Many years ago Sharon Mansur and I came up with 20 things that we thought were important things to think about when making a dance. I am going to publish them as we wrote them but perhaps they deserve some more thought. These are things that annoyed and frustrated us when we watched dance concerts.
1. NO Reaching
2. Don't looking meaningfully unless it means something
3. Move from your core
4. Go off vertical often
5. Don't show something, do something
6. Pay attention to phrasing, especially watch stops or pauses between phrases
7. Do not give subtle messages, be very clear
8. Don't substitute powerful music/sound for physicality
9. Falling on the floor and jumping does not always translate into being physical
10. If you don't have to build up your stamina to get through your choreography then it is too easy and will look that way
11. Don't slap markers of meaning on your work in terms of its artistic importance
12. Don't hear silence
13. Your first impulse is no different from a first draft of a paper. While there may be something important there you can make it better by developing your ideas
14. Show yourself and allow the form to shape your work
15. Challenge yourself when you make work. Push yourself to experiment
16.Take risks even if the outcome is not so good. The more dances you make the better your skill becomes
17. Make a statement and commit to it
18. Your unique perspective lies in the details
19. Let the dance take you places that you don't control, let the process teach you something you did not know
20. Come to some conclusion or give some insight, the age of abstraction was in the 1960's make work about and influenced by now
Since 2005 when the first wedding dance video went viral I have thought that there is something changing in the nature of weddings. One can't deny that the push for and against same sex marriage has some influence over this however small. Actually one can deny whatever they want just look at those who deny that President Obama is an American and deny that he has not produced and birth certificate. Somehow they believe that this stunt masks their overt racism. There is something delightful about seeing this new viral wedding dance video break with the traditional procession but it is still a procession and as my friend Randa said still "heteronormative" but unlike the 2005 video this one takes place inside the church and not at the reception. I suspect that there will be more weddings that not only dismantle the courtly traditions but also introduce new ideas that become integrated into traditional weddings. Of course the context of their performance had a lot to do with the shock/surprise/unusual nature of the dance as it was combining the sacred and the secular and eliminating traditions of the familial roles and the father's possessiveness and ownership of the bride who is publicly given to the husband. However as an artist I am delighted that dance is so popular and at the same time can't help but feel jealous that another dance video by non-dancers has gone viral. Eventhough I know that what makes these videos interesting is the fact that they are being performed by non-trained dancers. Trained dancers like those in the new Dancemedia reality series Dance212 fails to do the one thing that makes reality tv interesting to watch, it does not make you cringe. It is a show about beautiful wonderful dancers doing beautiful wonderful things, BORING!!!! What is up with the 80's intro and cheesy green screen AND when you are editing video, keep it moving people no one wants to read a lot of text in a video. Hey, I know it was made for 12 year old's but still. . .
First Viral Wedding Video
JK Wedding Entrance Dance
Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stevens have had yearly Weddings since 2005
Dance 212
The Show Mus Go On- Jerome Bel
I remember watching Jerome Bel's "The Show Must Go On" and hating it because he used non-dancers and basically interpreted the words to every song in sometimes interesting but always repetitive ways. However, now I feel that Mr Bel may have discovered something that I am a afraid of and that is creating a compelling dance may not that hard despite all of the hell I went through in learning to do it. As some of you know I posted hundreds of dance videos on my website danceaday.com but my karaoke video still got thousands more views and many more comments than my dance videos. It just makes me wonder what I can do to bring dance as a art form to the masses. I will just have to get more inventive perhaps I should make a wedding dance video.
