dk is lighting dance

2007-03-05T08:29:00.000-08:00

Feedback Part II

Read my last blog first if you want, this is Part II.

I didn't know there'd be a part two but it would appear I have more to say. After posting yesterday, I found myself thinking over what feedback really is and how to get quality feedback on your work.

More and more I am understanding that the need for the creator to direct the feedback is critical.

This is because that to get quality feedback what we really are asking about is the vehicle not the content! Whoa. Let's think about this. When we are writing or painting or singing a love song; the thing we need or ask for help on is "how" we are presenting the material, not the material itself.

I have two examples to illustrate. Let's say there is a Writer's Forum and I join. Also, let's pretend something in the extreme; I am writing porn. If I post my story and say I need feedback; all I'll get is thrashed by the content of my work. Everyone is shocked and disturbed and no one benefits. Now, if I post my story and say I am struggling with trying to write "in a sense of urgency" then the group has something to respond to. In getting quality feedback, one must look beyond the content and zero in on the delivery method.

Second example. Something I actually DO write! I'm proud to say I've been published three times, here is one that made it online too. Obviously I'm fairly proud of my little successes. What I tend to write on is specific to my field - lighting design for the modern dance stage under the larger umbrella of making new work. What seems to satisfy the publishers is when I write opinion pieces (or rants). Currently I'm struggling with another article that is on Collaboration. I could imagine myself asking for feedback as I work and edit through my draft.

Offering my article to a Writer's Forum for feedback; I know I don't need help on the technical terms. I need help on the delivery of the material. Even with an article laden with tech-speak, I should be able to get quality feedback from a wise pair of eyes, if; I ask for help in a specific area and my critic can look beyond the content.

If we are interested in developing the Art of the Feedback, then we must learn to hone our skills. This isn't really a talent so much as learning a technique. It will be applied in everyday life as you may be asked if you like someone's choices; be it someone's poem, a garden lay out or even "does this dress make me look fat?"

In the case of the classic dress conundrum, trust me - focus on the vehicle and not the content! "Do you think it echo's your personality?" might work much better than any other doomed response. Learning to hone an easily learned skill simply makes you a better person since you can now properly meet one's needs. Having your needs met requires you to direct where your expectations lay.

Peace.

2007-03-01T09:54:00.000-08:00

Critics!

Kell in her recent blog posting staggered out of a virulent forum that disguises itself as a support group for writers. It's a mark of her maturity that she did not post the name of the group nor the admin of the forum (I sure was curious), rather she mulled over the difficulty in getting honest feedback.

Most of the comments in her brief posting of work were "I liked it a lot" and "keep up the good work." All things good to read and we like that. But we also need serious feedback as well.
Having been involved in art education for about 17 years and been in on thousands of feedback sessions for new work; I still do not claim to be an expert by any tilt of the sword. However, I have learned much from my peers and so choose to share what I can with you, dear blog reader.

The Art of the Critique

The Temptation
It is always so tempting to offer the solution. Often people showing work wish for the expert to "fix the piece" by telling them how to do it. I have seen the arrogant instructor insist on change "use this piece of music instead" or "keep it as a duet; the trio is all wrong." The student will eagerly follow that advice - and perhaps the piece will be better. However, it's not really their work any more.
The Question
If it seems obvious to you that a specific thing is not working. It might be best to avoid pointing directly at it. Instead; pose a question that hints at that thing. It is critical for recepient to solve the problem. It is how we learn. The best (I've seen this done deliberately) is for two people to give conflicting comments so the artist must grapple with the issue and solve it themselves.
My best example: if I feel a piece on stage is too dark, I'd not tell the designer that the back lights need to be brighter. I'd say, "this cue seems to be lacking energy." An abstracted statement that leads to a solution not dictated by me.
The Definition
The one asking for feedback must define what the observer must look at; otherwise you get, "I like it" all too much. It can be as vague as "I'm struggling with the spatial dynamic" or as specific as "I'm struggling with accents." By giving direction to the feedback, the critic now has parameters and focus. This allows the one asking for feedback to dictate direction and also allows for shorter snippets of a larger work.
The Process
One hopes for follow up. If one is posting a short story and requesting feedback; then one must re-post as a response -- even pointing to a specific critique or responder. One must be secure enough in one's work to allow the process to be transparent; this elevates everyone involved and opens the forum. Any critical forum must encourage a process and avoid being completely product oriented.
As tempting as it may be to post or show an entire piece; it appears that it's much healthier to show the steps along the way so the observers have a chance to make a difference. It takes strength and it is a challenge.
One must be brave.
The Material
One of the largest hurdles when putting your work out there is to alway remember if they don't like the work does not mean they don't like you.

"I hated that painting" will not sting so much if you realize it's the painting that is hated and not you. A professional works at one's profession. This implies a body of work that evolves over a period of time. As you build your body of work; your successes will give you the confidence to take risks and allow failure. When you first begin the need to "be right" or "be perfect" is some kind of mis-guided pressure due to fear.
Oreo Cookies
Last of all: be nice.

If you feel you have a tough thing to say; open with a nice thing, say the tough thing, close with a nice thing. It's like an oreo cookie. Anyone is flattered to be asked to help especially if asked due to expertise. Being in a position to give feedback is a responsibility that is inherently educational. Be nice. Encourage. Build. Try to see through their eyes when looking at work.

In the play, Waiting for Godot the two characters get into a fight and begin name calling. Back and forth they go. The trump card is finally played with the worse thing one could be called: Critic!

I am certainly no expert at feedback. I hope the above gives some good or new ideas. Defining your needs when asking for evaluation is key.

Peace

2007-02-16T00:28:00.000-08:00

Untitled, ver. 2

I was in a chat-room playing cards the other night and someone called "lady.grae" was trying to tell me about Schrödinger's Cat and the interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. She totally missed the point that it's really about the "nature of the observed is changed simply because it's being observed." She got all tangential about some radioactive crap. Sigh. Then she bragged her IQ was 128. Naturally I asked her when she tested and she said last year. So, I asked, "was it a vanity test?" and she said, yes. So .. enough about her.

We all know Uncle DK just ain't that smart.

However, there is one tangent that does tantalize me and that is: is the intent of art-making part of the equation in making a work of art?

Some of my Lofty Idealist Faculty got off on exactly this tangent today at a lunch. I am sad to say that Uncle DK only had comments to make about "craft" with not much to add to intent itself. Yet, the question is valid -- in it's simplest terms:

Should an artist even name the work?

Does a dance or theater work need program notes?

Will a title of a poem give too much direction?

While the intention of a writer/dancer/director/painter/whatever might be one thing; the observer might get something else entirely and; shouldn't this be a good thing? One person mentioned that Hemmingway said that he didn't even know what his novels were about until sometimes ten years later - that while his novel may have been about 'this', he was actually grappling with something in his personal life.

Have you ever pondered why an artist might name the work, "untitled, ver. 12"? I think we might struggle with this issue a lot. It seems to me that in generating the abstract that we allow interpretation of our work on the personal level of the viewer. Unless the work is entirely narrative, the observer doesn't have to be told what to expect. In fact, ideally there may be some level of shock to make that viewer even more receptive. So, our intention - that which drives the current work - may be on a personal or even global/political level; the reception may be entirely different. I'll allow that that may be the satisfaction in creating work, almost as if we are asking a question rather than providing an answer. This may be the crux of what you and I do: we offer up a challenge of choices with little hint at a solution. I think that we are mostly interested in the struggle that lies underneath a topic rather than the topical elements in any piece.

2007-02-14T08:08:00.000-08:00

Tripping the Light Fantastic

Many years ago I came across the phrase, "once a junkie, always a junkie." It meant that even though you may have cleaned up, on some level you are still addicted to heroin.

There is an element of truth in it and I'd like to apply it to being a dancer, artist, writer, poet, musician. Because I think some things in your life change the way you see the world. As a student once told me, "I've got The Eye." I don't know if that deserves caps, but like a mystic taking the path into deeper and darker realms the shadings that you develop in observing the world can not be dropped and left behind. It's in your system or DNA or neural pathways; whatever you want to call it.

Once you begin exploring a level of art-making, especially if you are creating a type of art-making you begin to shape a "belief system" (I need a better word, gestalt?) that you weigh and judge other attempts at the craft. When you first begin you create a standard at which you set a mark, then as you become more deeply entrenched you realize that there are broader definitions of the areas you work in. And yet, once you've begun: you can't walk away. Let's say you are a visual artist, perhaps photography. You learn about composition, framing, color rendering, lighting and all the other bits and pieces of the craft. Then, let's say, you drop it! You decide to have babies, gain 40 pounds, you are surrounded by laundry and dirty dishes and yesterday's lunch boxes. Ten years go by.

