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Stance on dance: creating dialogue and community around dance
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Stance on dance: creating dialogue and community around dance
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Content
Stance on Dance: Creating Dialogue and Community around Dance
by
Emmaly Clare Wiederholt
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM)
May 2014
Copyright 2014 Emmaly Clare Wiederholt
2
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 3
Abstract 4
Introduction 5
My Stance on Dance 7
My Audience: The Dance Community 10
Evolution of Content 12
Measuring Site Traffic 25
Examples of Designs 31
Integration of New Design 33
Monetization 42
Conclusions 50
Bibliography 52
Appendix A 55
Appendix B 60
3
Acknowledgements
I am greatly indebted to Dan Knox and Cindy Surdez, who in many ways have facilitated this
entire thesis by their generosity and support. I am thankful to Sasha Anawalt, Matthew Le
Veque, Gabe Kahn, Jon Vidar and David Lopez for their guidance. Most of all I am thankful to
the people who have regularly contributed to Stance on Dance over the past two years, especially
Maggie Stack, Jake Padilla, Liz Brent, Ryan Kelley, Julia Cost, Gregory Bartning, and Angela
Mazziotta. Lastly, I am grateful to those who I know read every post – Malinda LaVelle, Cathy
Intemann, and David Wiederholt.
4
Abstract
This is the redevelopment of Stance on Dance (stanceondance.com), a website I began in March
2012 to address what I perceive to be a lack of written dialogue around dance that effectively
responds to the issues and challenges facing the dance community and ecosystem. This thesis
covers the content development, an assessment of the readership, the integration of a new design,
and the first steps toward monetization.
5
Introduction
Stance on Dance (stanceondance.com) is not primarily for and about dance; it’s primarily for and
about the dance community. It focuses on the issues, observations, comical absurdities,
obstacles, frustrations, and most importantly the passion that drives the members of the dance
community to do what they love to do.
I launched Stance on Dance in March 2012. After starting danceinthebayarea.blogspot.org in
2009, I began writing reviews, previews, and informational pieces for the San Francisco Bay
Guardian, the San Francisco Examiner, and In Dance. Through these experiences I came to the
conclusion that most dance writing and discourse is comprised mainly of reviews and previews
that are seldom read and often perpetuate the status quo, with ballet receiving the most coverage
and small alternative freelance-based dance companies rarely mentioned. Stance on Dance
deliberately does not feature reviews or previews, but instead features perspectives of people
throughout the dance ecosystem, funny morsels mocking dance stereotypes, and other creative
contributions relating to dance.
Beyond being an avid dance supporter, advocate, journalist and enthusiast, I am an active dance
artist in the community about which I write. I have trained in dance since age five. I attended the
University of Utah and received a BFA in Ballet and a BS in Political Science before moving to
San Francisco to study under Summer Lee Rhatigan at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance.
In Utah I performed for two years with the Character Dance Ensemble, which toured
internationally, and for three years with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the Christmas
6
productions, which aired on PBS. In 2008, I danced with Vabang Dance Company for a season
and, from 2009 to 2011, with Alyce Finwall Dance Theater, regularly performing in the Bay
Area and New York. During that time I also had the pleasure of dancing for choreographers Amy
Lewis, Christine Cali, David Dorfman with AXIS Dance Company, and Katie Faulkner with the
Little Seismic Dance Company. In addition, I trained extensively under Alex Ketley, Christian
Burns and Shinichi-Iova-Koga. In 2009, I joined Project Thrust as a founding member under the
direction of Malinda LaVelle, and I danced with this avant-garde dance-theater company until
2013, when I moved to Los Angeles to work toward my Master’s degree in Specialized
Journalism (The Arts) at the University of Southern California. My understanding of dance as a
writer is enmeshed in a life wholly devoted to its pursuit.
7
My Stance on Dance
I question the efficacy of reviews in generating substantive conversation around dance for the
following reasons.
1. Reviews often end up cut into bite-size quotes, taken out of context, and quoted as
subtext on propaganda.
2. Though it is sometimes argued that reviews are valuable because they generate feedback
and response, when I interviewed fifteen contemporary choreographers on what sorts of
feedback and response they crave, many responded that their most valued source of
feedback came from peers and non-dancers (See Appendix A).
3. Reviews are often based on aesthetic preferences; they are more a reflection of the
reviewer than of the choreographer.
4. It used to be that dance reviews functioned as a source of information about a particular
artist. Now, when the public wants to learn about a dance artist, they don’t sift through
press. They simply go to YouTube or Vimeo. Reviews as a source of information are
most effective for dance that predates video.
5. Several critics used to see shows and write reviews, so the variety of voices leveled out
the power one bad review had. This is no longer the case. Because of the downsizing of
newspapers, most dance critics are freelance, and there are only a handful in even the
biggest cities. The result is that the largest dance institutions might only get two to three
reviews per show. Smaller dance companies are lucky to get reviewed at all.
8
I see dance-writing as a form of documentation. And because video has become a more useful
tool for documenting dance than writing, I generally find reviews obsolete from a documentary
standpoint. But a camera can only capture a performance or rehearsal; what cannot be captured
on camera is the culture of dance. Who are the presenters and how do they wield power and
change the landscape? What presentation models are effective for engaging audiences? How are
we training young dancers? How is dance portrayed in mainstream culture? What does it mean to
age through dance? Essentially, what are we doing and why are we doing it? It feels necessary to
tackle these questions in writing, as it serves as a form of documentation of the times we live in
as dancers.
And who better to tackle these questions than dance artists themselves? I believe every artist in
the dance field has something interesting to say, and that the aggregate of these perspectives
paint a portrait of dance culture more reflective of the dance environment than one critic alone
can convey. My goal with Stance on Dance is to reframe written dance discourse to have as
many voices weighing in as possible.
Stance on Dance is by the people for whom it exists. It is comprised of approximately 40 (and
counting) dancers weighing in on what’s happening in dance and why it matter to them. They are
my friends, my community. I just happen to head the conversation. In no way am I the
conversation alone.
9
The James Irvine Foundation published a report in 2011, Getting in on the Act, which describes
how audience engagement is moving from spectator based to audience-as-artist (James Irvine
Foundation 2011). Stance on Dance very much follows this model.
Info graphic from the James Irvine Foundation: Getting in on the Act
I firmly believe that if we are going to have conversations about what it means to pursue dance,
then we need active dance artists giving voice to what matter to them.
10
My Audience: The Dance Community
The dance community is more than a collection of professionals or people with similar interests.
It is so porous as to be self-defining. It has elders, youth and dabblers on the periphery. Some
dance artists work full time in companies, while others take on freelance projects and moonlight
to support themselves. Some zealously pursue dance, while others drop in to occasional classes
or performances. Some have trained since the age of three while others started dancing last
month. Regardless of professional status or experience level, Stance on Dance is for and about
this wide net of people whose love for dance has shaped them and continues to be a force in their
lives.
In the greater San Francisco Bay Area, which I am choosing as an example because it has a well-
established dance ecosystem and is the location of the bulk of my professional experience, there
are 799 dance organizations, according to a recent census report (Dancers’ Group 2012). At
ODC Dance Commons, between 13,000 and 15,000 people visit a year with 2,000 people
dropping in for classes per week on average (Menard 2013). The Alonzo King LINES Dance
Center reports that in the 2012 fiscal year 3,544 people took class, 635 whom it identified as
professional dancers (Wright 2013).
