Thursday, April 17, 2008

dance writing week 3

The Writing on Dance course I'm taking just keeps getting better and better. It's already half way over, and I wish it were a full semester kind of class instead of a 6 week workshop!

Tonight we got our reviews back that we turned in last week. Mine was what I wrote on Petronio for ExploreDance, which we took apart during the class last week. But it was so wonderful to get written feedback from someone so well respected (C. La Rocco from the Times) as a dance critic. So helpful to see and hear tips and listen to other critiques and such.

Lately I've been able to meet and speak with people about dance on a much higher level of conversation than I've ever had access to before. It's interesting that that doesn't occur more in a school-type situation but rather amongst professionals or just audience members. I love it though.

Just some interesting notes I made to myself throughout tonight's class I thought I'd share...

-readers will not necessarily be able to see the dance piece you are describing, so their experience of the art is only through your verbal interpretation of the movement as the critic

-in contemporary dance you're going into the unknown, which is different from traditional classical dance

-criticism is the meeting of minds: the writer and the artist (choreographer)

-a critic's dialogue is with the audience, NOT with the artist

-what are some theatrical cliches?

I have tons more notes and things to think about and incorporate in my writing but just thought I'd put those up for discussion. I'm so inspired by this course and don't want it to end!

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