You still have The Eye. You've been tainted, scarred, tattooed, branded - use any term you like, you can't shake those prior experiences.

You - are - still - an - artist.

Once a dancer, always a dancer. 50 years old, flat feet, graying hair and a grandmother - you watch a movie like Dreamgirls or Chicago and you still mentally critique the level of technique, question if it's successful, does it "work." You can walk away but you can't leave it behind. You may not be writing poetry or acting on the stage or playing the piano any more -- you are still what you are: an artist at heart.

Happy Valentine's Day to all my lovely artists ... I still believe in you.

2007-02-08T23:29:00.000-08:00

Legacy

We've all studied Dance History when we were in college, right? It was bunched up with our Theater and Film History classes and .. that dreaded Dance and World Cultures class.

Since Modern Dance is only 100 years old, it's common for the teacher to present a "dance history tree." Like a family tree chart, Isadora Duncan taught Martha Graham taught Paul Taylor taught Merce Cunningham (I know those aren't right, it's just an example). I thought I'd present my own tree because, while I may not have understood at the time -- my teachers were pretty awesome.

My guess is that your eyes will glaze over unless you are steeped in the culture. Read on and tell me what you think.

My first lighting teacher was Georg Schrieber, no it's not a typo. He was my boss for seven years. He was a Yale graduate and designed for the Santa Fe Opera for 12 seasons. He taught me the meaning of gestalt in making theater. He also taught me noblesse oblige, which means essentially "nobility demands" or that if I'm a boss I have to work tonight!

After a mere two years as a stagehand he promoted me to Stage Crew Chief and then to Asst. Technical Director. During the time I was ATD he was building a Dinner Theater leaving me in charge of a 2000 seat road house, I was only 26 years old. I'll never forget my first big shows; three semis, a 40 man Union crew, our house crew and the roadies -- eventually I learned to supervise, fast!

I got my master's degree (MFA) in theater, my mentor and prime teacher was Doc Ballard. He was the first black lighting designer I'd ever met. (I guess it's February!) He was my boss, mentor, teacher and advisor. He'd done the NYC scene and knew the big names in New York. He was a great guy.

Soon after I graduated, I got a call from the Dance School - they wanted to hire me! My boss was Cristyne Lawson. Since it's Black History month, I'll say she was a woman and black. Those issues were not issues with me, I worked for her for 15 years! She was a great boss and a good friend. Her background was that she danced for Ruth St. Denis, Martha Graham and was in the inaugural company of Alvin Ailey, she's even mentioned in his autobiography! Cristyne represents every generation of modern dance.

I designed lights and sets for Cristyne for 15 years. She taught me so much about dance, I think the thing that stuck with me over all was her saying, "If it's not fun, why do it?" Of course, we were in a nightmare show at the time, lol.

I have to mention Larry A. Attaway. He was the composer for Bella Lewitzky. He taught me a lot about art-making. I designed probably six of his works, the main thing he taught me was the art of critique. Brilliant man.

Tina Yuan has been a major influence on my design. She was on our faculty for many years and I designed for her for many many years. Her pedigree can be found in the link, of note is that she was a principal dancer for Alvin Ailey.

Let me toot my horn, my school CalArts was founded by Walt Disney as an interdisciplinary experimental art school. We are in our 35th year, 17 years for me. We are a private art college that is accredited by WASC and NASD, we've the credentials. Tuition is 30 grand just for one year! It's obscene, I know. Yet our faculty is top-notch, working artists who have actually succeeded in the art world. That I am in the mix amazes me, yet somehow I am a valued member (remember that They called Me to work here), it's a vibrant education on so many levels.

If you do the math ... our first graduates (assuming 20 years old) are now 55 years old. Finally our alum's are stepping into positions of power. We are such a young school. We have Pulitzer prize winners on our faculty. I can read names I know in history books.

Trust me, I'll not be in any history books -- but my pedigree is awesome. I've been taught by the best. And I pass it on to my students, we will change the world.

My legacy? Well, here's the link. Fifteen years of design with some of the most interesting choreographers, musicians, composers, dancers, designers in the world today. Feel free to pull up a cup of coffee and check out the shows.

Oh yeah ... I am DK in the program! And, yeah, I made the web-page too.

2007-01-28T10:49:00.000-08:00

Rainy Day Tales

Now a rainy Sunday.

If you feel like reading about the arts and war try this and this.

Both pieces - powerful and moving.

One of the comments to the second article, I thought was excellent ....

I have often heard the arts referred to as a way to "engage the culture that is, and create the world that ought to be". The idea that art can help us celebrate joyous elements in life--by giving us new ways to perceive them--and to process through the brokenness in life--by helping us see the pieces that need to be put back together again--are central to human experience.

Props to The Great Dance Weblog for pointing the way.

2007-01-27T12:18:00.000-08:00

The Science of Sex

Geez .... Why women like men dancers. Click on the video link on the left.

2007-01-15T08:46:00.000-08:00

I Remember When - A Dance Tale

Another story from the early 80's.

Mikhail Baryshnikov was coming to our theater! The whole town was excited and I remember there were actually long lines at the box office. This is rare for dance, trust me.

I don't think he was part of American Ballet Theater at the time; my memory was that it was his show, his tour. The lighting was "self-contained", meaning that they brought everything with them: the lights, the cables, the dimmers, the color and every bit and piece. Normally, they will use our lights and dimmers in the house, we just switch over control.
Dance shows usually are pretty straight forward, lots of side light and dance floor and a few props. In this case, they were not very flexible in that the dimmer racks had to live stage right. All the cables from the trusses over head would dress to stage right and down to the dimmers. Since our "company switch" (three phase, 400 amp breakers) was stage left; that meant that big thick cables had to go up stage, across the back, then down stage again to get power. These cables are huge - think of those big hoses the fire engines use when full of water, that's how wide they are!

The standard is that when you have cables on the deck, you cover them up with pieces of carpet and tape it down. The goal is to reduce the trip hazard and point out that there is something there! Of course, in the theater we want everything black. Then when you want to see it, we put white tape or glow tape on it.

For this show, I have no assignment. For once (finally!), my boss has decided to be a boss. I do have to attend strike but for the show I am free. I, too, am excited about seeing the greatest dancer of the last 50 years and certainly one of the all time greats.
We have lighting coves that run up the side of the house. I choose a cove where I can see the show and settle down for a fun evening of dance and ballet.

The curtain goes up and the first piece is "Class", a dance piece about taking class. Barres are on the stage as a prop and ballerinas are lined up brushing their toes on the floor and doing plies.
Suddenly, bam!, Baryshnikov enters by taking three long leaps across the stage! He must be only 5'8", our stage is 60' wide and I swear, he made it across in only three leaps. I know that'd be twenty feet a leap, lol, but that's what it looked like.
The audience applauds the feat (every pun intended) and it's all great fun and a treat. Half-way through the piece, except for the front lights ....all the stage lights go out! I have no idea if the audience can tell, but I sure can. Just the front wash is on and it's not very flattering. The piece continues, of course, then bows, then the curtain comes down. The house lights rise to a dim level to read the programs. I sit, kinda restless. Nothing happens. Finally I decide I'd better head backstage to see what's up.

All the bosses are clustered around the company switch.
The big 400 amp breaker has been thrown. Your living room probably has a 15 amp breaker, so imagine that 400 amps is a lot! The very long run of thick cable from the dimmers stage right to the company switch stage left has increased the resistance, generating heat, and forced the breaker to be thrown!
The first thing I am told to do is to help pull the carpet off of the cables so they can run cooler.

I am pulling up carpet and tossing it into a pile, long strips of it. Finally I come across a man sitting on a chair straddling my cable. Eff. It's Baryshnikov! He is fuming. I could almost see the angry waves radiating off of him. What do you think I did? Here's what when through my mind....

"Move yer ass, bub."
Just stop and look exasperated, I mean he can see that I'm working here!
"If you want your show to go on, get out of my way."
"Excuse me, I have to move this carpet so the cables can cool down."
"Move!"

Which did you guess? That's right; I just worked around him and left a long strip of carpet. I wasn't going near "famous angry man", notta chance!

