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?