Re: dance /butter2

Jeffrey Gray Miller (jgmille2@students.wisc.edu)
Thu, 22 Jul 1999 15:06:09 -0500

I had to chuckle at the idea of a University Dance Department being totally
collaborative. We have trouble finding someone to even run the lightboard
and sound, much less collaborate. It's even taught in our music classes
that musicians and dancers shouldn't have more involvement than to agree on
meter, tempo, and duration--go to a rehearsal? Unheard of!

In spite of this, I've been involved in some wonderful collaborative efforts
with Doug Rosenberg, Jin Wen Yu, A.J. Niehaus, and others which have really
combined the disciplines and strengths of each. It's still hard to crew the
shows...but I have to say that the most satisfying theatrical experiences
I've had have been collaborative.

Secretly, though, I long for my musical theatre days...wardrobe sups, makeup
specialists, full crew of stagehands...ah, the luxury of arriving to the
theatre and only having to warm up...

Jeff