From Blog Director Jill Randall:

 

I am thrilled to create another monthly column for the Life as a Modern Dancer Blog. Whether you are a college student or a professional dancer, we all need to keep developing our writing skills.

 

I want us to tackle the common misconception that dancers only need to communicate with our bodies and through our work, not with words and writing. Yes, I first and foremost believe in our work as kinesthetic artists, but we do live in a verbal and digital world. Words and text will articulate to others what our work is about, who we are, and why people should be a part of what we are working on – whether that be on stage, at a studio, or in a workshop.

 

Dance artists will write a wide range of text throughout their careers, including:

Throughout 2015, I will post a writing exercise that all of us can try. These exercises are for you to reflect on your work and articulate the what, why, and how. Find yourself a beautiful journal to write in or start a Google Doc to write on your computer. Use whatever works best for you.

 

I am excited to have dance scholar Sima Belmar join me for the Virtual Writers’ Workshop. Sima will be contributing writing exercises and bibliographic references throughout the year. Sima is a longtime friend and colleague of mine. Her writing on dance has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Dance Magazine, and she will complete her PhD in Performance Studies at the University of California at Berkeley in May 2015. Sima's profile on the Life as a Modern Dancer Blog appeared in December 2012. Click here to read her profile.

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Becoming an articulate writer about dance requires practice, opportunities, and curiosity. 

Today after seeing a performance, I was playing around with the idea of simply reflecting by formulating and writing out a series of questions. The questions related to the choreography, whole event, and audience experience. 

 

This simple exercise gets us thinking, articulating, and reflecting on other's work as well as our own. After the next performance you experience, spend 10 minutes writing down questions. For example, a few I generated today included:

• How do you best curate and organize a mixed bill show?
• Why unison? 
• How do you invite audience members into abstract choreography? 

I am reminded of an essay on the Dance Exchange website about "the art of the question." Read John Borstel's piece here.

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