• Home
  • About
    • Foot in Mouth
    • Apollinaire Scherr
    • Contact
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

Foot in Mouth

Apollinaire Scherr talks about dance

Guess who’s giving the keynote address at the Dance Critics Association’s annual conference?

July 13, 2010 by Apollinaire Scherr 2 Comments


ME!

I hope you can make it.


The talk will be at the Kimmel Center at NYU this very Friday July 16 at 9:30 AM for about an hour.

The Kimmel is at 60 Washington Square South, near the 4th Street stop for the A, C, E, B, D, F, M; the 8th Street stop for the N, R, and W; the Astor Place stop for the 6; and not far from the Union Square stop for N, R, Q, W, 4, 5, 6.

The topic is big: how to write criticism that leaves room for dance’s future. My answers are provisional, hopeful and possibly cause for debate and fuming.

The DCA has joined forces and resources this year with the World Dance Alliance, so I will be thinking of “dance” as largely as I know how. But there will be some time afterward for you to offer your own thoughts.


So, how to attend?

The DCA board has very kindly allowed Foot in Mouth readers to pay the markedly reduced price of $8 for the talk. Just click here and pay in advance. The receipt functions as your ticket. This means you cannot just show up and pay. Have to do it in advance. (The linked html, for the luddites among us, is http://www.dancecritics.org/conferencepayment-scherr.html)

Later, you can apply the $8 towards the price of the whole conference or toward a pass to the sessions on a given day–and pay on the premises. The conference runs from Friday July 16 until Sunday July 18. You may also pay $15 for additional individual sessions on any day.

There are several conferences I think will be fantastic. Namely:


On FRIDAY (July 16) @ Kimmel


11-12:30 noon – Classical Indian Dance: Vocabulary and Critical Questions. This panel and demonstration is designed to give dance critics a deeper vocabulary for and understanding of classical Indian dance with particular reference to Bharatanatyam, the paradigm of classical Indian dance. Participants include Sunil Kothari, Rajika Puri, Malini Srinivasan, Preeti Vasudevan, Robert Abrams and Maya Chadda. The session includes a demonstration of elements common to classical Indian dance styles as well as a discussion of what it means to critique Indian dance, including issues such as whether a critique of Indian dance written from a pure dance perspective is a sign of respect; whether a knowledge of the aesthetic intent of Indian dance improves critiques of dance, Indian or otherwise; and the state of dance criticism in India.

3:15-4:45 p.m. – A Panel on Dance, Politics and Activism. Participants: Janet Eilber, artistic director of the Martha Graham Dance Company; choreographer Jane Comfort; scenic designer Bjorn G. Amelan representing the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company; and Myna Mukherjee, producer of the Engendered Festival. The panel has been organized by Robert Johnson of the New Jersey Star-Ledger.


SATURDAY (July 17) @ Dance Theater Workshop (on 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues)


1-2:25 p.m. Cultural Exchange in 2010
Participants: Eiko (Eiko & Koma), writer Valerie Gladstone, presenter Baraka Sele, writer Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Urban Bush Woman chief Jawole Zollar, and writer Lori Ortiz (moderator). Today’s artist is increasingly cosmopolitan. People from all cultures and subcultures tell their own stories now. It was not long ago that art of “other” cultures served as subject matter. Now, instead, we have little use for the word ‘other’ and we aspire to genuine dialogue. Cultural exchange has become a survival tactic for critics too.


SUNDAY (July 18) @ DTW

12:15-1:45 p.m. – Dance, Technology, and the Law: brown bag lunch session (BYO)
The panel will address issues involving the intersection of law, technology, and dance. The discussion will focus primarily on copyright issues in the world of dance. The discussion will largely center around the Dance Heritage Coalition’s Fair Use Statement — how it was compiled, its content, and how it is put into practice. Obstacles to the dance field’s legacy materials being available for research, teaching, and public programs will also be discussed.


For complete information on the DCA conference this weekend, click here.

To register for all or part of the conference, click here.

And, again, to get a ticket to my talk (which you can later apply to more complete registration), click here.


Hope to see you there.

Filed Under: main

Comments

  1. lori says

    July 19, 2010 at 9:02 pm

    Hi Apollinaire,
    I really enjoyed your speech at DCA. I wrote down many memorable lines and shared some with Facebook friends. Among them:
    “Critics ought to allow dance its future.”
    Consider that “the dance might actually be working at boring you.”
    I think you did a great job of offering critics some guidance for bettering the craft, in a way that was seductive rather than preachy.
    Thanks!
    [Apollinaire responds]
    Dear Lori,
    Thank you so much. I’m so glad you came and were intrigued–and didn’t find it preachy. It was a challenge to figure out where to aim–at people who have been reviewing for a long time or those who are just beginning. So I’m glad you weren’t bored.
    warm wishes (or maybe I should say cool wishes, given the heat),
    apollinaire

    Reply
  2. John Briner says

    August 25, 2010 at 12:20 am

    Hi Apollinaire,
    Have you been in touch with the Electronica School of Dance in Boston? They are developing the culture of dance similar to you. You may want to share and exchange ideas.
    John Briner
    Boston, MA
    Dear John,
    Thank you for the information–what an interesting name for a dance school! I’ll check it out.
    Best,
    Apollinaire

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Apollinaire Scherr

is the New York-based dance critic for the Financial Times. She has written regularly for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Newsday, as well as SF Weekly and the East Bay Express, in the Bay Area. She has contributed to... Read More…

Foot in Mouth

This blog's concern is the tricky business of recognizing dance's peculiar language and history … [Read More...]

Archives

Return to top of page

an ArtsJournal blog

This blog published under a Creative Commons license

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in