2019 Selected Panel Discussions

This panel will highlight the inner-workings of women who are creating meaningful dance opportunities in rural communities today. A discussion will be led of the obstacles of working rurally as female artists, as well as what strategies have made positive strides in these communities. The panelists, who all come from different backgrounds, have been and continue to explore what more can be implemented into rural communities to create an offer-and-return practice through dance. Furthermore, what it means to create a dance scene from the ground up in non-urban spaces, the issue of comparing and alienating the rural versus the urban experience, and casting a net into the future for dance across all landscapes.

Improving the quality, discoverability, accessibility, and scope of online dance resources is essential to promoting equity and diversity within dance. This session reports on an NEH-funded Digital Humanities project with these goals. The project is focused on balancing thoughtful curation with inclusivity; broadening available resources beyond Eurocentric dance and imagining expansive future design and curation processes. A national group of women dance professionals are driving leadership of this initiative, spearheaded by Rebecca Salzer with a working group that is 83% female. We propose to share this project with Women in Dance Leadership, sparking interest, gathering feedback, and encouraging participation in shaping this new resource.

How do dance collectives reflect and support the landscape of the dance field today? What aspects of the interpersonal nature of the collective environment elevate the quality of choreography and presentation? Can democratically run dance collectives empower dancers to engage and develop diverse skill sets outside of the performance and practice milieu? How does embedded female-to-female mentorship empower artists to become leaders? Why is this important to promotion of female leadership across concert dance, industry sector, and dance in higher education? 

The dance collective model represents the interdisciplinary nature of dance by tapping into the promotion of professional performative and choreographic opportunities, educational avenues, administration, and advocacy for dance on local and national levels. The ability for dance artists to take ownership and contribute to each facet of the dance collectives’ operation suggests no aspect of dancing is mutually exclusive. As professional artists with diverse backgrounds and experiences, we agree the collective model supports and highlights our strengths as versatile dance artists in a holistic way; dancers end up serving as administrators, educators, technical support, choreographers, and performers. The panelists represent four female-driven dance collectives across the United States. We feel creating a space for female dance artists to be heard and develop their artistic voices strengthens our field and enriches our lives and communities. The dialogue facilitated by being a member of a collective allows for us to negotiate what it means to be (and become) a dance artist in the current social, political, and artistic climate.

This panel will highlight Dance in the Desert as a case study for connecting Latinx dancemakers across communities and geographic locations. Presenters will address the ways in which horizontal leadership and collaboration were used by the initiative’s partners to intentionally convene and create community amongst artists who were previously disconnected. Adhering to peer-to-peer learning and self-representation modes, the panel is comprised and co-moderated by participants that represent the various communities served by Dance in the Desert. The conversation will address issues of decolonial dance practices and aesthetic equity in the field from a Latinx lens. Participants will engage in peer to peer co-development of projects that reflects healthy modes of collaboration rooted in power and resource sharing.

Various communities engaged and directly contributed to the knowledge production and content of Dance in the Desert. These communities included Douglas (US)/Agua Prieta (MEX) rural border communities; Tucson, a mid-size borderland city; Phoenix, the 5th largest city in the US; and New York City. The convening highlighted the existing expertise across Arizona’s artistic communities and connected them to their regional and national peers, developing a cohort of practitioners across the country. The slate of offerings ranged from dance workshops, choreography sharing, feedback sessions, dialogues, and data collection/focus groups to public performances. Dance in the Desert centered local and regional Latinx dance aesthetics and modeled investment in our own communities while centering the infinite expressions of Latinidad.