I go back to the company switch and the people standing around it.
I am actually the hero in this story.
The connectors have gotten too hot and can't be undone. The decision is to spread each phase over three separate breakers, so if one pops then they still have 2/3's of their lights.
Good idea.
I suggest we use a fire extinguisher to super-cool the connectors.
My boss looks at me like I'm a genius!
Quickly we do just that. We open the connectors now and spread the load.
We take the panels off the sides exposing all the connections to the electricity.
Very Dangerous.

Someone shows up with a box fan to blow air over the circuit breakers. My boss looks at me, argh! I am elected to hold the fan and stand guard over the open circuits for the rest of the show!

I remember when I saved the day on a show; yet had to stand on my tip-toes and look over heads from the wings to watch Baryshnikov dance.

2007-01-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

I Remember When - A Ghost Tale

About ten years ago I was doing a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It's the largest arts festival in the world and was a lot of fun. The culture, the beauty of Scotland, the insanity of this huge festival, bed and breakfasts and so many little stories to tell.

One of the actors in the company was Larry Eisenburgh. He's an actor, director, writer and one of the funniest people I've ever met. We flew the 16 hours from Los Angeles to Heathrow in London together sharing many stories and jokes. We quickly became fast friends. He's a character actor and has been on soap operas and sitcoms but best of all he is "theater" through and through.

About four months after this story takes place, I was sitting outside of work on a bench when Larry and a friend walk up. Larry says, "This is my friend Murray, he's the narrator for my film." I shook his hand and we sat and began shooting the breeze, mostly talking about Larry's film that he wrote and directed.
Finally I see Murray in profile and it hits me. It's F. Murray Abraham! He won a Best Actor Oscar for Amadeus! I did my best to keep my cool and just visit and chat.

So, after the show is over at the Festival, most of the actors and crew were staying on for a few days to see the festival, visit Europe and most were flying over to Amsterdam to enjoy legal prostitution and legal hash and weed.
Now, I was raised with a strong moral ethic which, try as I might, I've never been able to shake -- so I decided to pass on the prostitutes in Amsterdam. I wanted to take the train up to the Loch Ness and see the famous monster! As it turned out, Larry was interested in the same so we bought tickets, got reservations at a great bed and breakfast and next thing you know ... we are on a train!

The train ride was great, finally seeing the country-side of Scotland --- I think it took a piece of my soul when I visited, it was so gorgeous.
The car we were sitting in was like a booth at Denny's. Just two benches are facing each other with a table in between. Soon enough, two little old ladies come sit across from us. Mentally, I groan thinking this might drag down the experience. Boy, was I wrong!

These cheerful little birds appear to be drinking tea; they've tea cups and saucers. But I soon notice that they have hip flasks! They are sneaking scotch whiskey into their cups! "Joost a wee dram to warm up tha' tea."
Certainly we all know I can't write accents, but these ladies were so funny and charming.

And then the best thing happened: they began telling ghost stories.

I kid you not, it was so cool to hear these two little ladies, bopped in the afternoon, telling a couple of americans some local ghost stories from the area!

I Remember When I was riding a train up to see the Loch Ness Monster and being entertained by these two Scottish ladies with local ghost stories.

2007-01-09T19:55:00.000-08:00

I Remember When - A Rock Tale

Way way (way) back in the early 1980's, I worked in a Road House. It's not a club like you see in the Patrick Swayze movie, it's a theater designed for road shows. Shows that tour can be anything from David Cooperfield to a Broadway Musical to a Chamber Orchestra.
It was a fun time in my life since I got to see a lot of different shows and I was exposed to every level of art making you can imagine. This Road House had 2000 seats, a proscenium stage and a loading dock that three semi's could back up to. At the time my job title was Stage Crew Chief. Mostly that meant I was a boss, but a minor boss.

The show for the day was George Thorogood. I was amused that our Executive Director would not allow them to be billed as The Delaware Destroyers. Rock shows happened in our hall (theater, road house) rarely and when they did, we all looked forward to a fun night. This band had played in our space before and I think this tour was George Thorogood's 50-50 Tour, he was playing in fifty states in fifty days.
This meant that they had send us a "tech rider" along with the contract of all the things they'd need. Tech Riders can be anything from specs for the sound system to what kind of food is available for the band and crew. To learn more about tech riders and to see a listing of your favorite artist click here. I think you'll be amused and enlightened. Look for the red arrows for the odd bits.

For this tour, we provided the lighting and sound equipment. The band just brought their instruments. It took a small truck for all the gear, two of the roadies pulled up at 10am to load in. Later the bus with the band and the crew would show up. The poor roadies had been listening to Bob and Doug McKenzie CD's, so we were subjected to "take off, you hoser" all day long. It was pretty funny.

During the set up, the road guys kept referring to "the opening act". Huh? We knew the contract, we'd read it in preparation for the show. There was no opening act! So, I ask one of the guys and he says, "it's a band we saw last night in a bar in Austin, Tx."

Okay, sure, whatever.

Finally it's show time. Several of us are in the lighting control room in the back of the audience getting ready for the show. Normally for a rock show, we don't have to do anything unless it's to fly in the main curtain or sometimes fly in a bit of scenery or a drop. Minimal stuff. The Thorogood band has a lighting guy but the "opening act" had none.
So, the curtain goes up.

The stage is dark, so ... I push up some sliders.

We're don't know this band, so basically we feel he can just play in the light. Just let it go. No cues, blackouts or design.

Suddenly the lead guitarist (wearing a flat crowned leather hat) starts wailing out some Hendrix songs! Whoa! This guy is amazing and he's doing the full act even humping his guitar up against the amp racks. I look over at James in the booth and our eyes widen. James picks up the headsets and calls to the follow spots, "Follow One, pick up the guitarist in a full body shot, Follow Two tighten in on the guitar." I lean over the board and rack the blue backs up to full and add some center ambers. We don't know the set, but we know rock. After each song, we slam the lights out on the big rock ending.
It's so much fun just free styling on the light board lighting this amazing band. He rocked the house, everyone was cooking with the music and in my opinion, George Thorogood had a tough act to follow. I'd shift the lights for each chorus and bang the sliders in time to the music. I had a blast!

Soon enough it was intermission. I stayed in the booth for the second act and watched the George Light Guy work the board, he was very good. Obviously he knew the songs and the sets, but I watched him work and learned a lot. Eventually the show was over, we got our tee shirt swag and loaded them out and on the way. And, we didn't think much more about it.

About two months later, James and I are watching television and we see that this "new guy" was tearing up the US Blues Festival (if I recall correctly). We sat up and pointed, "hey, that's the guy!" As it turns out, it was ... Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Eventually, I became a big fan and bought his cd's and loved his music. He was amazing.
But, I'll never forget and ...
I Remember When; for one night only, I was the Lighting Designer for Stevie Ray Vaughn.

2007-01-08T01:15:00.000-08:00

I Remember When - Dance Tales

I remember when in 1998 I got my first Creative Leave. It's just like a sabbatical in college, one gets a full semester off with full pay to ... explore creative things. I had been Chairman of Academic Council for several years and they were the body that granted such leaves from my college, so I was a shoo-in. I claimed "burn out" in my proposal so I had zero obligations and could so whatever interested me.
As it turned out, I wrote an article for a magazine that got published, I designed the lighting for several shows and .... I worked the Super Bowl, Green Bay vs Denver.

As you might imagine, as a red-blooded American Boy, standing on the sidelines during a Super Bowl is a dream come true. I had an "all field" pass, which meant I could go anywhere I wanted that was not strictly a media area. We arrived the night before and stayed in the suites paid for by NBC. San Diego was packed and I certainly didn't get my own room but we were well taken care of.

My first night, I worked a Beach Boys concert (they were playing half-time at the Super Bowl) in a very fancy tent near the stadium. It was a concert just for the big-wigs of NBC and my job was...the confetti. That's right, a good friend of mine is one of those guys who fills stadiums with confetti at the end of the big game. Our job for the Beach Boys concert was to simply push a button at the end of the party, we'd fill the air with confetti. Really, these confetti "cannons" are amazing.

The next day was a day full of amazing things. We brought our huge cannons to the field in the morning only to see that the painted field was being dried by ... a helicopter. I am not kidding. A helicopter was brought in to hover over the field to dry the paint! I'd love to tell you the many incredible (and very expensive) things I saw that day, but I'd like to get on with my I Remember When story.