While prominent institutions like ODC or LINES are commonly thought of as epicenters, dance
activity is actually distributed throughout smaller venues and projects with little revenue. The
Dancers’ Group census found that 60% of the 799 dance organizations in the Bay Area operate
on a budget of less the $50,000 a year
(Dancers’ Group 2012). For example, The Garage, a small
11
black box theater, provides 100 dance artists with free or discounted rehearsal and performance
space each year (Landini 2013). These numbers suggest the degree to which dance depends on
the generosity and passion of its members for financial survival. Most dance artists do not
primarily live off their art.
12
Evolution of Content
Stance on Dance began in March of 2012 on Wordpress.com. I purchased the domain
stanceondance.com. My good friend Maggie Stack, a dancer for ODC Dance Company, drew a
cartoon which quickly became Stance on Dance’s logo on Facebook and Twitter. The logo
depicts a bad ballet dancer. Her back is swayed, her wrists and elbows wilt, her head is thrown
back, and yet she is eager. This was intentional on our part, because we felt it signaled that
Stance on Dance is not about professionalism in dance but about people eager to share what they
love to do. I set up a Facebook and Twitter page to facilitate sharing, and readers could
additionally subscribe via RSS feed or email.
Stance on Dance’s logo; drawing by Maggie Stack
13
Stance on Dance on Facebook
Stance on Dance on Twitter
14
Stance on Dance has essentially been a big experiment. I knew I didn’t want reviews, previews,
or promotional pieces, but I have otherwise been open to trying different types of content.
Originally I updated Stance on Dance three times a month and featured an essay, an interview,
and the Bunion.
The Bunion plays off of The Onion (a parody news print and online publication). There is very
little humorous content generated around dance, and yet there are endless jokes to be made about
dance stereotypes. Maggie Stack volunteered to draw cartoons for The Bunion. The first Bunion
spoofed San Francisco Ballet. SF Ballet is constantly soliciting, and Maggie and I thought it
would be funny if SF Ballet, in its desperation, took up residency at The Garage. Joe Landini,
director of the Garage and an important advocate in Bay Area dance, was prominently featured
in the first Bunion. Through employing humor I have been able to poke at norms (like ballet’s
soliciting and comparative mass of resources) that would otherwise read offensively if I wrote it
in analytical form. The Bunion allows me freedom to critique aspects of dance culture without
coming across as disparaging.
15
The Bunion spoof on The Garage and SF Ballet; drawing by Maggie Stack
A particularly popular Bunion that first generated substantial traffic to Stance on Dance and
continues to bring in a few hits a day was a spoof on dance belts. This was the first post to garner
serious traffic; Dance UK reposted it. This was a tipping point, the moment I first realized my
content had appeal.
16
Excerpt from The Bunion spoof on dance belts; drawing by Maggie Stack
Poking fun at the dance community generated interest in Stance on Dance because my audience
was so entertained by the material that they shared it with friends on social media. The dance
belt spoof furthered our brand as humorous, which as I later read in Guy Kawasaki’s book about
entrepreneurship, The Art of the Start, is one of the surest ways to foster a community (Kawasaki
2004, 176). Kawasaki said, if you want to build a brand, one of the best options is to “make fun
of yourself” (Kawasaki 2004, 178).
Another early feature was Measure the Music. Jake Padilla, a professional musician and friend of
mine, was quick to point out the close relationship between music and dance, and volunteered to
put together a regular feature called Measure the Music. Measure the Music features a particular
measure from a piece of music, and poetically offers food for thought.
17
An example of Measure the Music, by Jake Padilla
A month or two after Stance on Dance was launched, I was approached by Julia Cost, a
choreographer and visual artist, about including some of her work on the blog. Similarly, dancer,
costumer and visual artist Liz Brent approached me about contributing comics. This opened the
door for photography, film, poetry, and other creative responses to dance. Professional
photographer Gregory Bartning offered to share his photography, which led to featuring a dance
photographer a month for over the course of a year. Kaitlin Parks, dancer and choreographer,
asked to share a short film she had put together.
Later I would decide to discontinue most of this creative content, as I felt it was random and not
tied to a larger idea. The inclusion of it on the site was one of my first experiments in content. I
18
later learned it was not as effective as other content like the interviews or the Bunion in
generating readership.
The growth of visual content on Stance on Dance, however, was also important for building
audience and traffic. According to Jeff Bullas, articles that include an image will statistically get
94 percent more page views
(Bullas 2012). It is now mandatory that every Stance on Dance post
include at least one visual image.
Visual art contribution by Julia Cost
19
Comic contributed by Liz Brent
Photographic contribution by Gregory Bartning
20
In June of 2012, three months after the site’s launch when I felt I had adequately established its
presence, I began approaching dance artists to see if they would be interested in contributing to
Stance on Dance. I sought out dance artists I knew to have a unique perspective. I asked Derek
Harris who had just opened a new studio to write about the challenges of opening and running a
dance space. I asked Emily Withenbury, a dancer for ZiRu Productions, to compare
contemporary dance in China with contemporary dance in the United States, as she regularly
travelled to China to perform. Mei-Ling Murray, another dancer, wrote about her experience
piloting a project called Movement Exchange that brought college dance students to Panama to
learn and teach. These contributions were essential in the next step of Stance on Dance’s growth;
they were posted broadly on Facebook because the contributors wanted to share their
contributions with friends and family, consequently bringing more traffic to the blog. In Here
Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky elaborates on the idea of contributors and community: “The
community is drawn from the ranks of the contributors, but the community is not the same as the
contributors” (Shirky 2008, 278). This idea holds true for Stance on Dance, that the contributors
are representative of the larger community Stance on Dance serves.
In the summer of 2012, I introduced another piece of humorous content: the Dance-Flask
Listings. A friend of mine, Ryan Kelley, who is not a dancer but a marketer, thought the idea of
listing upcoming shows along with what one might bring in a flask to them would be a fun way
of featuring performances without outright promoting any particular artist. The Dance-Flask
Listings, as they came to be called, have been a hit, with dance artists regularly emailing me
requesting to be “flasked.”
21
Example of two Dance-Flask Listings
In this way Stance on Dance’s content grew to include a variety of content from several different
contributors; the blog is now updated every Monday and Thursday with a new post. While I
decided to discontinue the creative contributions, other content like the essays from different
dance artists and the flask listings have generally been successful. With growth I began to
envision Stance on Dance as more than a blog I ran on the side; perhaps it could eventually grow
into a larger-scale online publication about dance.
Since 2008, I have worked in an administrative capacity for Dan Knox Consulting, a computer
consulting company. Dan and his wife are patrons of the San Francisco Ballet and have been
generous in allowing me to flexibly work part-time for them while I pursue dance jobs. Dan is
22
supportive of Stance on Dance, and offered to host it on his servers through GoDaddy. Cindy
Surdez, an employee of Dan’s who handles web design for clients, converted Stance on Dance
from wordpress.com to wordpress.org in July 2013. Though the look and domain of the site
remained the same, this conversion was an enormous gift because it allowed me to grow Stance
on Dance outside of the auspice of Wordpress. However, Stance on Dance still uses the
Wordpress software on the backside of the site.
The last part of Stance on Dance’s evolution prior to this thesis was the introduction of content
series. In August of 2013, I asked eight dancers at different points of their careers to write about
what “making it” as a dancer meant and if they felt they had “made it.” The resulting
contributions were enormously popular and showed me how powerful having several artists
weigh in on one topic could be.
Kelvin Vu on “making it” as a dancer
23
One of the “making it” contributors, Kelvin Vu, is very well connected on social media, and his
contribution garnered sizeable sharing and distribution. His contribution was shared 643 times;
he has 2,345 Facebook friends. Lewis Howes writes on Entrepreneur.com that, “Online
influencers are people who have a dynamic personality that comes across online and they
command the respect of other key players in their niche”
(Entrepreneur 2014). Kelvin is a great
example of how a key player in a niche like dance can affect audience and reach.
