"Dance Buddies"

In case you didn't read down to the very end of the most recent DanceATL email, a recent thought spurred by conversations with a couple of other art-interested folks who said "I would love to come, but I have a hard time finding someone to go with me" is to make a DanceATL program called something like "dance buddies" (suggestions for the name?) Folks who're flying solo to a show can meet up at the dance table in the lobby of the performance before the show, during intermission and even afterward. Nothing formal, just a way to go alone without being alone. I know I've had friends with whom I regularly go see shows (pre-baby!), but there are always times when you can't find anybody or end up going too last minute etc.

Should we have a meet up ahead of time? Or after? Should we wear buttons that let each other know who we are? Eventually try to get tickets together? (much more complicated, that.) There's potential for a whole group of dance enthusiasts to form that gets together for shows all around town. But no expectations of that at this point. Right now, we'll just if anybody likes the idea? The concept is still in formation and we'd be happy to hear your thoughts on making it work!

Of course, we'd love it if the reality were that people who have a problem finding folks to come with them manage to strong-arm their significant other or friends into going and then the friends find that they actually kinda like that dance stuff and turn into huge fans as a result. But, in the absence of that happening (I certainly seem to have the luck that the things I take my husband to are guaranteed to be, um, challenging? in a variety of ways) this is a way to at least let the people who ARE interested be able to make it.
 
And by the way, if you're not on the DanceATL elist but you'd like to be, please contact me to be added at info@danceatl.org. And please send submissions for the enews to the same address. I can't promise exactly when the next one will go out, unfortunately, but maybe in mid-December? The next meeting will be December 5 in the afternoon. I'll do another post soon with details!

Catching up

So it's been a while, I apologize. There's been a lot going on! And personally I've been busy partly because I've been dancing more, so I can't complain.
Here we go with a bunch of links here to try to catch up on the last couple of weeks.
The 1st ever "we didn't have time to make it pretty" DanceATL enews went out and here's a link so you can read it if you aren't on the mailing list. And if you're not on the list but you'd like to be, please email info@coredance.org and we'll get you added!
And on the (p)review front for this week:

• Dance Canvas preview and review from Creative Loafing's Andrew Alexander

• Ballet Preljocaj: Blake Beckham's preview on ArtsCriticalATL.com, Andrew Alexander's interview with Angelin Preljocaj, a preview and a review of "Empty Moves"

Atlanta Ballet's Moulin Rouge (R)

Here are a few articles about Atlanta Ballet's season opener, Moulin Rouge® that continues its run at the Cobb Energy Centre this weekend: two by Cynthia Bond Perry on ArtsCriticATL.com (a preview and review), Pierre Ruhe wrote a review for AJC, and there's another review from Creative Loafing by Andrew Alexander. Those are from the more "established" voices on dance in town--the critics if you will. It's interesting in light of our ongoing arts criticism discussion (see my earlier posts starting with March on the Emory Arts Criticism Symposium) that the Atlanta Ballet apparently sees all online coverage as the same. Their show-specific blog lists write-ups from Fashionado, and Atlanta Events under the heading "Critics Loved Moulin Rouge®". From what I can tell from how the bloggers mention dress rehearsal viewing and backstage access, and are posting the official promo shots on their blogs, the PR guys targeted bloggers right along with critics. And why not? Obviously they want as much coverage as they can get. But it's interesting that they're not at all separating the "critics" from the self-admitted neophytes. And a happy side-effect of the bloggers not being critics per se--they don't criticize! At least these two pretty much stick to gushing about how amazing everything was. Which is great, I'm totally stoked that folks who might not always be into it are going to see dance and loving it. No reason the world at large can't find out how much these folks appreciated the performance...but it's not really the same as a critical review. I personally get a much better idea of what the performance would be like to go see from the more critical reviews. So anything scholarly or "important" aside, what would I rather read? That makes the case for criticism for me.

MAD Festival timing question from Douglas

The 2011 Modern Atlanta Dance Festival is scheduled for April 16 & 17.  These dates were chosen based on the theatre availability at the Marcus Jewish Community Center Atlanta.  The Arts and Entertainment Department at the MJCCA are longtime collaborators in the presentation of the festival.  However, April 17 is Palm Sunday. I'm interested in getting feedback from the Atlanta dance community. Would it be better if the MAD Festival is held for one night only -- Saturday, April 16? 

Please let me hear from you: fullradiusdance@aol.com or 404-724-9663.

Douglas Scott

Full Radius Dance

Review of "Just", and venues

Review by Andrew Alexander for Creative Loafing of the past weekend's performance, "Just," presented by Wormhole and Zoetic. I have been curious about the space over at Fabrefaction, but haven't made it over there to check it out myself yet. Sounds like Mr. Alexander was impressed! Glad to have another venue available to dance in (especially if it's a good one!) And speaking of venues, I had a quick conversation with someone from Eyedrum today--the good news is that in looking for a new space they are thinking about having a performance space in the mix, including with an eye toward dance productions. The current gallery has been a great place for folks to present over the years (mostly because of the supportive folks there, and their ability to make the space not prohibitively expensive, which is great for independent artists especially.) As much as the gallery space gives an edgy, out-of-the-proscenium-box feel to a show, I think having an actual dance-friendly stage would be a welcome addition.

Atlanta Fringe Festival

Atlanta will have a Fringe Festival all its own! So for those of you making dances that need a place to perform them, check it out. Here's an article about it from Cathy Fox of ArtCriticATL.com, and the site itself is appropriately atlantafringe.com.They say the submission forms will go live on Nov. 1 and the festival itself is in August 2011. A good time to have it, in what seems to be practically "dead month", at least in the dance scene last season.

News about upcoming gloATL performance

From Cynthia Perry at ArtsCriticATL.com, news about Lauri Stallings' upcoming project (that held auditions back in late summer.)