Issue #01

"And speaking of artists, why is it that more dancers don't practice the art of writing about their work? There's a long tradition of literacy among painters, composers, etc., and I see practically nothing on dance by dancers in public places." Jill Johnston 1965

With this first issue of Movement Research, we open a new public space for the New York performance community: a textual space in which artists can develop a critical relationship to the work being produced around us. If we want to further the forms of dance and performance, we need to be prepared to analyze and contextualize our own work, as well as the work of our predecessors and contemporaries. American dance has brought itself to a heightened kinetic intelligence, but we hove hod much more difficulty articulating our relationship to philosophic and social concerns. Recognizing a real lack of opportunity for choreographers, dancers, writers, musicians, and performers to engage in each others' work analytically, we have created Movement Research as a slightly anarchic forum in which opposing ideas and aesthetics can be seriously developed and debated.

In an attempt to provide a historical context for writing on performance, we have reprinted past articles by Richard Schechner and Jill Johnston. At the same time, we want this space to be available to writers of varying experience. This forum gives us an opportunity to grapple, perhaps clumsily at first, with the practice of writing about dance and performance. In a time when the arts and artists are seriously under attack, a dialogue among artists develops both the rigorous introspection and the larger commitment of a community, creating o vision necessary for survival.