Crowdsourcing: Is it healthy?

CROWDSOURCING DANCE EMPOWERS the audience to collectively perform the roles of, at times, curator, programmer, and even funder, potentially stoking tension between arts professionals and the public. Defined by business […]

Bringing the Message: Naomi Diouf and Diamano Coura West African Dance Company

My conversation with Naomi Diouf, who with her husband Dr. Zakayria (Zak) Diouf is artistic director of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, came about because of the upcoming celebration, […]

Beauty in Search of a Resting Place

Does an artist have a responsibility to anything or anyone other than their whim?

Searching for the Right Mix; WestWave Dance Festival 2007

A staple of the Bay Area’s summer dance scene for 16 years, the WestWave Dance Festival (WWDF) is preparing for its 2007 season at Project Artaud Theater. Once again, the […]

Book Review: Defining Radical Bodies

When someone says “radical change,” I wonder which definition they are using for “radical.” The word can refer to an approach that comes from outliers, one that challenges existing views, […]

Leading the Dance Field Through Change

During my first few months as the executive director of Dance/USA, I engaged dance leaders from around the country in conversations about the state of the field. What are they […]

Five Tips for Getting Your Money Shit Together: Or, Lessons From a Middle-Aged, Middle Class Dance Artist

1  JUST SAY NO As artists, we need to stop asking people to work for free, and we need to stop working for free. And we all need to say “no” […]

Keep the Reels Rolling; Why the Bay Area Should Fight to Keep Dance/Screen

San Francisco Performances has pulled the plug on its Dance/Screen series of film and video presentations, curated for the last 9 years by Charlotte Shoemaker. “It was a matter of […]

In Practice: Reconstructing Reconstruction with Chris Evans

What does it mean to grieve in the context of perpetual marginalization and terrorization? What are the contours of grief in the afterlife of ancestral, epigenetic, and intergenerational trauma? And […]

SPEAK: Dialogues in the Diaspora

Photo by Leo Resplandor As a dancemaker, my chosen form of expression is bharatanatyam, a traditional dance form of South India. Like many traditional art forms, bharatanatyam feels precious, like […]