Editorial – Page 40

The Curse Of Being Creative (Why WorkFlowy is Amazing)

January 9, 2012 by 4dancers

by Lauren Warnecke

I consider myself to be an organized person. I mean, I guess I know I’m an organized person because I usually end up where I need to end up on time. I usually pay my bills on time. People hire me to organize performance projects, and, as far as I can tell, they all turn out ok. I’m organized, but I’m also a dancemaker. Like most other working artists I can’t survive unless I have multiple jobs. Last fall I think my brain got to capacity. I had taken on more than any organized person – or rather any person – should, and it got to the point that some things were starting to slip… like remembering to brush my teeth and pay the cable bill.

Things float in and out of my brain. It’s the curse of being a creative person. We’re not linear thinkers. I am often simultaneously thinking about the role of the American housewife, the importance of the right index finger, the best way to engage new audience members, if I have any clean pants, and what to have for dinner. One thought leads to the next in a stream of consciousness that, heard by another person, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. This is an awesome problem to have, but can also be frustrating when you are 1) trying to communicate with people who AREN’T non-linear thinkers (and yes, I realize I just used a double negative there), or 2) trying to communicate with someone who is also creative, but not your kind of creative. That’s pretty much everyone.

dance making — What a dance looks like in Lauren's head

But it all makes sense to me. I just don’t have room for it in my brain. Enter 2012. Even before the confetti was falling on a new year, I had resolved that I needed a new way to organize my thoughts. I love paper planners, and though I completely embrace technology I’ve never found a techie tool for storing a to-do list effectively. You either have to categorize things, rank things, or otherwise pigeon hole your thoughts into a few characters. By some sort of divine intervention (that is, the “freshly pressed” feed on WordPress.com), I came across a post about a newfangled organizational tool: WorkFlowy.

I’m in love with workflowy. It is new(ish? I think?), but its brilliance is in its stark simplicity. WorkFlowy is a big, fat, unlimited capacity, bullet-pointed typepad, that you don’t have to save, can open up wherever you have the interwebs, and share with whomever you please. No categories. No muss, no fuss. No pigeon holes. Today on my WorkFlowy, I brainstormed marketing ideas for an event I’m managing, added bananas to my shopping list, and wrote this article.

Apart from shameless promotion for a new thing I found that I love, the point is this: in order to keep ourselves surviving and making work we have to keep seven jobs. In order to keep seven jobs, we’ve got to be organized. In order to be organized, you don’t necessarily need WorkFlowy, but you need some sort of interface that works the way YOUR brain works. That could be a paper planner, an iPad or a sheet of loose leaf paper. For me, I think it might be this. Until, of course, the internet goes away… but I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it.

Contributor Lauren Warnecke is a Chicago-based dance artist, educator and writer. She trained at Judith Svalander School of Ballet and Barat Conservatory of Dance before earning a BA in Dance at Columbia College Chicago. In 2009, Lauren completed her MS in Kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is an adjunct instructor for the Department of Kinesiology at UIC, the Performing Arts Coordinator at the Menomonee Club for Boys and Girls, a member of the Cecchetti Council of America, and Neurotransmitter to Synapse Arts Collective (read: too many jobs).

Lauren created and maintains Art Intercepts as a platform for dance that is informed, inventive, and evidence-based. In addition to writing at 4dancers, Lauren is a columnist at Dance Advantage, specializing in dance injuries and prevention, dancer wellness, and evidence-based teaching practices. She also enjoys her freelance work as a grant writer and production manager and likes to grow strawberries, bake scones, and dig in the dirt.

Finis: What Is A Dance Portrait?

December 31, 2011 by 4dancers

by Christopher Duggan

This November I moved into a new office space with a fully equipped photo studio, perfect for solo sessions with dancers looking for new portraits for their portfolios. I recently broke in my new space with Caleb Teicher, an 18-year-old dancer who just won a 2011 Bessie for his performance with Michelle Dorrance’s tap company, Dorrance Dance.

I knew Caleb wanted a new head shot along with some dance images, but I didn’t have any direction beyond that. He arrived at the studio completely open to the creative process, and we started the session with little else but trust in each other. Everything flowed wonderfully, resulting in a steady stream of charismatic images showcasing his signature style.

This isn’t always my approach to a studio session. Sometimes it’s best to come in with clearer goals for specific angles and stylistic ideas. (More on that in another column.)

As dancers, what approach have you taken in studio sessions? What direction (or how much direction) would you like to have from your photographer? And most importantly, what is the dance portrait? What makes the portrait useful to you and why?

Is a “dance portrait” one that features a dance move? Of these images I’m showing, which is the one that personifies “dance portrait” the most?

View more photos of Caleb’s shoot here.

Contributor Christopher Duggan is the founder and principal photographer of Christopher Duggan Photography, a New York City-based wedding and dance photography studio. Duggan has been the Festival Photographer for Jacob’s Pillow Dance since 2006. In this capacity, and as a respected New York-based dance photographer, he has worked with renowned choreographers and performers of international acclaim as well as upstarts in the city’s diverse performance scene.

He has created studio shots of Gallim Dance, Skybetter + Associates and Zvidance, among others, and in 2011 alone, he has photographed WestFest at Cunningham Studios, Dance From the Heart for Dancers Responding to Aids, The Gotham Dance Festival at The Joyce Theater, and assisted Nel Shelby Productions in filming Vail International Dance Festival.