This is John Elway's first win in the Super Bowl. Green Bay had won the year before and the Green Bay fans were flying high. I actually saw a woman holler to another fan, "Green Bay, G is for God, baby!" Obviously this was a little different from my little dance world I'd been living in. I don't have to tell you, this game is huge. Millions of dollars, millions of viewers, millions of fans, the scale and scope of the production is beyond my ken.

I stood on the sidelines behind the Denver bench for all of the first half. At intermission (half-time) I had to bail because of the size of the show. It's huge. And the second half of the game I wandered about, checking out the various tents for watching, roaming the stands and just messing about. It was awesome.

I actually ran into someone I knew! Becky Butala, who'd graduated from our Dance School and moved on to dance for Jacques Heim's Diavalo company was now running cameras for Sports Illustrated. We visited for a mere two minutes since, well, we are working and in the Super Bowl, the stakes are high.

You can click the link above for the game recap. Denver scores in the last two minutes, Brett Favre is driving down and time just runs out -- it's one of the best Super Bowl's ever.

And yet...that is not my I Remember When story....

The game is over and we are given the cue to fire our cannons. You've seen it on television. Confetti simply fills the stadium. The TV cameras can barely see through all the mess of paper we've shot into the air.

I am on the 50 yard line, amazed, the cannons are so powerful, the crowd is going crazy, it's a wild scene.
I turn around and see Becky. She's been waiting for me to see her. She catches my eye (with two 5000 dollar cameras in her hands) and begins doing what I'll call the "hippy acid dance" in the confetti, just for me to see. Ten seconds and she grins at me and dashes off to her job.

In the middle of the one of the most celebrated events in the world, I am treated to a quick ten second dance performance ... just for me.

I Remember When I was standing on the 50 yard line of the Super Bowl and was treated to my own personal dance performance.
Bless you, Becky ... it was the best part of the show.

2007-01-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

I Remember When - Theater Tales

About five years ago during the rolling blackouts in California, I Remember When......

I attended a Gamelan Concert featuring Balinese Dance.

I've seen many Gamelan Concerts, I know some of the teachers and have designed lights for their shows. A couple of years ago I even did a short tour with a Gamelan group up to San Francisco raising money via benefit concerts for the island of Bali, but that's another story.

The music is beautiful and repetitive, it puts you in a sort of trance. At least it does me. One time I was lighting and calling a show at the Japanese American Theater in Los Angeles and I called a curtain in that just did not happen! I snarled at the fly guy for messing up his cue and he told me he'd "been entranced by the music and the dance." (sigh) So, there I was in the audience of a Gamelan music concert with Balinese dancing. It's in the first act and I'm sort of blissed out and really not paying much attention and suddenly all the power goes out! It's a theater so it's absolute darkness except for the exit lights. They don't stop playing! It was just for probably ten seconds and the lights suddenly came back on, but I was amazed. The stage was really some raised platforms and the dancers would enter by going up some step units on either side of the stage. They could have fallen off!

At intermission, I consider "first acting it" and just taking off, but I decide to return since so many of my friends were performing in the show. I walk by the Light Board Op and make some crack about needing battery back up for his lights and finally sit down.

Act II is the charming part of my tale.

We are about 10 minutes into the piece when the lights go out again! And once again, they don't stop playing! I am serious, they don't miss a beat - about 25 musicians hammering on these odd instruments, they stay in perfect rhythm.
We, in California, have experienced many blackouts by now, so someone in the audience pulls out a flashlight and shines it on the stage. The dim white light barely reaches and we can see the vague scene -- the dancers still dancing and the players still hammering away.

Another flashlight and then four or five more. I can see stagehands on the sides peeling away as they run for their flashlights. Soon we have some powerful flashlights, maybe three real bright ones and probably ten to fifteen smaller ones from the audience. The entire audience is now compelely invested in the show! We watch every step and every move for fear of a dancer falling off the stage and just because we are all together watching this amazing event. I can see that two of the brighter lights are working together now to feature a soloist or lead dancer. For once, I am completely captivated in a theater experience. We all are. Everyone in the room is focused and almost tense as we watch this beautiful music and dancing. The show continues for only 30 more minutes, each and every one of us willing it to be okay. It was incredible; the energy in the room, the attention by the flashlighters, the concentration of the performers.

So, here's the best part. When the music finally ends and the dancers stop. The audience bursts into applause. AND the people holding the flashlights applaud too. And the stage is suddenly full of dancing spots of lights bouncing all over the place.
Magic.

2007-01-05T09:12:00.000-08:00

I Remember When

My last non-theater job was back in 1976. Thirty years in this crazy business we call show and I've realized that my favorite time is when there is nothing to do.

There is a wonderful little bit of time when everyone is just waiting before a performance. The rehearsals are over, the channel check is done, the props are all in place. Company warm up is in 30 minutes, then costumes, make up and the house will open. That 30 minutes after channel check and before company warm up is time to kill, pressure free.

It's my favorite time because there is an under-current of excitement but it's not ramped up and focused like just before curtain. Everyone just sits and chills. Today people text message and play on their laptops. Killing time, relaxed. During the most recent show I sat with some of our dancers and played a game called "I Remember When."

It started over dinner, Jamie and I are old stagehands and we were sitting with three of the dancers and we began telling old war stories of the theater ... the times when; the theater burned down, shows didn't start, 36 hour calls, being stuck in Europe, disaster effects that didn't work. This evolved into the game of I Remember When where each of us would tell a brief story or memory based on the prior story. Each of us went around in a circle, if one told a story of falling through ice into a river as a child the next might be about ice skating then the next might be about roller skating and so on. We carried our game back to the theater and continued with a larger group as we killed time before call. Great fun.

I Remember When we were doing a local community theater musical.

When we'd do bows, we'd have to bounce the main curtain. To do this we'd stand on the pin rail and jump off pulling down on the line to get speed. Then when the curtain was about five feet from the ground we'd slam on the brake! The curtain would pile up on the floor and the weights would go higher until the energy would shift and we'd fly the curtain back out. One night we tore out the Idle Block from this aggressive flying.

The next afternoon, one of our bosses came in to fix the block. At the console stage left was a series of non-dims for our work lights. They'd been taped over with gaffer's tape. He assumed that the tape was there so the stage manager wouldn't hit them by accident during a show. He pulled off the tape and hit the works. What he didn't know was that they were taped over because the flys were so crowded that the works were pointed directly (mere inches) from some of the drops.

I am sitting at home, I lived just two blocks from the theater. I get a phone call from the House Manager, "please come to the theater, it's on fire."

I haul ass to the theater to find that the flies are in flames. Our TD is standing center stage alone in the middle of this business with a fire extinguisher! Suddenly the fire sprinklers go off, drenching the stage! Next the power goes off plunging us into the emergency lights. About six of us are there now, our TD knows how to turn off the sprinkler system and does so. But we all realize that the weight of all that scenery in the air is gone and we have batons 60 feet in the air with arbors fill of weight on the deck.

The only thing holding up the pipes are rope locks. Scenery is dangling from these pipes all burned and smoking. We decide the best course is to deck the scenery and drops (what's left of it) and get the weights off before things get much much worse. Suddenly I find myself up on the loading dock, 60 feet high unloading 45 pound counter-weights in the dark. The smoke is horrible and tears are running down my face. We are just decking the scenery, crashing it to the ground, pulling the weights, undoing the chains or untying the lines are flying the batons back up. 40 line sets, one after the other.

Soon enough I am back on the deck with the other stage hands when the Fire Department shows up. The Police show up. The News Media show up. A theater fire must be big news, the vans all pulled up to the loading dock. They had their own power and lights! Finally we could see the extent of the damage. The orchestra pit was full of water. Ash and soot was everywhere. Burned scenery was piled up on the deck.

Decking the scenery, as stupid as I was playing hero with the rest of the crew, was the right thing to do. The authorities had no idea how a theater worked -- we had to literally steer them from walking under the lines that might still be dangerous. The News Media people were idiots, full of a sense of empowerment, they felt they could go anywhere and do anything.

All because a stagehand ignored the universal signal that gaffers tape over a button means -- don't push this button!

One of the few times that I remember, ever, of the show not going on. We re-opened the show a week later with borrowed scenery. I'll never forget dragging our soft goods out onto the lawn outside the theater to let the sun dry them. Once outside of the theater -- the scale of the materials we work with are huge.

And ... that's a I Remember When story. Hope you enjoyed it!

