Improv, Jazz and Showtime I am not sure when I began looking at modern dance in the context of a broader art movement. Believe me it was a conscience raising experience -- I was stunned. I think it was when I went to see Dennon and Sayhber Rawles teach a work shop in Jazz Dance ... and they put the entire experience in the context of Jazz Music. Now I could suddenly see why Miles Davis might cover a Cole Porter song. Or John Coltrane might cover a song from The Sound of Music. I understood better what West Side Story was all about. I began to connect the improvisation which began in the 60's (very roughly) in jazz, modern dance and theater. I could see it echoed in shows like Pippin or the work of Richard Foreman. I had read an article (was it in BackStage West?) that was just trashing Improv and Contact Improv in modern dance. It said that Improv was asking the audience to be indulgent and by losing the presentational style of dance ~ it was killing the audiences. I bought into this completely, ignoring the cultural shift from the invention of television as the prime reason audiences were dwindling. Since then, I've changed my mind. I now see Improv in dance much the same way I might enjoy some of the later Miles Davis tunes. It seems that as the number of artists has grown that the major art forms have settled into almost undefined factions. Jazz music has splintered into areas like acid jazz and jazz fusion. Dance is splintered into modern, post-modern and contemporary. New work in Theater seems to be still based on improv or on a grand scale. The relationships of the main art forms don't seem quite so connected (perhaps because we are in the middle of it) and the artists are not responding to each other. Oddly, a lot of new work is spectacle. Is it wrong to expect some sophistication from our audiences? Must we create presentational dance as an entertainment to be commercial enough to succeed? Is it wrong to try an engage our audiences on some level that challenges their perceptions of Art and art-making? I hope that, someday, I can look back on this period in time and be able to put it into the context of a broader art movement.