Duggan often teams up with his talented wife and Pillow videographer Nel Shelby (http://nelshelby.com). A New York City-based husband and wife dance documentation team, they are equipped to document performances, create and edit marketing videos and choreography reels, and much more.

Christopher Duggan Photography also covers Manhattan’s finest wedding venues, the Metropolitan and Tri-State areas, and frequently travels to destination weddings. The company’s mission is straightforward and heartfelt – create timeless, memorable images of brides, grooms, their families and friends, and capture special moments of shared love, laughter and joy.

His photographs appear in The New York Times, Destination I Do, Photo District News, Boston Globe, Financial Times, Dance Magazine, Munaluchi Bridal, and Bride & Bloom, among other esteemed publications and popular wedding blogs. One of his images of Bruce Springsteen was added to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s celebrated photography collection in 2010. His company has been selected for inclusion in “The Listings” in New York Weddings magazine.

From the Mouths of Babes: Creative Choice Making and Children

December 21, 2011 by Kimberly Peterson

Hello and happy holidays to you all. I apologize for the lack of posts, but have been busy with an internship at the MN Children’s Museum and getting some much needed perspective.

This time, spent partially observing children in active play and engaged in learning while creating, has opened my eyes to the skills of active choice making involved in creative play.

Playing is learning for children and is directly derived from their ability to make assumptions, try them out, learn from them and engage in the decision making process with others. It is their opportunity to learn from, socialize with, engage in and develop their sense of self and to context that self within their understanding of the world.

This doesn’t really change all that much when you become an adult either, though adults get far less constructive and creative play time than children tend to. Creative play is one of the amazing elements exemplified in contact improvisation.

The video below captures perfectly the duality of play, creative choice making and learning:

Immediately, we see active choice making from the little one. At :18 we see a decision to find a connection, seek hand holds and shift weight in an appropriate way to execute that choice. At :21, :25 and :32 we see her decide to leave that position – even using “safe arms” on her way out, to maintain a physical connection with her partner, make independence choices away from her partner, but re-engaging contact. At :38 there is a serious test of trust between the two partners – trust that is rewarded with a brilliant series of movement in :50, 1:43, 1:55 and 2:43 and carries over to her new partner at the end of the clip. [Read more…]

Making Space To Make Dances

December 19, 2011 by 4dancers

by Lauren Warnecke

When I write, my environment is really important. There are two spots in my house that I like to sit and write: the dining room table and the desk in my office. When those aren’t working, there’s always the neighborhood coffee shop and my desk at work. I’m not sure what it is about those spaces in particular, but something about the “energy” of those spots let’s me write.

ThodosWinter-0438 — Katie Matteson and Vienna Willems performing Lauren's latest work, Grind. Photo by Kelly Rose/ Savage Rose Photography

If you want to make dances, you need space….

… and you don’t always have a choice of what that space will look like or if the “energy” there will be conducive to creating. As a dancemaker, there are restrictions to the types of workspace you can use. There are considerations such as having a safe floor, a convenient location, and finding something that’s affordable and matches up with your dancers’ schedules. These are things that just don’t factor in to other creative endeavors like music or writing.

As a result, we sometimes find ourselves in strangely shaped rooms with polls, late at night, where we’re forced to crank out as much material as we can in one or two hours.

In other words, there are obvious challenges to finding physical space to make dances. However, more and more programs are becoming available to offer rehearsal space to choreographers for little or no money. In Chicago alone, there are several programs such as LinkUp and DanceBridge that you can apply for to receive free rehearsal space in exchange for volunteer hours. Additionally, there is a long list of alternative affordable spaces that are really suitable for dance.

You might also consider joining an artists’ cooperative. By paying a monthly “share” of a workspace, you give yourself consistent access to a space you’re comfortable in, and often end up paying less than the hourly rate you might pay somewhere else. [Read more…]

Dance In The UK: Auditions For EDge

December 16, 2011 by 4dancers

by Jessica Wilson

The London School of Contemporary Dance’s postgraduate performance company, EDge, is preparing to invest in auditions in cities across North America for 2012-2013, continuing to widen international dance connections and develop the art form we all know and love.

Additionally, auditions will be taking place for other postgraduate and undergraduate programmes at The Place, extending this investment across the breadth of London Contemporary Dance School and connecting dance further. It is the third year of their holding of auditions in the States, with a number of American students currently company members of EDge, extending dance horizons positively in the direction of further development.

Auditions for EDge have been held yearly in the UK and Europe for both postgraduate and undergraduate programmes, with the transition to incorporate US auditions extending dance even further. As the cultural context of dance continues to widen, the future of dance looks extremely bright indeed.

Throughout dance history – and ballet and modern dance particularly – practitioners have travelled extensively, spreading their dance influence and initiating their own dance strands within distinctly differing countries. From Isadora Duncan to George Balanchine and beyond, dance contexts have gradually developed and flourished beyond conception through choreographic and training work in many different cultural contexts. The investment of London Contemporary Dance School in auditions within North America is a clear symptom of an increasingly global approach to contemporary dance training. EDge, amongst many other dance companies, is continuing this through their international auditions and further through the appointment of American artistic director Jeanne Yasko in September 2010. [Read more…]

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