2006-12-25T14:01:00.000-08:00

test

2006-12-19T11:44:00.000-08:00

At the Tech Table

Time to pack up the Tech Table until the next show. Put away my notes and my cheat sheet. Store my head set and my pencils and try to shift back to normal life. Yesterday I was home watching television at looked up at the clock at it was 7pm. I just laughed out loud, it's been literally weeks since I've been home so early.

Time to switch from being Exhausted Artist back to dk-is-lighting-dance.

It's rewarding but I can imagine how the Incredible Hulk must feel shifting back into Bruce Banner. I look around the world with new eyes and new perspective, now shaded and jaded by my new perspective - my eyes see differently now.

2006-12-11T08:52:00.000-08:00

At the Tech Table

Up and on with the latest show.

Once again I note the difficulty a lighting designer has over the other designers. While the costume designer and the set designer has the luxury of seeing their work prior to revealing it to others, the lighting designer can only focus and hope it comes together. It seems I always am showing my risky new idea on the dancers in a room full of observers.

Everyone wants to know what it will be and I have a choreographer to please. It's a tough situation trying to make the dance look interesting and still tie the elements together such has honoring the costume designers ideas.

People huddle around the tech table, like moths drawn to my little light. I'm always crowded with choreographers, the video director, the costume designer, the producer and any one else who likes to know "what is happening." It feels like my process is compeletely transparent and I find myself covering for the crews mistakes on headset - filtering their difficulties to all these people who surround me. I have to keep everyone confident that everyone can do their job, it's just the learning curve of putting together a new show. It feels I am made to feel accountable for the entire crew and production is because I am the guy on the headset next to the choreographer(s).

One final note: I think when it comes to dance design, the lighting designer can not just sit in his department. I feel comfortable questioning if the volume of the music is loud enough, for example. A few years ago, I designed for a soloist. It was just me and her traveling to these different venues and festivals. I lit and called the show. But I was invested to the level of dealing with almost any element of the show. I think I'm pretty good at it. It's hard to do and it's also fun.

2006-12-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick snap from last night's rehearsal. Obviously the video images need resizing etc, but it give you an idea of what we are trying to achieve.

2006-12-03T09:09:00.000-08:00

I knew my Blog Life would suffer when I began designing shows and doing the core work of my craft, it simply becomes a lifestyle that is very demanding.

I am currently designing the lighting for a modern dance show that has....

Multi-level platforms
Three video screens
Three separate video feeds
One live video feed
Five choreographers
Plays this coming Friday and Saturday at the Walt Disney Modular Theater
Plays the week after that in downtown Los Angeles at the RedCat Theater

It's all "new work", meaning the choreography is brand new. The range of talent is broad, for example one of my choreographers is from Taiwan, my fellow faculty members; Tina Yuan, Colin Conner and Laurence Blake, and yet another is just starting his career.

This is all produced by my school: so we have faculty, staff, alumni and students involved at every level -- it's very hard work birthing new pieces. The challenges can seem over-whelming at the start but eventually settles into it's life.

Our projections are from chinese water color paintings. We spent a day in the studio video-taping (High Def) slow crawls over the paintings so the close up detail is what is projected.

We also had the artist in the studio. We put the rice paper on glass and shot from below as the artist put the paint strokes down, this way we only see the strokes appear and nothing else. We did this a month ago, it's been edited to time with the music.

We see the video projected in the theater for the first time on Monday. I've been lighting hoping to not wash out the screens with my light bouncing off the stage or flare from my diffuse focus -- if anything will need to change, it will fall on me to do it.

My pallette is:

Very saturated blue in the Backlight (Royal Blue -- Rosco 385)
Very saturated red in the Backlight (Medium Red -- Rosco 27)
Medium Amber in the High Sides (Gallo Gold -- Rosco 316)
Medium Lavender in the High Sides (Lavender -- Rosco 57)
Clear Heads and Shinbusters to sculpt the body and cut through the color.

If you are curious about these colors, I found a listing on the web -- just remember I am not working with flat colors, these are filters for light. Try clicking here.

Because it's a multi-level set with screens (made out of muslin, un-framed ... they look like banners) -- my backlight is used to define the space and create the atmosphere. My intent is not so much to light the performers as to establish the mood and shape the space that the set lives in.

The High Sides define each individual platform and light the dancers. Amber and Lavender are not quite opposites (green is the complimentary color to lavender) -- they are close enough that I can accent each color but use both to sort of add up to a very "energetic" white. The key to making lighting design seem "lively", for lack of better word is to mix colors in the air and on the performer.

Way back in September and early October I took some pictures of the Set Designer's model and some pictures of what will eventually be the textures from the chinese-style paintings ... I posted them on the web for our choreographers who at the time were scattered all about the world it seemed -- though in reality they were either here in Los Angeles or in Taiwan or Texas.

You can view the Model and Textures by clicking here.

2006-11-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

On Regional Dance

I've suggested the idea of Regional Dance here online and in the classroom and have gotten some strong responses. So, I thought I'd explore the idea some more here in this blog.
The main points seem to be: a)yes, the dance world ignores the community - art making is about community and b)the community is too dumb to get what we do.

I will try to make some points and then draw a conclusion. See if you can follow along as I grapple with some ideas.

Where MySpace Failed.The fact that MySpace is so popular and yet only managed to be essentially a graphical e-mailing list is significant. People feel a huge need to connect. We don't live in towns where everyone works at the factory anymore, our neighbors don't do the same thing we do and we want to find people with who have common threads, thoughts and belief systems. The keywords MySpace provides is not utilized. That is where it fails; we want to connect with people of similar interests. We need to add to our blogs and websites keywords for locale; "santa clarita", "modern dance", "performance art."

Leaving the house. We want to go out. Currently 43% of our "free viewing time" is now online as opposed to watching television. Soon enough we'll see major sports suffer as the impact of dwindling viewers takes effect. Already, after 30 years Monday Night Football has shifted to cable television. Dance On Cable will be another blog, I promise! Our online experiences are about meeting people who are like-minded. Already there are online groups being formed who meet in the community in "real life."

Communal Experience. People love to get together in social situations. It's human nature. Currently we go in small groups to the movies, to dinner, to clubs and to sporting events. It's easy to find, always in the same place and the shared experience cements friendships. Dance Theater needs to be more prolific and stable to build local crowds.

User Participation. The biggest lesson by far of Web 2.0 is user participation. Dance Companies need to use tools to allow people to feel invested and participatory in their company. Online reviews, donating money, chat, blogs, active websites. The performances need to engage the audience as well. That old "snob trick" of not taking a bow because its art -- is a rip off, pure and simple.

Do the math. 1 dancer = 1 boyfriend + 1 parent + 1 friend = 3 audience members. If your company has 6 dancers, you are guaranteed 18 audience members. If you do 5 pieces using 20 different performers you have 60 people coming to see the show. Dance Schools have recitals with packed houses. The Nutcracker uses local talent and packs the house. One time I was in Hobbs, New Mexico touring the Nut (Art to the Sticks Grant). My waitress in the bar said, "If you hear "sic 'em, cowboy!" from the audience, you know I'm cheering my nephew." Dropped jaw aside, it proves my point!

I think Regional Dance is a true possibility and at least a partial solution to the incredible numbers of artists coming through the studio and educational system. Like television, one starts by doing the local news and hopefully moves up to national or takes a tangent into cable news. Or even becomes a game show host.

The strategy of using the online tools to bring the community of people who enjoy watching the arts together in a physical space is what everyone wants. We want to go to a place where we are welcome and we know someone and have an "inside look" at what is going to happen. I know I read reviews for movies before I go see one. Let's use our websites, keywords, groups, local talent, blogs and even MySpace to build local audiences to see our shows. Let's learn to be gracious hosts instead of aloof artists.

I think it is a real possibility.

2006-11-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

Unique and Powerful Voice

Benoit in his Recycled Space Blog (click above for the permalink) makes some very good points. I think by his mentioning audiences initially, I automatically think about the large numbers of performers and creators in the art world. His response is that there are a lot of voices to be heard, plenty of established companies and there is a bevy of upcoming artists as well.

Doug Fox in his Great Dance Weblog grapples with educating our audiences in this article by using video and online tools.

I think we are all wrestling with the same issues. We believe that we have something to say as artists, there are plenty of performers for our talent pool, our technology to support our art is ... mostly affordable. The problem, it seems, is audience. Whether it's in dwindling numbers or educating them to understand what we do; we want them to come see our work. Better yet, pay to see our work.