A series still in the works is a project I am working on with photographer Gregory Bartning in
which we are interviewing and photographing dancers over the age of 50. We have interviewed
ten artists in the San Francisco Bay Area, are extending the project to Los Angeles in April 2014,
and eventually to Portland and Seattle through summer 2014. The project aims to challenge
popular perceptions around dance as a youth-oriented pursuit and demonstrate that there is grace
and beauty in a body of any age. See Appendix B for an example of a full interview.
24
Excerpt from interview with Anna Halprin
These last examples of content series are where I see Stance on Dance growing in the future.
They engage several perspectives around a particular issue. For example, in May of 2014 I am
doing a series on male dancers confronting stereotypes around being gay and feminine in dance.
Allowing for many different points of views fleshes out an issue beyond featuring only one
artist’s story.
I continue to experiment with content. The Bunion used to be very local, now it is broad and
more universal. I am currently playing with how to do something similar to the flask listings to
make them less locale-based but built on performance stereotypes instead. I also want to tweak
Measure the Music to be less abstract and more direct. It is an ongoing process, and with time I
am learning what content best engages the dance community in dialogue.
25
Measuring Site Traffic
Measuring the traffic on Stance on Dance is complicated by the fact that there have been three
permutations of the site to date, and statistics have been lost with each new permutation. When
Stance on Dance was converted from Wordpress.com to Wordpress.org in July of 2013, the stats
from the prior 14 months were lost. This past New Year’s 2014, Stance on Dance broke again
due to an error in the Wordpress code. Thanks to Cindy Surdez, Stance on Dance was able to be
restored via backups and reinstalling Wordpress. However, statistics prior to January 10, 2014
were lost. This was a difficult but important lesson: back up everything continually. I had backed
up all of the posts and images, but I had neglected to save my statistical history and email
followers.
Despite losing my stats, one way I can still gauge which posts are most successful is via
Facebook. 70.6 percent of traffic is through Facebook, by far the largest distributor of Stance on
Dance’s content. Below are the most popular posts by number of Facebook shares:
1. “A Way of Life: An Interview with Anna Halprin, “ posted on 11/25/13, -- 970 Facebook
shares
2. “The Problem with Making It,” by Kelvin Vu, posted on 9/26/13 -- 643 Facebook shares
3. “Looking Forward, Looking Back: A Recap of the SF Older Dancer Interviews,” posted
on 12/2/13 -- 310 Facebook shares
4. “This Dance is Still Being Made,” by Katie Faulkner, posted on 8/29/13 -- 244 Facebook
shares
26
5. “Find a Way to Make it Happen: An Interview with Bonnie Lewkowicz,” posted on
10/17/13 -- 234 Facebook shares
6. “The Magical Land of Making It,” by Andrea Thompson, posted on 9/12/13 -- 155
Facebook shares
7. “This Year I’m Growing: An Interview with Randee Paufve,” posted on 11/17/13 -- 135
Facebook shares
8. “That’s When I Know I’ve Made It,” by Stephanie Salts, posted on 9/5/13 -- 129
Facebook shares
9. “Photographer Pak Han,” posted on 11/24/12 -- 100 Facebook shares
10. “The Coolest People on Earth,” by Katie Florez, posted on 9/5/13 -- 96 Facebook shares
These posts did well because the contributor or interviewee is well-connected and online. While
social media is important to Stance on Dance, it is by no means the most important measure of
its success. If contributors and interviewees want to share their content, I encourage them, but I
will never not include a voice because it is unpopular or probably won’t drive traffic. How can I
host a series on “making it” and the unsustainable baselessness of that idea if I am trying to
“make it” by accruing traffic to measure my success? I also recognize that traffic is crucial and
steadily building an audience is imperative toward my goal to monetize Stance on Dance.
Nevertheless, I am cautious about having the “numbers” determine the content.
However, Matthew Le Veque, Associate Professor of Professional Practice in Public Relations at
the University of Southern California, offers a different perspective on the question of
popularity-driven journalism. He says it is a duty to try to gain an audience no matter how niche
27
or large it may be. He asks what the purpose of publishing is if I am not trying to reach the
broadest audience, no matter how small the niche. A way to do this is to maximize SEO on
Google. Google reports that there are over 200 factors they look at to determine if the content
matches a user’s search query. One of the factors Google looks at is the freshness of content.
While Google frequently changes its SEO algorithms, one clear aid in increasing SEO is to have
regularly updated content. Because Stance on Dance is updated only twice a week, I added a
Twitter feed widget to more routinely update the site’s content, as I update the Stance on Dance
Twitter feed daily. Twitter increases the freshness of the site and its social signal (along with
Facebook). Great content, freshness, strong social signals, backlinks and Google+ are all part of
the ranking signals Google looks at to determine SEO.
28
Embedded Twitter feed
Despite my lack of historical statistics from Stance on Dance, these are site stats over the last 90
days from Google Analytics as of Tuesday, March 11, 2014:
Average bounce rate: 59.97%
New visitors: 66.7%
29
Returning visitors: 33.7%
Average number of pages viewed per visit: 5.62 pages
The United States drove 80 percent of the traffic, with most of it, unsurprisingly, in Los Angeles,
New York and San Francisco. Other visitors are from London, Irvine, Chicago, and Seattle and
from other countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany.
Referrals (like Facebook and Twitter) constitute 73.7 percent of the traffic, while 15.6 percent of
the traffic is direct and 10.7 percent is organic (through SEO). Stance on Dance is averaging 118
hits per day for March 2014.
Averages per day from Wordpress Jetpack
30
From Google Analytics
Stance on Dance has steadily grown over the past two years, and with increased traffic it was
time for it to take on a more professional look and feel. I was ready to redesign the site.
Examples of Designs
In researching new possible designs, two blogs struck me as solid examples for the kind of
online publication to which Stance on Dance
(africasacountry.com) and Culturebot
are easy to navigate, clearly showcase sharing icons, have an embedded Twitter fe
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and contain fun engaging content from a variety of
contributors.
In researching new possible designs, two blogs struck me as solid examples for the kind of
Stance on Dance might one day aspire: Africa is a Country
Culturebot (www.culturebot.org). Both effectively use whitespace,
are easy to navigate, clearly showcase sharing icons, have an embedded Twitter fe
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and contain fun engaging content from a variety of
Africa is a Country
31
In researching new possible designs, two blogs struck me as solid examples for the kind of
Africa is a Country
). Both effectively use whitespace,
are easy to navigate, clearly showcase sharing icons, have an embedded Twitter feed for better
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and contain fun engaging content from a variety of
Culturebot
32
Integration of New Design
Stance on Dance began as a wordpress.com site. The theme, Vigil
was easy to implement, was visually sparse,
Stance
While Vigilance is clean and simple to naviga
navigation; the theme does not allow a drop
included a “search site” widget, but that is only helpful if the reader knows what they are looking
for. Due to the variety of content, it became too long to list all the categories of posts.
The Vigilance theme is not responsive to different
Readers had to scroll and resize the content depending on the device. This was a problem
began as a wordpress.com site. The theme, Vigilance, was selected because it
easy to implement, was visually sparse, and was easy to navigate.
Stance on Dance under Vigilance theme
and simple to navigate, Vigilance is also constrictive in terms of site
navigation; the theme does not allow a drop-down menu, an aspect I found problematic. I
included a “search site” widget, but that is only helpful if the reader knows what they are looking
ent, it became too long to list all the categories of posts.
