlanta dance resource organization (this may be difficult before there is staff to carry out, to be discussed further at next meeting)

_ Community dance forum held before MAD Festival (looking at a time to have an inaugural "annual meeting" just before the performances which will be the first weekend in March. Yes, MAD is a modern dance festival, but this will be open to the whole community.)

Phase Two: Implementation

_ Form independent, all inclusive dance resource organization structure – website

_ Funding – website and staffing

_ Dance USA conference in Atlanta in 2011 – great way to spotlight local dance for the conference (there was a proposal to host the winter meeting, but those may have been canceled for the immediate future because of cost.)


MISSION

Atlanta Dance’s mission is to facilitate communication among and about the art form of dance in the Metro Atlanta Area. As a resource for advancing exposure to dance in Atlanta, Atlanta Dance is sustained by its members of professional dance companies, artists, choreographers, presenters, educators, students, foundations, individuals and other organizations statewide. Atlanta Dance creates a collective voice for the dance community that will address concerns and aspirations effectively through communication and organization. To address the challenges of the Atlanta dance community, Atlanta Dance seeks to accomplish these goals:

• Advocacy - Create a united voice for dance in Atlanta.

• Diversity - Encourage a deeper understanding and respect of the cultural diversity within dance.

• Community - Foster support and partnership among the dance population.

• Communication - Promote more effective communication within the field.

• Boost the Industry - Retain and attract talent so it can thrive in Atlanta.

• Education - Promote opportunities for education and enhanced accessibility to dance.

• Audience Development - Build appreciation and attendance of dance among the general public.


MEMBERSHIP

Membership fees will help underwrite services,(in addition to other funding that may be found through grants, sponsorships and individual contributions, assuming it will eventually become its own nonprofit.) New services will be developed in reaction to surveys of dance organizations and individual artists, and in response to community needs.


PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Atlanta Dance provides resources, promotion, and collaborative opportunities for the dance community in Metro Atlanta. Project activities focus on advocacy, professional development and information resources, and are designed to gather and disseminate information, convene individuals and groups around key issues, facilitate networking, and stimulate the communal voice.
Free Services to the Atlanta Dance Community:

• Dance Calendar - a comprehensive listing of Atlanta area dance performances as well as classes, auditions and workshops.
• The Dance Card - a calendar of upcoming events, distributed to membership and at dance events (as a program insert collecting in one place the upcoming month of performances)
• Atlanta Dance Table – set up and staffed at dance events for brochures, posters, flyers, and postcards.
• Dance Writings– Interviews, Previews and Reviews of dance events, created in response to a lack of coverage in commercial press. (may be in conjunction with other online sites)
• Dance Directory - a directory and resource guide for all things dance related in Metro Atlanta. Dance companies, schools, colleges, studios, performance venues, etc.
• Dance community Listserv – list for the dance community to disseminate information to members by email. (Dance Georgia yahoo group still exists, may be able to transfer membership?)
• Dance Job Board - lists auditions, job openings, dance administrative positions, and internships.
• Dance Space – information for dancers about rental space for classes, rehearsals, auditions and performances.
• Weekly eNewsletter – news and complete listings of upcoming dance performances and events.(this was monthly in Aly's version and I changed it to weekly because that's how they do it in Houston. We'll need to see how much information there is and if monthly is enough or if we need to do weekly.)
• Atlanta Dance on Facebook – formed to network with fellow dancers and choreographers, announce upcoming performances and workshops and build an audience.(Currently Peer to Peer Dialogue:DANCE will serve as the space for discussion on Facebook)

One location online, so many resources...

Article about Atlanta Ballet students

Atlanta's new critical arts blog has its second dance post about the upcoming performance that is the culmination of the Atlanta Ballet's summer intensive: ArtsCriticATL.

More interesting video online

I'm just going to post interesting links to sort of random dance sites because hopefully people will enjoy finding other dance ideas even when they're not Atlanta-specific.
There's a site called Danceminute that has just that--little videos of dance that are a minute or less. It hasn't been updated very recently but there are a lot of older posts to check out. Mostly contemporary dance in Europe because the person who's posting is over there.

No listings yet

So I've decided not to try to compile listings of Atlanta dance events, classes etc. on this blog right now. I'd like to keep it as a place for discussions/conversations, and frankly I don't have the time to collect and post everything! Like I said in my first post...there's a lot going on with dance in Atlanta! I'll look into a google calendar like the one on Artlanta, or if anyone has other suggestions for the short term, please comment! If we ever get something going that's a little more than a blog, keeping that kind of calendar of everything that's happening would be a great resource. I just don't think this is the time/place for that yet.
That doesn't mean I won't list your basic web address though, so please keep it coming with website information!

A general article about the "death of dance writing"--thoughts?

Elizabeth Zimmer, long time dance critic with the Village Voice, among other publications, discusses the issues of dance coverage in the Internet era in this article.

Those of us who perform in Atlanta are facing the same problems she describes, as the few outlets of dance coverage in the city become sparser and sparser. However, we are lucky to have a new online outlet for arts criticism in ArtsCriticATL.com that will include dance. As a writer, Ms. Zimmer is not a fan of reviews on blogs because most often the writers are not paid, but from the performer's point of view, it's a fantastic thing to get reviews from any credible source.

There are also some discussions happening with MAACC and the arts community about trying to create a place for reviews online. Can we create a structure that will actually pay writers for their critiques, or at least an editor to look at them before putting them online? If so, what does it look like? Dance Source Houston uses their membership dues and other funding to pay freelance writers for reviews. Is it something dancers/dance groups in Atlanta would pay a membership fee to support? or can we find enough writers willing to write for free to cover most of what happens in town? (and if it's volunteer only, how can we be sure the quality is up to snuff?)

Cool film project in Berlin

Ok, so it's not Atlanta related, but it's dance, and isn't it a cool idea? They took kids, paired them with choreographers who made site-specific dances around Berlin, and the short films of the dances were shown on Berlin's public transit!
http://www.mobiledance.org/postcards/