A lot of people went to see Riverdance. There is an audience out there. One might reply, "but that is not what we do." I agree! I don't want to see that stuff. I want to see modern, post-modern or contemporary dance. I'm not really interested in spectacle or even presentation dance, per se. Either we need a choreographer with a unique and powerful voice to lead us in a new direction or we need to re-direct our energies on wooing audiences.

A lot of people don't like the art of the 20th Century. They are offended by blocks of red paint on a canvas and random honking of horns in experimental music. In our world, our art requires a certain sophistication by our audience to appreciate the work. (On a side note, I wonder if the only successful post-modern artists have been the comics like Andy Kaufman and that Borat guy.) Ladies and Gentlemen, the Riverdance of Modern Dance -- my dance company! I just can't imagine it.

I do think there is a partial solution though.

That is the idea of Regional Dance. Change the American model that all dance must flow through New York. It's an archaic model that is entrenched in Modern Dance. Even performers don't respect each other unless they can say, "when I was in New York."

I'd like to suggest the model of Memphis Ballet. They decided to create new ballets that are American. Even more so, ballets based on their region! Sun Records was in Memphis so they used the music of Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley. They based one of their ballets on a local story that was almost folklore for the region. Now audiences could understand the work without the need to appreciate the technique.

I like the idea. I can imagine a Modern Dance company with regional ties and civic pride. I can imagine building an audience who can appreciate the work because it's in the context of the local scene. Like rap music riffs on it's own neighborhood, modern dance could easily do the same. Perhaps we should look at this and begin asking more questions like the role of Choreographer as Producer and, as ever, the role of politics in art. To read the pdf file on the Memphis Ballet and regional ballet, click here.

2006-11-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

The Bacchae

Last night I attended The Bacchae directed by Mira Kingsley with very pleasing results.

First of all, I will say that I think the classics can get "freshened" by the elements of modern or post-modern dance (or improv or some element of abstraction) and the show I saw was what I would comfortably call "movement theater."

Re-considering a classic, one has a lot of latitude in representative elements. The show I saw last night reminded me of the fantasy elements of the movie Baron Von Munchhausen as well as the clever delivery of dialogue in the movie A MidSummer Night's Dream. The production team felt comfortably over-the-top with exaggerated elements in the costuming, broad splashes of color and outrageous angles in the lighting and a sound-scape that became another voice in the dialogue.

I walked away with new respect for the Theater Director, realizing that one: Mira Kingsley is a smart, complex director and two: directors should be people who are smarter than me! How she successfully juggled all those elements and things(!) throughout a two hour presentation leaves me in awe.

This show will come and go along with a long string of creations that are invented in the Walt Disney Modular Theater -- this unique place is a playground for directors and designers who, in the future, will never be able to create on this level again.

2006-11-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

State of Affairs

Benoit in his blog Recycled Space ponders the state of affairs concerning dwindling audiences. Click on the title of this blog for the permalink to his article.

I think this is a fair question: to a point. I'd ask when was the heyday? Do these statistics reflect the growing population? I might think that overall attendance is higher than say 1950 or 1930 simply because there are more venues. I keep going back to the question, "when was it great?" If we can pinpoint when theater and dance was considered successful then we can have the conversation.

Benoit mentions that the art forms may go extinct. I think it would be clearer to say that they will become Museum Pieces. Trotting out old classics in Ballet has happened for 100 years; the same is true for Opera. Many art forms are stuck in time - relying on the audience's nostalgia and simple awareness. It would be safe to blame Arts Education and it's lack in our school systems, no doubt. My guess is that the overall numbers of people attending Theater in it's broadest terms has stayed even for a century.

So -- I will ask some questions.
Despite the amazing numbers of artists graduating from college, is it fair to think that we'll have more than ten artists in each genre with a unique and powerful voice?

Why can not anyone put the dwindling numbers of audiences in the context of television's impact for the past 60 years?

Why are the arts not as "camera friendly" as sporting events who made the media transition easily?

I think a lot of the question is really about intent. Artists -- are they really trying for an entertainment? I think that many artists have much more to say than "sit back and enjoy this ditty", they want to engage the audience. Asking the audience to engage is asking them to work, risk themselves, be vulnerable and grow. As ever, a duanting task, the challenge is to not make it so scary. Our audiences are used to the safety of the screen - be it computer, television or cellphone.

2006-11-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-11-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia and Self-Promotion

One of the trends I've noted and thought I'd suggest to anyone who reads this blog is that more and more artists are putting their information up on Wikipedia.

I recently was told a faculty memember from the Music School was going to use the theater that I am the Technical Director of and I decided to do a quick Google of her name to learn more about her. Her name is Anne LeBaron and her Wikipedia entry is here.

Wikipedia is a Web 2.0-style site that allows user particiaption in generating entries. The idea that "one hundred eyes can find a bug better than one set of eyes" is the concept this type of participation relies upon. I've read recently that there are now classified sites created by the FBI and CIA that are of the wiki ilk where field officers are updating these sites with information about the bad guys they are trying to hunt down.

Way back in the mid-90's I created three simple pages on Choreographers -- Ballet, Modern and Post-Modern that I created from using my notes from Dance History class, simply because at the time there was nothing online. I was surprised how quickly my pages became links all over the internet and embedded into classroom sites. People began to send more information to me to update my pages and ...how shall I say .... "new choreographers" demanded I post their information by way of self-promotion.
The pages lasted about three years before it got way way way too big for me to handle and double-check the information -- I dropped the pages. Actually I was kinda sad I had to do that.

Today wikipedia is filling that void with user updates AND people are using it for self-promotion.

I can imagine wiki's beyond wikipedia to serve more specific areas and genres of information and assume this will be available very soon.

Until then, go to wikipedia, add your name and profile, and do some reasonable self-promotion.

Follow Up Links
CIA - Wiki Article	Unofficial Intellipedia Blog
Web 2.0 Defined	What is Wiki
Wikipedia's Main Page

2006-11-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

Our Cheating Hearts. Pt. II

US News and World Reports has an editorial on cheating in America here.

Since this is Part II, obviously it's a follow up to Part I, scroll down and read the other first if you want.

When I was in college once upon a time, learning to be a lighting designer meant learning how to draft. I owned a drafting table, templates and pencils and practiced my lettering every day. It was hand-drawn and tedious beyond belief. It was a skill-level required to be a lighting designer.

Today, this is entirely replaced by a tool -- a computer program generates the symbols and duplicates arrays of lights by the click of a mouse. I don't consider this cheating if I use this program. It is a tool that does the work for me.

Why do we consider it cheating when a student uses the Internet to get their information? Even during a test? Consider if I asked the question: when was the first lighting computer used on Broadway? If they can jump online and get the answer: 1975, A Chorus Line designed by Tharon Musser straight from this article in Wikipedia. Do I want them to know this? Yes. If the information is easily found, why ask them to memorize it?

I am beginning to think we need to change our education model as it feels out-dated. Our courses need to accept that the Internet is an immediate source of information. We need to emphasize in our classes the information we want our students to have on the tips of their tongues versus the information easily looked up. Personally I am beginning to drop dates from my exams. I am trying to re-focus on events of significance in history that have a contextual impact on today.

I feel I am only partially successful in that my classes can feel like a mini-boot camp. Like a drill sargeant I believe that "repetition is a heavy key to learning."

I have also found that the idea that the youth of today is Internet savvy is wrong. This is a myth pure and simple. College students may know MySpace and Instant Messaging -- but they are blank about blogs, wikis, forums and even search engines like Google, they have no idea how to customize a search. Just because a kid might be comfortable trying different ways than I would get get my freaking DVD player to work because they've grown up playing computer games with 1000 deaths does not mean they are taking a single step farther in understanding how the Internet works.

As adults we assume they have taken the same steps we would have -- exploring the uses of a new tool. This is not so, they use the tool for its immediate need and then drop it. There is an abundance of tools available via the Internet -- now, we as instructors, need to pull them through their education using the Internet as well. I've been surprised at the resistance I've gotten at suggesting that our college students write using blogs. Why can't I ask that my students write in a public forum?

Maybe next year my fellow faculty members and my future students will see someone else do this successfully and begin to wave the flag as if it were their original idea. We see it happening online, I believe that no one else is looking.

Would I be a bad teacher to allow searches during an exam much like some offer "open book exams"? We need to update our teaching methods. If 70% of the students are cheating -- then how can we think that they are doing something wrong? They don't think of it as cheating. They think of it as using a tool to get the result.
We must be asking the wrong questions in our tests.