The Vigilance theme is not responsive to different-sized media devices like tablets and phones.
Readers had to scroll and resize the content depending on the device. This was a problem
33
ance, was selected because it
s also constrictive in terms of site
down menu, an aspect I found problematic. I
included a “search site” widget, but that is only helpful if the reader knows what they are looking
ent, it became too long to list all the categories of posts.
sized media devices like tablets and phones.
Readers had to scroll and resize the content depending on the device. This was a problem
34
because 27.61 percent of Stance on Dance’s visitors accessed the site through iOS and 8.25
percent on Androids according to Google Analytics.
In searching for a new theme I wanted thumbnails of recent posts as opposed to a long scroll so
that recent posts could be easily accessible and have a more magazine-like feel. I also wanted a
clean drop-down menu to aid in site-navigation and a responsive theme that resized to fit
different media devices.
Watson, a theme by The Theme Foundry, includes in its design the changes I was looking to
make. In addition to having above qualities, it has a slider of recent posts which makes the home
page more dynamic visually. It allows me to build my own logo. And it is a much cleaner, more
minimal design than Vigilance.
Watson demo home page
35
Under Vigilance, I had only been able to upload a photo to use as the backdrop behind the name
of the blog. With Watson, I was able to build a logo in Photoshop to make it look more
presentable. For example, in Vigilance the words “Stance on Dance” appeared over the dancer’s
head, stunting the feeling of length from her extended arms. With Watson, the dancer’s right arm
extends above “Stance” and her left arm extends under “Dance,” creating a feeling of symmetry
and grace.
In addition, Vigilance only allowed me to include the subtitle, “Creating dialogue and
community around dance,” by more or less hiding it in the left hand corner. With the redesigned
logo the subtitle pops out and makes clear to readers at once why the site exists: to create
dialogue and community around dance. Guy Kawasaki stresses the important of quickly
transmitting why a product or service exists. Different from a mission statement, he emphasizes
building a mantra that is effective in the event “someone asks your parents or your organization’s
receptionist what you do” (Kawasaki 2004, 8). For Stance on Dance this is, “Creating dialogue
and community around dance.”
Old logo under Vigilance
36
New logo under Watson
Under Vigilance, site navigation had been limited. Watson provided me with the ability to flesh
out a menu to aid in site navigation. In addition to a “home” tab, the “about” page, which had
hitherto been one long page, was broken up into “about us,” “editor-in-chief,” “regular
contributors,” “past contributors,” and “contact.”
37
Old “about” section under Vigilance
The new menu is broken down to “Viewpoints,” “Funny Stuff,” and “Creative Responses.”
“Viewpoints” includes perspectives written by different dance artists and interviews. “Funny
Stuff” includes The Bunion, The Dance-Flask Listings, and video parodies. “Creative
Responses” includes music, artwork, photography, film, and poetry. While creative responses are
not regular content anymore, I felt it important to be able to access them. Lastly, at the
suggestion of Lisa Fung, executive editor of The Wrap, I included a separate tab on the menu for
the Older Dance Project, as it is garnering attention and needs to be easily searchable.
New menu under Watson
38
In addition to enabling site navigation with a drop-down menu, Watson also displayed the posts
on the home page as thumbnails instead of one long blog roll. This is important because it
facilitates browsing. Readers can look through recent posts with relative ease.
Thumbnails under Watson
The Watson home page also features a slider of featured posts, which not only makes the home
page more dynamic, but also allows me to highlight popular posts of interest.
On the old Stance on Dance, I had used rather primitive widgets for social media sharing. On the
new site I installed a plugin that is cleaner to look at because it features the icons for Facebook,
RSS feed, and Twitter.
39
Sharing icons on old design
Sharing icons on new design
Lastly, Watson is a responsive theme, which means it automatically resizes to fit the device
readers are on when they visit the site
Lastly, Watson is a responsive theme, which means it automatically resizes to fit the device
readers are on when they visit the site – whether desktop, laptop, tablet, or smart
How screen loads on desktop
40
Lastly, Watson is a responsive theme, which means it automatically resizes to fit the device that
desktop, laptop, tablet, or smart phone.
41
How screen loads on a tablet or smart phone
Overall I was able to change Stance on Dance’s appearance from a long-blog roll with difficult
site navigation to a magazine-like design with better navigation. It is important that first time
visitors to the site quickly be able to get a feel for the type of content offered. While great
content certainly drives traffic, the packaging something is presented in is almost as important as
the thing itself. By adding more white space, thumbnails, responsive design, navigation aids, and
a slider through the Watson theme, Stance on Dance’s packaging signals to readers that it is
more than a leisurely personal blog.
42
Monetization
My hope is to one day monetize Stance on Dance in order to compensate the contributors and
myself for the work we put into this. In order to gauge what might work or what might not, I
looked into how other dance blogs had monetized.
Competitive Landscape
While there are a number of dance bloggers (visit www.dancebloggers.com for a good
compilation), very few regularly publish credible dance analysis with the intention of monetizing
that content. Several of these are one-author blogs and are updated semi-regularly. For the blogs
that are more serious about content and do attempt to monetize, they differ from Stance on
Dance in that they are primarily review driven, info driven, or genre driven. As stated, Stance on
Dance has no reviews, does not feature informational pieces (i.e. how-to pieces), is not
specifically about one dance genre (like ballet), and does not aggregate content. Because all
content is original and is mostly produced by active dance artists, it is difficult to find other
dance blogs in which Stance on Dance is truly comparable.
This is a list of ten dance blogs or art blogs that include dance. Only included are sites with
original content (though some do aggregate from time to time).
1. Culturebot (www.culturebot.org) - Maximum Performance
Facebook followers: 2,148
Twitter followers: 4,884
Description: Platform for artists, audiences and organizations to share discourse
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Monetization Solutions: Donations through Fractured Atlas, a fiscal sponsor
2. thINKing Dance (thinkingdance.net) – Upping the ante on dance coverage and
conversation
Facebook followers: 481
Twitter followers: 193
Description: Increasing dance coverage in Philadelphia
Monetization Solutions: Not monetized
3. The Ballet Bag (www.theballetbag.com) – Let’s give ballet a new spin!
Facebook followers: 125,179
Twitter followers: 21,033
Description: Ballet reviews, interviews, facts and special interest pieces
Monetization Solutions: Advertising
4. 4dancers (www.4dancers.org) - For dancers, dance teachers, and others interested in
dance
Facebook followers: 1,635
Twitter followers: 11,299
Description: Information, resources, conditioning tips, interviews
Monetization Solutions: Advertising, teams with Dance Advantage
5. Dance Advantage (www.danceadvantage.net) – Giving students, teachers and parents an
EDGE in dance education
Facebook followers: 3,212
Twitter followers: 6,481
Description: Tips and information for dance students and teachers
Monetization Solutions: Advertising, teams with 4dancers
6. Arts Meme (artsmeme.com)
Facebook followers: 703
Twitter followers: 431
Description: Reviews of the arts
Monetization Solutions: Advertising
7. Dance Magazine (www.dancemagazine.com) – If it’s happening in the world of dance
it’s happening here!
