Issue #16

Spring 1998

Fame

Cover of Issue #16

I conceived of this project as a way to sort out my own, often conflicting, feelings about the kind and degree of recognition I want as a dance maker and per­former, and the dissatisfaction we all have at times with the nature of the presence or the lack of presence that dance and performance have in the larger world. I also wanted to examine more closely how the whole seemingly mysterious apparatus of fame operates. Beyond questions of quality of work, or who deserves it, how and why are some creators "thrust into the limelight" as the cliche goes, and others not? Luck? Timing? Hard work? Media savvy? So I was pleased Movement Research took up my suggestion to build an issue of the journal around "Fame," and even more pleased when Anya Pryor asked me to co-edit the issue with her.

Fame to me is all tangled up with the idea of presence, or at least about perceived presence. I am someone who shuttles back and forth between two contrary perceptions of my own presence within the loosely-grouped constella­tion of individuals, groups and institutions we call the downtown dance community. On a good day, I feel known, engaged, present in the community, and by extension in the larger world of dance. On a bad day I feel invisible, alienated, isolated, in ways that have just as much to do with autobiography, personal patterns and history as they do with "objective" events such as how much my name gets in the papers, how many friends I have or how much financial support I receive. And actu­ally the terms "good day" and "bad day" mislead: aspects of both positions are useful and stimulating in terms of keeping the work going.

The topic of fame has tentacles that reach out to a host of other issues relevant to our lives as performers, such as how we define our own success in the marginal­ized fields of experimental dance and performance. And how can dance and performance itself find its presence, its audience, in or against the larger world? What role do critics play in the larger public's knowledge of dance/per­formance and in the shaping of individual careers?

Editorial team

Contributing Editor

Linda Austin Anya Pryor

Design

Jana DeWitt Andrew Fearnside

Contributor

Mary Overlie Keith Hennessy Lucy Sexton Mike Taylor Deborah Jowitt Deborah Slater Doris Green Daniel Nagrin Joanne Nerenberg Joanne Nerenberg Trajal Harrell Ananya Chatterjea Frank Moore Kate Mattingly Ann Farmer Barbara Barg Yvonne Rainer Linda Austin Anya Pryor

Articles

Do The Work

In 1976 I was in graduate school at San Francisco State University getting a Masters degree in Interdisciplinary Arts. At that time the program was considered so weird the degree...

Displaced Traditions

Words such as the chosen, fame and critics are not relevant to African dance. Criticism of African dance, particularly by those who are not part of the way of life...

The Application

Grants: The giving of grants is implicitly an act of criticism: so-and-so gets a $25,000 grant. So-and-so receives $2,500. There is no escaping the assumption that one of these is...

The Gag Rule

Ambition is always loaded. Sleazy connotations, naive young hope, and American tenacity come packed in. Shaped to match are junk bondsmen, Audrey Hepburn characters, and myths of the self-made man....

They’ve Got It

If fame is mass appeal, try to top a dance troupe that performs for crowds of 19,706 at least 41 times a year. They’re the Knicks City Dancers: “the most...

Famous People

Famous people are always dying. You rarely hear of any being born though. Do their progenitors send glow worms down through haloed thighs? Is a lengthier episiotomy required? What things...

5-6, 9, 12, 14

Zimmers

Zimmer #1 It's not who you know, it's who knows you. Make sure they spell your name right. Zimmer #2 People who receive ample monetary rewards for their work, for...