2006-10-31T10:37:00.000-08:00

Our Cheating Hearts.

US News and World Reports has an editorial on cheating in America here.

In the article it says...

In a major study of both college and high school students by Duke University's Center for Academic Integrity, more than 70 percent of the students surveyed admitted to having cheated at least once on exams in the previous year. Why? If students see others cheating or teachers fail to see it or report it, is it any wonder so many conclude that cheating is essential to remaining competitive? Technological advances have made cheating easier than ever. Photo messaging, for instance, lets students contact friends outside the classroom with copies of exams.

I've been wondering about this for quite some time.

It is obvious that students are cheating. The author of the editorial has some ideas why. I tend to couch it in terms of art making. The arguement of process vs product. A vigorous process requires learning and exploration. It's so easy now to lift material off the Internet and our students believe if the result is correct why does it matter how it was achieved? I can almost agree with them!

I recently gave a mid-term to one of my classes (it has 30 students). I had prepared them the week before by suggesting areas that I might be pulling questions from. I also believe that a test is also a learning tool -- going over that material one more time and writing it down. Encouraging them to "show off" if they knew more about a section than I asked is something I try as well. I made them spread out in the theater and sit on the floor (it's okay, they are dancers and do this all the time) to take their mid-term.

I had students come to me for hints! I had students wanted me to prompt them for an answer. I tried very hard to keep the room as quiet as possible and I walked around and through the room to try and keep cheating from happening.

My question is:

Is this the best way to prevent cheating?

Is it possible that students might gain one more drop of knowledge by cheating and getting the right answer instead of leaving an answer blank?

Can test-giving be another step to learning beyond parroting back information and facts?

Dare we hold our students accountable for cheating if indeed 70% of the students nation-wide admit to cheating?

Are we coddling our students by giving tests instead of finding other means of measurement for learning?

Should the classic mid-term and final be replaced by another mode of proving knowledge?

In another article last month US News and World Reports stated that 37% of the students who attend college will not stay through and get a diploma.

There followed statements about how our education system is failing. I say "bull shit!" It makes me mad. College is supposed to be hard and a diploma should mean something. Paying for tuition does not mean you've paid for the diploma (as everyone seems to think), it pays for the opportunity to try and earn a diploma.

And it's hard.

It is supposed to be hard.

2006-10-29T10:17:00.000-08:00

Doug Fox is Perplexed

Doug Fox in his blog Great Dance Weblog has often offered the suggestion that choreographers video tape portions of their rehearsal and post a bit of tape on the Internet via blog and ask for feedback - click on the title of this blog to read it. I posed this exact question to my Production Seminar class which has ten MFA choreographers.

They didn't like the idea at all! I know this is a new idea, so opinions will likely shift as they consider it over time. One student is very worried someone will steal her work and her ideas. Another wonders why you wouldn't just ask another choreographer in the studio next door. The conversation got quite heated (actually we all love when this happens) with me suggesting scenarios where you might need a more sophisticated point of view, a wider band of feed back and simple self-promotion.

Doug Fox also states....

...seem to have little interest in exploring how the distributed and universal nature of the Internet can be leveraged to transform the process of creating performances and collaborating with global audiences.

I think we'll have to see someone do it successfully once to imagine it. The attempts I've seen, frankly, have been boring. Even back in the dawn of the Internet, when I saw music co-performed in Internet Cafe's in Santa Fe, Santa Monica and San Francisco and all I really wanted to see was the life stuff. Look at what we can do -- it's cool. Yeah, it's cool but doesn't interest me much.

I think the idea of working on a grand scale is a great idea and a few might be successful at it. Yet, if we are talking numbers - and with the Internet we are always talking numbers - I think the real strength of these tools will be to generate audiences locally. Our education system is pumping out new artists who think they need to follow the model of fifty years ago; join a company and hopefully tour the nation. Gone are the days when just a few leading artists were the core of Art Thought and Presentation.

Following the newer model of Regional Theater and following the Regional Ballets like the ones in Memphis and Tulsa is a much more likely scenario. We may still have our Super Stars but we need to think about becoming Local Heroes. Memphis Ballet is creating New Work based on the locale and generating audiences who have knowledge of the local history or have civic pride. While Community based Light Opera groups are dependent on the whims of Broadway generating material, I think choreographers who can create New Work can thrive locally.

The Internet tools used then could be an interactive website offering a chance to give reviews (I think this was Doug's idea in a past blog) which gives people the feeling of ownership and connection with a company. I also really like the idea of "profiling" on MySpace even though it's flawed, the idea is right -- of finding people of like interests and bringing them together. Using a blog to "preview" an upcoming performance is a much more appealing idea than generating feedback on a piece of choreography.

Modern Dance has always embraced new technology. I can think of 20 examples like Bella Lewitzky's company being commissioned to feature the new product: spandex. I do believe that the Dance World is a little behind in imagining how the Internet technology can be used. Let's let the need create it's good use rather than letting what the tools can offer drive it's application.

2006-10-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

Wrestling Dostoevsky

I attended Wrestling Dostoevsky last night at the RedCat Theater. You can click the title above to see the web site. I went with my best friend, Jamie, after visiting BBQ King -- we had a pork loin bbq platter, bbq beans and a corn muffin. Jamie had collard greens and I had french fries. I must admit that about one-third of my reason for wanting to go see the show as an excuse to visit a great place to eat.

The theater has a bar, so I was glad to have a beer before the show. I had a chance to see a fellow faculty member and several students I knew who'd made the trek on a Friday night to downtown Los Angeles. Encouraged and fortified I entered the theater with interest and curiosity.

The show was "in the round", meaning the audience is on all four sides with the acting area in the middle. This creates an intimate atmosphere yet forces the performer to play to all four sides. As we entered the space, we notices several standing lamps like you'd use in your home in many places the seats would've been in the audience area -- many covered with thin material.

In my opinion, they succeeded at a certain level of "audience involvement" where so many plays have failed. The tactic of the director is to try to get the audience engaged in the work and receptive. The alternate being passive and wishing for entertainment alone. Director's don't want to put on a Diversion as some theater has been called, but want to have the audience invested in the work.

How did they succeed?

The script was written to address the audience. "Welcome to the show."

The first character on the stage asks members of the audience to "Turn on the lights, thank you.", over and over again as the people in the house responded.

As the other performers first entered the stage, they served cookies to the audience.

Motivated by the script, half-way through the show they 'pass the hat', suggesting tips or donations (mocking themselves wonderfully).

The performers often looked directly into the viewers eyes -- in context it might be a challenge or even an seduction.

At one point, a female actor pulls a male audience member up to dance slowly on the corner of the stage.

These choices kept the audience receptive and closely paying attention to the show. Always with a "mild-level of anxiety", if you will, we had to pay attention knowing that we might personally be engaged at some point. Focused and alert, we watched the play take place -- it was very clever.

I've seen horrible attempts at audience involvement -- think of that awful clown at the circus messing with you. Mis-guided directors unskilled at their craft confronting an audience is a very uncomfortable experience. The show I saw last night was wonderfully gentle in it's tactics to keep us, as viewers, engaged and involved.

The group was from Slovena and you could sense that Eastern European style of work. The cold feeling of isolation seems to be the main thread. It was inspired by Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, while I've never read the story I can tell you that the work I saw stood on it's own.

It fit the bill as a post-modern work, in that it was obviously built out of an improv situation -- there was movement as content and layers of humor and angst.

2006-10-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

On Politics and Art Making

I am reading two books right now. One is Performance Art, from Futurism to the Present by RoseLee Goldberg and the other is After Modern Art: 1945 - 2000 by David Hopkins.

I am continually struck by how much of the art movements in the times before I was born were driven by political movements. The liveliest eras were when there were sweeping changes not only on the political front but actual invasion and occupation. Communism, Fascism, Marxism and even revolution where so immediate to the individuals lives that if artists disagreed they created groups or camps and their politics decided which type of art they would produce!

It seems that when we read about the great events in the early 1900's they are tied to revolution in Russia. Or the French artists using (or rejecting) Abstract Expressionism as a result of Nazi Occupation. Picasso painting Guernica in response to the Nazi Germany bombing Guernica, Spain during the Spanish Civil War is a great example. In my opinion, his greatest work.

All of these immediate art movements were in direct relation to the shifting of political times. During the Cold War after World War II, revolution seemed inevitable. Italy tumbled into a thousand different politcal groups which seem to still exist today. Che Guevara helped Castro take over Cuba, these were charged politcal times!