Facebook followers: 205K
Twitter followers: 57K
Description: Reviews, resources, fun facts, Q & A, interviews, listings
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Monetization Solutions: Subscriptions and advertising
8. Ballet News (balletnews.co.uk)
Facebook followers: 226K
Twitter followers: 9,364
Description: Ballet reviews, backstage info, resources, interviews
Monetization Solutions: Advertising
9. The Arts Desk (www.theartsdesk.com) – First with arts reviews, news, and interviews
Facebook followers: 3,727
Twitter followers: 9,818
Description: Broad arts coverage
Monetization Solutions: Donations, advertising
10. Art Intercepts (www.artintercepts.org) – Dance Based Discourse
Facebook followers: 413
Twitter followers: 1,017
Description: Dancer health, education, editorial criticism
Monetization Solutions: Advertising, events
Dance Magazine and its syndicates (Pointe, Dance Teacher, and Dance Spirit) dominate the
field of online dance journalism, but Dance Magazine also enjoys a long history of being a print
magazine. Since Stance on Dance is not a print magazine that has been around for decades and
since there are no reviews, Dance Magazine is not a particularly instructive competitor.
Most of the other dance blogs are monetized via advertising. I met Nichelle Suzanne, who runs
Dance Advantage, at the Dance/USA conference in 2012 in a panel devoted to dance blogs. Of
the four panelists, she was the only blogger present who made money from her blog through
advertising, and she reported that it merely supplemented her living expenses.
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The obvious options available for monetization are subscriptions, advertising, and donations.
Stance on Dance is certainly in no position to charge a subscription fee like Dance Magazine.
Other options like advertising or donations might provide a small revenue stream, but the site
does not currently have the audience to make that lucrative, nor do I particularly want people
clicking away from the site so I can earn a few cents. However, with a little ingenuity there may
be other ways to bring in a little revenue.
Case Studies
Case Study One: Dance Advantage and 4dancers – Working in Partnership
Dance Advantage and 4dancers have an interesting solution to the problem of monetizing their
content. They have created a partnership so businesses who advertise on one site automatically
advertise on the other site as well. This allows Dance Advantage and 4dancers to share both their
resources and their networks of readers. 4dancers has a page on their website specifically
intended for potential advertisers:
4dancers will be offering a limited amount of ad space in 2014. We have a direct partnership
with Dance Advantage, and together we reach a very wide dance audience on the web.
Advertising across both sites can be a very effective way to reach your target demographic.
One click is all it takes for someone to be at your site. You can’t get that with a magazine ad or a
radio spot.
Because they have teamed up together, Dance Advantage and 4dancers feature similar
advertisements in similar positioning. For instance, there is currently a banner ad for The Royal
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Opera House’s film of The Sleeping Beauty on the homepage on both sites, and down along the
right hand side follow more advertisements in small boxes.
Working in partnership with another site to combine resources in order to be more lucrative for
advertisers is a smart efficient way of maximizing what one can offer to a possible advertiser,
and it also helps build readers as well. Perhaps Stance on Dance could do this in tandem with an
arts blog in a different genre.
Case Study Two: Art Intercepts – Producing Events
Art Intercepts has an interesting component to their content; they annually host a multi-
disciplinary performance mash up.
From the Arts Intercepts website:
In its fourth year, PRODUCE is a multi-disciplinary experiment for sound and movement
artists to play together. Artists submit completed or in-progress works to be considered for
the series, and selected artists are “mashed” together in various combinations and
conditions over four consecutive performances. Throughout each performance and the
series, the audience has an opportunity to provide real-time feedback, ask questions, figure
out what experimental performance is and how it works, and help to inform the next phase
of the performance (the substance of which is largely decided in the moment). Artists and
audience alike witness the deconstruction and regeneration of existing works thrust into
unforeseen territories as dictated by the hosts.
This is a smart way of creating real-time community around a website, and can serve as a way to
build audience outside of SEO or social media. This in turn puts more eyeballs on those few
advertisements Arts Intercepts has, which equates to more revenue.
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I believe this model of producing events, especially if venue space can be donated, is something
Stance on Dance would be in a position to do. By building connections through dance events
rather than through online networking, people could begin to feel a more meaningful connection
to Stance on Dance and be open to potentially making a private donation or supporting in
another way.
Case Study Three: Culturebot – Donation Button
Though it has no advertising, Culturebot is able to signal to readers through its design and the
quality of its content that it is more than an amateur blog. It is funded entirely by private
donations, with the donate button icon evident at the bottom of every page. It is fiscally
sponsored through Fractured Atlas, which means donations are tax-deductible. Many small arts
organizations are fiscally sponsored. The way it works in a nutshell is that a non-profit
organization like Fractured Atlas fiscally sponsors a small organization like Culturebot.
Culturebot doesn’t have to go through the hassle of setting up a 501C3 for donors to make tax-
deductible donations, and Fractured Atlas in turn takes a small percentage of each donation.
The support page on Culturebot looks like this:
Since our launch on December 1, 2003 Culturebot has been an entirely volunteer effort. Your
support helps pay for hosting costs, writer fees, tech support and operating costs. To make a tax
deductible donation through Fractured Atlas please click on the button below:
The question of whether or not to advertise has become a contentious choice in journalism. Some
journalism sites clutter their content with pop-up ads and several other ads scattered throughout
48
the page. In response, other sites, like Culturebot, make a concerted effort to not monetize
through advertisements that take away from the reader’s experience.
I don’t believe advertising is inherently negative, only that it creates a problem where I want
people to come to my page and then in order for me to make money they have to click away
from it. However, I don’t want to turn Stance on Dance into a non-profit, so I don’t think I will
go the fiscal sponsorship route. However, I do believe finding ways for readers to contribute
through donation incentives could bring in revenue.
First Steps
Jon Vidar, CEO of Unchartered Digital, recommended to me two things to easily begin
monetizing Stance on Dance. First, I set up a donate button via PayPal. This allows supporters of
the site to donate if and when they see fit.
Donate button
Second, I signed up for Google Adsense. Google Adsense approved Stance on Dance as a viable
candidate for advertising and gave me HTML code to include on Stance on Dance where I’d like
the ads to appear. Depending on the number of clicks, Google will reimburse me when readers
49
click on Google’s ads. This is a good fit for Stance on Dance as I have control over what sorts of
ads Google runs, where, and in what quantity they are posted on the site.
Two ads via Google Adsense
Until readership grows more, the PayPal donate button and Google Adsense are small steps I can
take in the direction of one day being able to pay my contributors and myself. However, I am
optimistic that with time I can begin to implement some of these ideas like teaming with another
website, building events around content, and creating incentives for readers to donate.
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Conclusion
Stance on Dance has come a long way since its meager beginnings on Wordpress.com. It now
has 40 contributors (and counting) and continues to gain new voices each month. It has
progressed from Wordpress.com to being independently hosted and is now redeveloped with
responsive design, better site navigation, a more modern look, Google Analytics to track
readership, and the first steps toward monetization.
Stance on Dance has grown in myriad ways, but it continues to be by and for my dance
community. Their support is evident in the number of private emails I have received. Regular
contributor Ryan Kelley recently wrote me, “You are so good at covering your bases and
thinking of others...it needs to be called out. I can't wait to see SoD continue to grow. I love
working with you! Keep breaking barriers, boundaries and minds.” Contributor Elana Jacobs
recently wrote me, “I often think about you and the texture Stance on Dance brings to our
medium!” Contributor Katie Florez recently wrote me, “I think I’ve read everything you’ve put
up on the blog and I’ve really enjoyed it. I feel like there aren’t that many outlets for community
outside of the studio and I think you’ve done a really beautiful job of creating that space with the
variety of stuff of you post. Keeping it insightful and keeping it light too.” Reader Katie Cassady
recently wrote me, “I have been keeping up with your blog and would like to tell you how much
I enjoy it and how relevant I continually find the articles from an emotional and career
viewpoint. I particularly enjoyed the interviews with older dancers. It was so interesting and eye-
opening to hear how other people have navigated their relationships with dance over the
landscape of their lives, and it made me hope that I will similarly find my relationship with dance
51
growing and changing as I grow older.”
