Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Blogging the process of choreography?

With this post (obviously against the idea): "Blogging about the Process of Choreography--Ugh!" Wendy Perron of Dance Magazine has started a debate on choreographers using blogs to detail their process of creating work. Dance Theater Workshop has responded and points also to Culturebot on the same topic. It's an interesting question both from the artists' side, whether blogging might actually disrupt the process as Ms. Perron suggests, or could actually help form ideas if someone's mind works in words as well as body in movement. And from the audience side, does getting a look into the nitty gritty day-to-day process of making dances make the end product more or less interesting/engaging? On one hand, there's possibly a feeling of "oh well, I know what they were going for from the blog and I totally don't see it" but on the other, as one commenter on Culturebot points out, getting into the process might be a great educational tool for those not as familiar with dance. I guess one problem with that argument is, if someone's not that knowledgeable or engaged in dance to begin with, would they seek out and spend the time to read a blog that goes into detail on the process? Good questions. And a very practical one that follows, if we don't blog about our process, what can we possibly update folks about on a regular basis? What would our online content be if what we're doing IS process, but we can't write about it?

2 comments:

  1. Would be curious to know your reaction to this reaction to Perron's post: tohttp://www.clydefitchreport.com/?p=7600.

    Some interesting comments so far.

    Really glad to join the dialogue, though.

    Leonard Jacobs
    Editor, The Clyde Fitch Report

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  2. Thank you for making me aware of more discussions surrounding Ms. Perron's post. I'm actually surprised there are enough people interested in not only dance but the process of making it that it has created such a response. Exactly why the internet is so fantastic!

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