And yet, since the mid-seventies, it seems that things have been very stable. Third world countries are having the problems now and we point our fingers at our televisions and think, "that is a pity, let's send some money." Chairman Mao, responsible for 12 million of his own people's deaths is long gone. Even China is stepping onto the world's stage as an active member hosting the Olympics in a couple of years. The mighty USSR has collapsed into Russia and a bunch of other countries we don't hear a lot about -- basically bankrupt from trying to keep up in the Cold War. Stability is also proven by the European Union, a marvelous and economically powerful move that strengthens the whole area as a collective voice and power.

So, what do we make art about? If the above was the driving force for Futurism, Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism then what is driving the art makers of the moment? America has not felt threatened in a long time. The borders in Europe have been secure with no hint of invasion or collapse of a government in a long time. I am in awe of the six countries who are pressuring North Korea, working together to keep things -- stable!

Artists today are pretty fat and happy. They are not members of the Elite like the artists in the 1800's. They are middle class people. I wonder what they have to say? I felt Biographical Dance was a bump in the art scene, personalizing the commentary on the world. When it was in relation to the AIDS epidemic I felt it was real, raw and immediate. It was a Shared Tragedy in many ways - yet, beyond that collective experience this type of dance can seem very indulgent.

I feel that we are often dazzled by the vehicle of technology and not the content. Being a spectator at that first steam boat chugging upstream must've been amazing -- yet what really happened was it revolutionized trade. I have been involved with many dance pieces where the choreographer wanted to "use video" way before the idea of what content would be shown. Not to make that experience sound negative, but we are dinking with the delivery system rather than the content.

My hero, Loie Fuller, featured the new electric lighting by dancing the Serpentine Dance with flowing fabrics and a bunch of stagehands manipulating colored lighting. It made her a place in history. Yet today, we don't see many light shows except the dazzle of moving lights in a rock show. That is the newest technology and we are dazzled by it. Yet, in the more traditional art world of modern dance -- the colors are not quite so bright suggesting a much higher level of sophistication in it's use.

Never for a moment would I want to lessen the horror of our war in Iraq and Afghanistan or the fear of Terrorists. But, face it -- they simply are not in our back yard. They are not lining up at our borders threatening to invade or overthrow our government. Some may think that Bush is an idiot, but no one really believes that the US is on the verge of collapse. This era is one of well-fed artists in a comfortable world who are struggling to find something to say.

What are you passionate about? Whatever it is - it's not going to be something that we all are passionate about. So, if you are dancing about Cruelty to Animals, you are forcing a viewpoint onto the audience. I hope it's an informed one. Our generation is way to cynical to jump onto many band wagons.

I worry that our art makers don't have much to say. With not much to energize our art making it seems we are just vamping for a while waiting for something to happen. In this "ease of times" there are a LOT of art makers! Our colleges are pumping out "newbie artists" by the thousands every semester. It's easy to feed our families now compared to a hundred years ago. We can work as waitresses during the day and dance at night.

We are not struggling artists struggling to be fed, just struggling to be heard.

2006-10-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

The above is from a concert I designed the sets and lights for in 1997.

I thought it'd be fun to share it with you because this copy is our first live internet streaming!

Tom Erbe from the Music School came up with the idea -- we were both faculty advisors for the college radio station, so we knew each other. We had a long discussion about compression and how smooth it might be for dance vs how choppy it might be for sound. Most of which I knew nothing about. I asked him which compression software he was going to use and he told me he was writing his own software just for this show!

We announced it to the world. I remember running to my office during the show and logging on to see how it looked and how many people were logged in. We worried that if too many people were watching the quality would drop.

I think the quality is very good considering the time period! How compressed? This video file size is 660kb for a 3 minute video, think about it.

I recently ran across this file in one of my web page archives and thought that it might be fun to post to show what it was like back in '97!

2006-10-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

One of the assignments to my class was to read Jean Rosenthal's chapter on Collaboration from her book The Magic of Light. Then also read the Robert Wierzel interview in Live Design on how he collaborates with Bill T. Jones. We were struck by how the notion of collaboration has evolved over the past 30 years.

I loved the following paragraph from the Robert Wierzel interview:

What I ask him is, "Bill, what is this piece about, what is your starting image?" And he'll usually say, "Do you know this music?" Bill has always had a very raw theatricality as part of his aesthetic tempered by a clean, classical sense of structure. He knows the art world and how refined and structured the art world is and yet how chaotic the theatre world is. He kind of puts those two together, kind of high art and low art, if you will. There's always a tension or dynamic that's happening.

What is the starting image, he asks. The answer he gets is: it sounds like this.

Twenty years ago I'd have thought this a form of arrogance or felt that someone was jerking me around. Today, I feel this is exactly the right answer.

All too often I get the information that does me no good. I've learned to press for what I need. Telling me that, "it is about the Salem Witch Trial", for example, means nothing. I'll ask, is that really what you are exploring? The clue given immediately makes me begin guessing....

Is it about religious extremes?

Oppression of women?

Oppression of witchcraft?

Persecution?

The dynamics of power?

The tension when death is on the line?

History being repeated today?

As you can see, the clue given can take me in too many directions. I need clues along the lines of the abstract idea -- tension, conflict, cooperation, support, anger, pain, joy. I need the thesaurus words for introspection and presentation to be led on how my lights can support this dance.

We need our choreographers to lead us. I don't want to hear, "I imagined a down pool to open the piece." I'd rather hear, "It opens with a feeling of isolation." The difference being that I can do what I do best. I may come up with a down pool since I am being lead by the sense of isolation. But I may solve it in ways the choreographer had not imagined yet serves even better. Isolation could be a thin band of light for both sides of the stage -- or maybe ten other choices to explore.

Choreographers have to have a take on what they are wrestling with: be it strictly movement based or concept driven. The inspiration for a piece is interesting yet for me to do my job I need the commentary on the subject.

To read the Rober Wierzel interview, click here.

2006-10-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

Michele Lefevre in her recent blog here called Dance 2.0 dicusses some of the tools available online and weighs the pros and cons. It's a great article and I thought it was thoughtful and smart.

Doug Fox in his Great Dance Weblog responded with an article called How to Embrace Web 2.0. I found myself responding to it twice and so ... here I am typing about it.

These are very interesting times. I do know several choreographers who post on MySpace videos of recent performances, use the powerful 'bulletin' button and call for feedback and comments. Of course, this is after the fact and Doug is absolutely right that it could be used as a tool for part of the process.

I wonder how many artists are secure enough to open up a forum to see their work in process? As a lighting designer, I've often envied the choreographer and the costume and set designers and even the composers who get to finish their work in the studio or lab before showing it to others. Lighting Designers discover if their ideas work right there in the hot seat with everyone watching the birthing of an idea.

Some choreographers are almost picky about when I stop in to watch a rehearsal -- and others want me there every step of the way!

That being said, dancers work in front of a mirror, choreographers use an 'electonic mirror' - the video camera to note progress and show the dancers feedback. I think it'd be one small step to post online. Uploading to YouTube then posting on one's blog with a call for comments makes perfect sense to me. I can see a Yahoo Group formed or a MySpace group formed that supports each other with feedback. What seems missing is the support group availability -- someone has to come to the blog to see it, that call for submissions goes unheeded. There is no 'alert' process for immediate feedback. Being too dependent on needing to be a very popular blog -- it quickly can fail.

So, a blending of the tools is key to quality use.

A clever artist may use wikipedia to 'define' their company.

Use YouTube and their Blog in tandem to post videos or mission statements or goals for the piece or for art.

Take advantage of MySpace and Yahoo to build Groups of like-minded people.

Build into their "interests" key words that will be linked to others.

The real key is the "support group", I think. The advantages of MySpace and Yahoo's 360 and their groups is the build up of a contact base for immediate response. The current tools don't have quality filtering devices to zero in on what you want to do whether it's to make an announcement to a region or key on/off certain people.

We do have e-mail, but I think it's still clumsy - at least that is my experience.

The effort, I think, is no worse than any other kind of promotion and can mostly be done in your pajamas.

By the way, for a heavy duty description of Web 2.0, read O'Reilly's article here.

2006-10-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

Check out the article I wrote in 2005 for Lighting Dimensions magazine on Modern Dance and Lighting. It's called Light Fare.

2006-10-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

Okay then, here is my first posting.
I hope I don't make a fool of myself - my goal is to join the blogging world in the discussion of dance and making new art.