It is with these thoughts in mind that I continue to build
Stance on Dance.
52
Bibliography
Brown, Alan, and Jennifer Novak-Leonard. "Getting in on the Act: How arts groups are creating
opportunities for active participation." James Irvine Foundation.
http://irvine.org/images/stories/pdf/grantmaking/Getting-in-on-the-act-2011OCT19.pdf
(accessed February 25, 2014).
Bullas, Jeff. "6 Powerful Reasons Why you Should include Images in your Marketing –
Infographic." Jeffbullass Blog RSS. http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/05/28/6-powerful-reasons-
why-you-should-include-images-in-your-marketing-infographic (accessed February 15, 2014).
Cassady, Katie. Dancer at Project 20. Email to author. Vancouver, British Columbia, January 24,
2014.
Fung, Lisa. Founding editor of Culture Monster, former arts & entertainment editor at Los
Angeles Times, executive editor of The Wrap. Interview by author. Email interview. Los
Angeles, California, February 3, 2014.
Florez, Katie. Student at San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. Email to author. San Francisco,
California, December 27, 2013.
Hazzard, Wayne, Michelle Lynch, Laurie MacDougall, and Kegan Marling. "Dance Activity in
the San Francisco Bay Area." Dancers' Group. http://dancersgroup.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/07/Dance-Activity-in-the-San-Francisco-Bay-Areaweb.pdf (accessed
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January 13, 2014).
Howes, Lewis. "5 Easy Ways to Connect With Online Influencers." Entrepreneur.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227786 (accessed February 15, 2014).
Kawasaki, Guy. The art of the start: the time-tested, battle-hardened guide for anyone starting
anything. New York: Portfolio, 2004.
Jacobs, Elana. Artistic Director of Cabin Fever. Email to author. Seattle, Washington, February
8, 2014.
Kelley, Ryan. Account Specialist at Triad Retail Media. Email to author. Tampa, Florida,
February 7, 2014.
Landini, Joe. Director of The Garage. Interview by author. Email interview. San Francisco,
California, September 15, 2013.
Le Veque, Matthew. Associate Professor of Professional Practice in Public Relations at the
University of Southern California. Interview by author. Personal interview. Los Angeles, January
12, 2014.
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Menard, Lauryn. ODC School Operations Manager. Interview by author. Email interview. San
Francisco, California, September 13, 2013.
Shirky, Clay. Here comes everybody: the power of organizing without organizations. New York:
Penguin Press, 2008.
Vidar, Jon. Founder & CEO at Uncharted Digital; Cofounder & Executive Director of The
Tiziano Project; Adjunct Professor at University of Southern California. Interview by author.
Personal interview. Los Angeles, California, February 6, 2014.
Wright, Jamie. Coordinator at the Alonzo King LINES Dance Center. Interview by author. Email
interview. San Francisco, California, September 16, 2013.
Appendix A
The Art of Watching: An Investigation Into Response & Criticism
by Emmaly Wiederholt
A dance piece has two lives: there is the process culminating in the perfor
is the reception after the performance. And while much attention is focused on process and
product, very little attention is focused on viewership. Yes, how we make and present dance is an
important consideration, but equally importan
While there are many ways of dancing, from ethnic to classical to improvisational, the
contemporary field is perhaps most involved in the making of new dance. So although
understanding viewership is relevant to all dance form
begin inquiring into viewership because most contemporary dance is newly choreographed.
In order to better understand dance viewership, I posed these questions to fifteen contemporary
Bay Area choreographers: “How
do you feel is a valuable response to your work? How do you try to view and approach other
people’s work?” In posing these questions I sought to better understand the dynamics between
choreographer and audience. Below are nine general issues that came up as a result of my
inquiry.
1. Choreographers appreciate and
published and in person.
“To offer ways to open perception, both to the artists and t
the most valuable thing that writers do for dance. It is a rare and wonderful gift for a community
to have a dance critic whose literary voice is balanced by a rigorously studied dance background.
A writer who has personally experienced an extensive physical practice or who has studied dance
theory, history, and the body politic can inevitably lend readers an understanding of a dance’s
subtleties.” -Kara Davis, Project Agora
The Art of Watching: An Investigation Into Response & Criticism
A dance piece has two lives: there is the process culminating in the performance, and then there
is the reception after the performance. And while much attention is focused on process and
product, very little attention is focused on viewership. Yes, how we make and present dance is an
important consideration, but equally important is the art of viewing dance.
While there are many ways of dancing, from ethnic to classical to improvisational, the
contemporary field is perhaps most involved in the making of new dance. So although
understanding viewership is relevant to all dance forms, contemporary dance is an easy place to
begin inquiring into viewership because most contemporary dance is newly choreographed.
In order to better understand dance viewership, I posed these questions to fifteen contemporary
Bay Area choreographers: “How useful is criticism and critique to you and in what form? What
do you feel is a valuable response to your work? How do you try to view and approach other
people’s work?” In posing these questions I sought to better understand the dynamics between
pher and audience. Below are nine general issues that came up as a result of my
and recognize the important of dance criticism,
“To offer ways to open perception, both to the artists and the audiences: it’s the hardest thing and
the most valuable thing that writers do for dance. It is a rare and wonderful gift for a community
to have a dance critic whose literary voice is balanced by a rigorously studied dance background.
ersonally experienced an extensive physical practice or who has studied dance
theory, history, and the body politic can inevitably lend readers an understanding of a dance’s
Kara Davis, Project Agora
55
mance, and then there
is the reception after the performance. And while much attention is focused on process and
product, very little attention is focused on viewership. Yes, how we make and present dance is an
While there are many ways of dancing, from ethnic to classical to improvisational, the
contemporary field is perhaps most involved in the making of new dance. So although
s, contemporary dance is an easy place to
begin inquiring into viewership because most contemporary dance is newly choreographed.
In order to better understand dance viewership, I posed these questions to fifteen contemporary
useful is criticism and critique to you and in what form? What
do you feel is a valuable response to your work? How do you try to view and approach other
people’s work?” In posing these questions I sought to better understand the dynamics between
pher and audience. Below are nine general issues that came up as a result of my
criticism, both
he audiences: it’s the hardest thing and
the most valuable thing that writers do for dance. It is a rare and wonderful gift for a community
to have a dance critic whose literary voice is balanced by a rigorously studied dance background.
ersonally experienced an extensive physical practice or who has studied dance
theory, history, and the body politic can inevitably lend readers an understanding of a dance’s
56
“The observers of art play a vital role in defining the meaning of the work. There is chemistry, an
esoteric relationship that develops when an audience is present. Without this I am not sure what
art would be. To have conversations (criticism and feedback) about what is seen seems
essential.” -KT Nelson, ODC
“I feel very strongly that I’m making work for an audience; I’m making work for people to
watch. Yes it’s important what I want to do but sometimes I can become blinded by what I want
to do and I need an outside eye to say, ‘Well I didn’t get that-in fact no one in the room did.’” -
Jenny McAllister, Thirteenth Floor Dance Theater
2. There is questioning about the conscientiousness of dance reviewers.
“The criticism that I’m attracted to comes from the vantage point of honestly caring about the
person it is being directed towards, and the form in general, for its betterment. In the same way
that dance and art in general draws its strength from a real sense of consciousness, sometimes I
don’t know if I feel like formal dance reviews really understand where they land in the overall
ecology of dance.” -Alex Ketley, The Foundry
“Most choreographers do one really big program a year that is 6-8 months in the making. They
pour all their resources and their self into that program. Then a critic sees it once and puts it in
the paper for 3 million people to read about. And it overshadows everything the choreographer
has done. Somehow the power distribution is off.” -Robert Moses, Robert Moses’ Kin
3. There is a common sense of detachment and passivity toward formal reviews.
“In my earlier days of directing I craved reviews of my work. I felt validation that someone who
writes for any newsprint would come see the show and write about it. After all, if you make
work, someone should review it or it was almost like it never happened. This is how I thought.
