Reporting A Conversation

An interesting article in the Sunday Times Arts section, “Twisting and Chatting the Ailey Way” by Jennifer Dunning, raises a few questions about storytelling, reporting, and the ways we employ different media forms.

In the article, Jennifer Dunning “covers” a sit-down conversation/interview between Matthew Rushing, a performer with the modern dance troupe Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater since 1992, and Judith Jamison, the troupe’s director. 

Dunning begins:

DANCES have traditionally been handed down from performer to performer, even since the invention of dance notation. But how do dancers learn about the mysterious culture of performing? Some of that can be soaked up in the daily work, but there is nothing quite like a lazily extended, spontaneous conversation with a veteran choreographer, dancer or company director.   

That last clause seems true enough.  But in that case, why are we reading a news feature about it?  What of the elements of conversation, in this instance: of a certain inflection, pauses for thought, laughter, sighing, all the rest?  Dunning attempts to recreate the scene of the talk for us, but ultimately falls short.  The article, in turn, is strange– it is merely all he-said-then-she-said, and the effect is distancing, almost uncomfortable.  We don’t know why Dunning was there.  And if the conversation was spontaneous, well, we don’t quite believe it from Dunning’s transcript.  How nice it would have been to hear actual voices.  To have an audio option!

I believe completely in the power and effect of carefully-wrought writing, and especially in narrative.   And I prefer good writing to good versions of all other media forms (audio, video, etc., whatever).  Had Dunning been interested in voice, had she made an attempt to convey through writing what couldn’t be conveyed through audio alone– something visually important, some small moment or almost imperceptible gesture (maybe too easily overlooked on video), than the writing might have been worth it.  But without, why not just have an audio bar?  Why not a video of these two people interacting? 

I think this example draws upon what I consider the major lesson of our course: that different stories call for different storytelling media, distinct forms.  And it’s the author/videographer/editor’s job to use the chosen form to its maximum capacity.  I’m not sure if this is something I’ve been able to accomplish in every exercise this semester, but it’s something I’m certainly more aware of than I have been before.     

At thewinger.com:

Responses to Kourlas’s recent NY Times piece on LEAP.

Another Option

In the NY Times on Sunday, Gia Kourlas covered the New York branch of LEAP, the San Francisco-based Liberal Arts Education Program for dancers.  The program allows dancers to earn arts or bachelors degrees, receiving academic credit for their professional experience and further drawing upon that experience in their specialized studies.  The program was founded in 1999.  Since then 209 have enrolled in the program, and 42 have graduated.

What’s interesting about this program– what Kourlas only touches upon– is its seeming educative basis in dance despite that it is essentially a post-dance program (meaning it’s second-career-minded, like CTFD).  

CTFD Dance Gala Didn’t Really Rock

… according to Jennifer Dunning of the NY Times.  In an article published today, Dunning critiqued this year’s dance gala, “Dance Rocks,” and its series of varied performances as somehow lacking in dignity. 

CTFD Coverage in the Times

This weekend the NY Times came out with an article about CTFD, its mission, its clients– Tentative Steps Into A Life After Dance.  The article lands on the concept that for former dancers there is little chance of finding a future in anything as fulfilling as dance.  I think that for many dancers this is true; but, I’m finding that for as many others, it’s not quite the case. 

My impression after talking with the counselors and administrators at CTFD was that transition is an unequivocal crisis in any dancer’s life.  It is inevitable and nonetheless dreaded, and invariably difficult.  But my meetings with transitioned dancers– both of recent and not-so-recent transitions– has uncovered another school of thought about the transition process.

The Age Issue

From a recent NYT article: Two years ago trumpeter Henry Nowak was fired from the American Ballet Theater Orchestra.  Nowak had been with the orchestra for 28 years; he was 74 years old.  Last Thursday he filed an age discrimination suit with the US District Court in Manhattan.  The complaint cites an unnamed conductor asking an orchestra member for tips on how to convince old orchestra members to retire, and said of them, according to the NYT article, “It’s time to go.”  Commission lawyer Judy Keenan claims that the commission has evidence of other similar cases in ABT Orchestra history (part of the reason, evidently, that this case was one of relatively few ageism complaints brought to suit over the past year; apparently only 50 out of 16, 548 complaints were accepted between October 2005 and September 2006). 

Nowak’s case puts a strange spin on the age issues already at play in the dance community. 

Dance and the Masses

The clash between classical dance and dance in popular culture has been frequently featured in the media over the past few years, with the rise of popular dance-themed TV shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing With The Stars.”  This week reporters at both the NY Times and the Washington Post wrote of the clash, raising the done-to-death question of whether giving the arts-lite version of dance to the masses is truly preferable to giving them no dance at all.