Dance Previews are Resilient Cockroaches: E-mails with Friends

Excerpt from a gchat with K (music editor)

i've started my thesis work...which is on ballet criticism...and it's left me doing a lot of thinking about documenting fleeting moments...not so much theater...but music and dance

those two have a lot in common, i think.

moreso than dance and theater

Kiernan: yes!

11:37 PM me: i've found that my thinking has traced it's path back to questions i had last term

Kiernan: I am very eager to read this.

me: there just have to be better ways into writing reviews

Kiernan: yes

I was literally just talking about this in our meeting today

11:38 PM me: i don't believe that those other ways don't exist

Kiernan: yes

me: what happened?

Kiernan: specifically in this case, I was trying to figure out how we could... write about/chronicle/whatever local shows

11:39 PM I don't know

I have some big ideas about this

it's kind of daunting to think about how to enter here.

what conclusions have you been able to draw so far?

11:40 PM me: i'm coming at it from a design writing perspective. so i'm trying to find design-oriented aspect of ballet in order to find new ways into writing a review

11:41 PM like...instead of writing a review of a one-off Cinderella performance, what if i went to the archives of the royal ballet and did a review of the performance using old theater programs?

or what if i traced the pointe shoes the dancer on stage wears from the beginning of their life in the workshop to the final bow?

so that way i can maybe start asking/answering bigger questions about other parts of ballet...rather than describing

11:42 PM the problem is word count

dance sections are SO limited

and dull

also

i'll have to send you the link when i can find it

there's a woman who is looking into different ways of documenting performance

11:43 PM and she's set up an exhibition of speakers that play people's personal reactions to the performance they just saw...rather than a written text

11:44 PM Kiernan: wow!

me: i mean, is "writing" the right way to document something that can be done without words? and if writing is appropriate, what is the best way to write about it?

Kiernan: I would love to see that

11:45 PM me: i'll find it for you

i need to refind it for me

11:47 PM http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2011/apr/20/theatre-memory-past-performance-plays

me: have you come to any ideas/conclusions?

what do the writers think?

Kiernan: oh this was an editor meeting

me: ahh okay

11:51 PM what did they think?

Kiernan: and my boss went on a tirade about fluffy Q&As and the cockroach like resilience of our current show preview format.

11:52 PM which I agree with, but that's a pretty huge, pretty separate issue at the moment.

me: ahh man the preview

bleurgh

yeah that is pretty separate though

11:53 PM i don't think you could tackle both in the same way

i think i'll start describing dance previews as resilient cockroaches

Kiernan: probably should