Fast forward ten years, and I have toggled between seeking press reviews and not bothering to
put out a press release of any sort. The years when I did not seek press did not seem to affect my
ticket sales or my standing in the dance community.” -Sue Li Jue, Facing East Dance and Music
“Most dance criticism seems to fall down to the very basic and superficial level of initial
responses: good/bad, liked/didn’t like, entertaining/boring, high production values/low
production values, successful at meeting expectations/unsuccessful at meeting expectations, etc.”
– Eric Kupers, Dandelion Dancetheater
4. A primary use of reviews is for generating more performance opportunities.
“At this point dance criticism seems mostly useful to me because if my work is reviewed I can
57
use copies of the reviews in grant proposals. This is a sad state of affairs that I hope can change.”
-Eric Kupers, Dandelion Dancetheater
“Most of the way artists get opportunities is through hearsay. I know several examples of artists
who suddenly had all this work simply because people heard they’re doing great work, and
some of that is from press.” -Catherine Galasso
5. Dance criticism that contextualizes the dance performance is particularly appreciated.
“Because dance is deeply rooted in history, tradition, and discipline, it’s useful when dance
critics write about dance within a context. It situates my work into context with other people’s
work. Other people before me have established their work and their art so that I can move
forward in my own work and art. I appreciate those critics that are able to take and interpret my
work and put it into a larger frame.” -Manuelito Biag, Shift Physical Theater
“I find criticism useful when it provides a context for the insights. Maybe the dance maker’s
history has been researched, or, better still, experienced first-hand. Maybe there is something
else known about the dance maker; perhaps she/he has had a performing career or career outside
the dance world that has informed the work. Are there other works, written, performative, or
otherwise, that are invoked? What are the politics revealed?”
-Christy Funsch, Funsch Dance Experience
6. By and large, most choreographers depend on responses from colleagues and non-
dancers for insight into their work, non-dancer opinions being particularly prized.
“There are two people who I really depend on feedback from. The first is people who say they
don’t know anything about dance but will finally say that one part reminded them of something.
These types of responses are helpful because the person has no patterning about what is good and
bad work. The second type of response I find invaluable is from colleagues who share similar
values. It is a small group of people who I depend on to say ‘this is where your intention gets
lost’ or ‘you bring this out in this dancer.’”
-Nina Haft, Nina Haft and Company
“Some of the most honest, useful, albeit harshest, feedback I’ve received has come from non-arts
people.”
-Randee Paufve, Paufve Dance
“I get a lot of valuable information from people who aren’t in dance. I think it’s sometimes hard
for dancers to really see work because of preconceived ideas of what dance is supposed to be.”
-Catherine Galasso
58
7. It is important to keep in mind the temporal nature of live viewership.
“Because the form itself is so temporal, there are so many elements that come together to make
that moment. I may have a stomach ache when I saw your show or the air conditioning was off
and it affected my mood.” -Manuelito Biag, Shift Physical Theater
“I find so much of how we respond to performance has to do with our own time- based
experience. If we are hungry or cranky or distracted it is very difficult to be a generous witness.”
-Christy Funsch, Funsch Dance Experience
8. It is difficult to escape one’s personal aesthetic.
“In viewing other’s work I don’t try to remove my aesthetic because that’s impossible and
absurd. If someone is asking for feedback, I usually ask questions, hoping that will be enough of
a mirror to help edge the maker along.”
-Michelle Fletcher, Here Now Dance Collective
“There’s a difference between seeing work through your life’s kaleidoscope versus wishing work
would fit inside of it.”
-Malinda LaVelle, Project Thrust
9. It is important to consider how one gives feedback.
“I find that the most helpful form of criticism for me is one embedded into the creative process
itself as creative discourse.”
-Macklin Kowal
“Many times we blind ourselves to really seeing the work in front of us because we are
unconsciously evaluating it by deciding what we would have done differently had we been the
creator. But for me at least, that’s not why art exists.” -Malinda LaVelle, Project Thrust
“It is a delicate thing to offer feedback. It is a listening gesture. It is trying to be open to the
intent of the artist; noticing what kind of feedback might be useful at that time; maybe even
asking the artist what they need from you.” -KT Nelson, ODC
From this myriad of responses it is clear that dance criticism, whether published or private, plays
an important role in the ecosystem of dance and as a result should strive to be as conscientious as
choreography itself. Responses that are contextual, associative, or emotionally-based best serve
to engage choreographer and viewer alike.
I challenge myself, my fellow dancers, and the tireless choreographers, writers, presenters, and
audiences of dance to be as conscientious in viewership and response as possible. Perhaps we
can begin to be more aware of our preconceptions and personal preferences and stop ourselves
59
before thinking, “I would have liked to see…” and instead respond to what we are in fact seeing.
It cannot simply be the job of choreographers and dancers to make dance the best it can be.
Viewers must play their own important role in furthering the art of dance.
Much thanks to the choreographers for selflessly sharing their perspectives and thoughts.
Emmaly Wiederholt moved to the Bay Area in 2008 to study under Summer Lee Rhatigan at the
San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. She currently dances with Malinda LaVelle’s Project
Thrust and writes about dance for the San Francisco Examiner and for stanceondance.com.
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Appendix B
A Way of Life: An Interview with Anna Halprin
November 25, 2013
B Y E M M A L Y W I E D E R H O L T ; P H O T O G R A P H S B Y G R E G O R Y
B A R T N I N G
Anna’s Mountain Home Studio is on a terrace below her house, accessible by a steep set of
wooden stairs. When I arrived I couldn’t find her. Finally I interrupted the class going on in the
studio to ask where I might find Anna. The teacher directed me up another flight of wooden
stairs to a terrace.
As I reached the top of the steps, I came upon Anna standing in the sunlight. She didn’t look
surprised to see me. I explained I had come to interview her, as we had agreed via email. “Okay,
we can do that for a while,” she responded. “I might get tired.” She instructed me to sit at a
table in the sun, and then went inside to get a snack. She was quirky and quick, and the air was
sweet and warm.
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~~
How long have you been dancing?
For me that question already says a statement about how dance is being defined. If dance is
defined as traditional ballet or modern dance, then I can understand the question because that
depends on a certain kind of youthful physical dimension. But if thinking about dance is a way of
life, a cultural expression, a part of community or something related to life itself, it’s a foolish
idea.
On television they do this program, “So You Think You Can Dance.” The obvious question that
comes to mind is: so, you think you can dance? And it’s nonsense. That hasn’t anything to do
with dance in terms of its historic value.
62
Okay. So you’re dancing.
Right. Your initial question immediately places me in a position where I have to redefine dance
or excuse myself from continuing to dance.
But what I’m doing keeps changing, not so much because I’m getting older but because I am old,
and I have a lot of experience and have accumulated a lot of knowledge. I’m 93.
How has your dance changed and what are some of the reasons for those changes?
I’ve been able to find ways to communicate a philosophy about dance. I’m able to organize the
content of what I do in a way that will help others make sense of what they do and why they’re
doing it. For example, I might teach a class and say to my students, “I want you to understand
that this class will be organized in three different dimensions. We’re going to start with the
science of dance, and then we’re going to look at the philosophy of dance, and then we’re going
to look at the art of dance. We’re going to look at the way these three elements combine and
integrate them into an approach to dance.”
