Tonight movmnt magazine hosted a blogger get together at their offices downtown to toss around ideas about the dance world, marketing and promoting dance, and dance in pop culture. I’ll be writing quite a bit more on the conclusions of the (excellent) discussion and more soon (probably on the winger), but for now here’s a basic rundown of the evening.
I ran into Evan of Dancing Perfectly Free in the elevator on the way up to the office, and when we got there we were welcomed by David, Editor and Publisher, some of his magazine staff, and two other bloggers: Doug and Amber (didn't catch name of blog? sorry!). A stack of sandwiches and multiple diet cokes awaited us, with chips and snacks added to make us feel at home. It’s funny because even though we all see each other in person once in a while (and only since the Cedar Lake event), we all have a sense of what’s going on with each other that we don’t really even need to ask, “So how are you?” Haha we read each other’s blogs and it’s such an amusing connection. Sometimes when I blog randomly I think, who on earth actually reads this. And then I talk to people such as this and realize my words are indeed being heard, haha. It’s nice to know.
Anyways, multiple other bloggers filtered in within the next half an hour, including Tonya and fellow Wingers Tony & Brian (visiting from San Francisco). (We missed Philip and Ariel.) After munching and marveling over each other’s real life personas versus blogging personalities, we got down to business.
The nearly 2 hour long conversation went everywhere from what influence do bloggers really have, to what dance companies are(n’t) doing to modernize themselves through publicity, to social networks and the fame culture, to where is the blogosphere headed in the future. Everyone raised some very interesting points and sparked some great debate/dialogue. It’s really inspiring being surrounded by people who care so much about dance as an art form coming from such varied perspectives. I was fascinated by each person at the table.
Idea after idea danced through my mind while listening (okay, corny sentence). There is little other opportunity for this level of discourse about dance, probably both because people don’t have time for it and people don’t care enough about it. A big thanks to David and movmnt for hosting the event and for being among the first institutions to reach out to bloggers.
After saying goodbye and walking away with another copy of the new issue and an awsome pair of movmnt socks, I took the subway uptown with Evan and we continued the conversation for the whole ride, discussing the issues already raised and bringing up other things we forgot to mention. Now that I’m home and thinking it over I realize there is so much to be discussed and we’ve only touched the tip of it. I hope we have more get-togethers like this regularly in the future!
Towards the end of the meeting we were discussing the magazine and David was saying how he loves blogs but he’s always been one for paper…meaning magazines the print media. I have to agree, as much as I enjoy blogging and reading blogs. I love magazines, and writing, and movmnt magazine - but I also love the immediacy of the internet and the opportunity for vast voices to be heard. In the tight-knit dance world especially, I think it’s important that both media mesh, and tonight was definitely the epitome of that! Yay for dance finally earning a place in social discourse.
More details and photo(s) to come soon.
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