Re: undemanding, unambitious, uninformed and uninspired

Jeffrey Gray Miller (giullare@satorimedia.com)
Tue, 31 Aug 1999 23:09:44 -0500

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>From: Adniralc@aol.com
>To: dance-tech@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>Subject: Re: undemanding, unambitious, uninformed and uninspired
>Date: Tue, Aug 31, 1999, 4:16 PM

>I can't speak for nikolais, but, yes, in fact, Loie Fuller did develop are
>her own fabric designs and lighting techniques and technologies--she was

This is wonderful to know! What a great example. I have to remember now,
though, that someone made the point that although her pieces were wonderful,
as a dancer she apparently left something to be desired in terms of
technique. Was this due to lack of training? Lack of ability? or lack of
eyebrows? We'll never know. I wonder, though, what the critical consensus
of the people on this list would have been had we been able to see her
actually perform (as opposed to simply having her severely mediated image).

>The point of this being that as dancers and performance makers we don't have
>to be limited in our abilities, talents, or explorations--we can be
>technologically savvy as well as choreographically keen, tinkerers as well as
>twinkletoes. the main limit, as usual, being $$$. But certainly not
>intellectual ability.

Certainly not. That's part of why I respect programs such as UW's IATech so
much--they do a lot towards dispelling the myth that dancers cannot be
technologists and vice versa. I find, though, that the main limit is more
time, than $$$. It takes time to learn to program; time to do technique;
time to support yourself and others. Yet there's only 24 hours a
day...something has to give.

Jeff