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I can give you another example. Today I was observing the ways people were moving, and I said
to myself, “It’s not: now arms are down here, now arms are up here. It’s not going from place to
place, it’s how to get there.” And that’s how the mind needs to work in relation to understanding
movement.
How do I lift my arms? I’m going to start from my shoulders, then elbows, then wrists, then
through the fingers, but since I’m going up to the sky, each time I make a shift I notice what
happens. I feel my ribcage coming up with my elbows. I feel the sides of my body. When I reach
with my wrists it pulls me up off my feet. When I reach with my fingers my tendency is to curve
my lower back but I know better. I pull from the center of my head. Now what has this done to
my breath?
It’s a whole different way of looking at organizing movement.
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Now I’ll look at the spine and how the vertebrae are connected. The spine starts at the sacrum,
and it’s attached to the pelvis, so if I move my sacrum I move my pelvis, and if I move my pelvis
there’s going to be rotation. Now if I’m not moving the sacrum but I think I am, I’ll simply rock.
And those are two different movements. And because they’re two different movements they have
two different feeling states that contain different images.
And what happens when I relate to gravity? I don’t exist in isolation. Movement always exists in
relation to something in my environment, whether it’s inertia, gravity, or whatever the elements.
If I relate to gravity all I have to do is let go and gravity does the movement. So then you start
working with gravity and the image of the earth and being grounded.
(At this point Anna does a demonstration where she grounds herself and then asks me to lift her
upward around the waist. I cannot lift her.)
What I’m demonstrating is that when I’m totally integrated and the mind and body work
together, I have an entirely different relation to movement. I didn’t know this when I was
nineteen. This is what I mean by gathering intelligence around movement. The body is my
instrument. That means every little thing I’ve experienced in my entire lifetime is in this body.
65
For example, when I was five years old and my father would come home from work on the train,
I’d run across the street and he’d catch me in his arms. One day a car came as I was crossing the
street and hit me and dragged me for about a block.
I don’t know what I did with that experience, beyond being terrified. Now when I was in my
fifties a body worker hit a certain muscle in my shoulder and I immediately saw the whole
incident. I saw myself running, being hit by the car. I shrieked out loud with terror. It had been
buried in my body all those years and had never been released, so I’d developed a frozen
shoulder. I had never dealt with the emotional impact from that experience.
Every experience I’ve had in my life is a resource in my body. Movement can’t be taught just on
a physical dimension; it needs to be taught as part of a feedback process. The awareness between
movement and feeling is an intricate part of a dance experience, unless I want to dance like a
robot which is an expression in itself.
66
What does success mean to you?
The word “success” doesn’t mean anything to me. Success is not the word I would use. I would
use recycle. If something doesn’t work I recycle it. But it’s not a matter of success or not. If I
were to use that as a measurement, then who measures success? The critics? The audience? Who
defines what’s successful?
For example, at one point I was interested in the nude body because we mask it all the time with
what we wear and how we think about ourselves. As part of one piece, one of the tasks was to
very ceremoniously take off clothes, one piece at a time. I performed it in New York in 1965 and
I was issued a warrant for my arrest but I had left the city before it was issued. The critics who
were at the performance were called to court to reflect on the piece. It was a scandal. In contrast,
when I did the same piece in Sweden, it was aired on national television.
For fifteen years I was blacklisted. Nobody would engage me. But it was a very good thing that it
happened that way because I started doing more ritual dance and reevaluating performance. Who
I performed for, why I performed, who I performed with, etc. It opened up a whole new avenue.
67
I’m a cancer survivor, and this new approach to dance led me to using dance as a healing tool.
And actually I was able to reverse my tumor. I similarly worked with people with AIDS.
In other words, the scandal in New York released me. I didn’t have to do one particular thing
with dance. It was a good thing, and it was a period where I had the most growth in
understanding the power of dance to heal, educate, and unify community.
So the word “success” doesn’t mean anything to me. I wouldn’t use that word. I’ve developed
the phrase: as life deepens, art experience expands, and as art experience expands, life deepens. I
gained a whole new perspective of the power of dance; it’s not just about performing onstage,
and it can still be art.
How have you thought about dance differently over the years?
I think about dance’s application, how it can be useful in people’s lives and contain community
aspirations. Like the Planetary Dance. It’s being done now in forty-six different countries and
still keeps going.
68
I did it in Israel with terrorists who had been in Israeli prisons for fifteen years. We did it in
Jerusalem with the Arabs, the Palestinians, and the Israelis together. We did it on the green line.
An older man was so touched. He was in the center [it consists of a series of concentric
circles] and he wept throughout the whole thing.
When we did it at Yerba Buena recently that older man just happened to be there. We hugged
and hugged. Apparently he has a son who lives in the Bay Area, so he happened to be there. This
time he danced.
There was also a man who was in a wheelchair, and I suggested he be in the center so he
wouldn’t get trampled. Toward the end of the dance I looked around and he had gotten up out of
his wheelchair and had his eyes closed and was rocking and waving his arm. Soon everybody in
the group started doing the movement. Suddenly there was this consensus of spirit, and it had
begun with this man in a wheelchair.
In Berkeley a woman participated who had one peg leg. I worried she would get trampled, so I
asked her to start the dance. She was happy to, and it started with the sound of her peg leg.
“Oompah oompah.” It intensified the spirit of everyone there.
69
Without the experiences of life, death, having a husband, etc., I don’t think I could have
envisioned a dance that had this much humanity or this much humility. There’s nothing
extravagant about it. It’s very simple. But I think it reflects the years of being scarred or
disappointed, celebrating family, all of that.
Humility. It’s not about me. I just turn the ignition on and let the car go. And that’s something
that develops with age, that it’s not me, it’s a process.
~~
Anna Halprin is a pioneer of the postmodern dance movement. In the 1950s she established the
San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop to give postmodern dance artists a place to practice their art.
One of her most noted works, Planetary Dance, gives a score to the audience, turning the
audience into performers. Anna was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 1972 and underwent
surgical treatment. When a possible re-occurrence was detected in 1977, she addressed it
70
through dance, which she attributes to arresting her cancer. She created The Five Stages of
Healing, which she then applied to the larger community. Along with her husband, the late
landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, she also created the RSVP Cycles, a creative
collaborative methodology that can be applied broadly across all disciplines. She currently does
research in connection with the Tamalpa Institute in Marin County, California, which she
founded with her daughter, Daria Halprin, in 1978.
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
This is the redevelopment of Stance on Dance (stanceondance.com), a website I began in March 2012 to address what I perceive to be a lack of written dialogue around dance that effectively responds to the issues and challenges facing the dance community and ecosystem. This thesis covers the content development, an assessment of the readership, the integration of a new design, and the first steps toward monetization.
Linked assets
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Words to spaces
Asset Metadata
Creator
Wiederholt, Emmaly Clare
(author)
Core Title
Stance on dance: creating dialogue and community around dance
School
Annenberg School for Communication
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
Specialized Journalism (The Arts)
Publication Date
04/09/2014
Defense Date
04/09/2014
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
arts journalism,blog,Dance,design,monetization,OAI-PMH Harvest,online journalism
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Language
English
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Electronically uploaded by the author
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Advisor
Anawalt, Sasha (
committee chair
), Kahn, Gabriel (
committee member
), Le Veque, Matthew (
committee member
)
Creator Email
emmaly.wiederholt@gmail.com,ewiederh@usc.edu
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Wiederholt, Emmaly Clare
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Tags
arts journalism
blog
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online journalism