Archive for communications
January 28, 2008 at 2:18 am · Filed under dance, writing, school, TAYLOR, communications
As of this week, I officially graduated from college! I have my BA in Communication Arts from Marymount Manhattan College…and since I’m only 19 it’s a little scary to be facing this major turning point in my life!
It’s been a LOT of work trying to continue a dance career while finishing school in 2 ½ years, but I have to say that I’m really glad I stuck it out, because now I have two career paths to follow, both of which I love!
Before I write about some highlights of the last two years, here’s a quick update of what’s been going on lately and what’s coming up soon:
-I did a workshop with Rebecca Kelly Ballet, a contemporary company here in the city. One weekend I got to understudy the company for a small showcase they were doing, which was really great but hard! Learning choreography in the back of a studio while trying to stay out of the way of the company dancers flying by is really the art of the apprentice…haha.
The next week she taught a whole series of work from her repertoire. It was lots of quick learning and contemporary movements, some of which were rather foreign at first to my ballet based body. They have an interesting approach where feeling and expressing the movement is emphasized. She spoke a lot about getting rid of the “student” image and dancing more like a “professional,” which is definitely what I’m working on at this point in my dancing. It was such a great experience!
-In terms of my writing, a lot is going on. I started my internship at The New Yorker, which is great. You can read more about that on my other blog. And I was asked to take over the studio newsletter at my former studio, Ballet Academy East. On top of working on that, I got a new article assignment from Dancer Magazine, and my piece in movmnt magazine comes out in the next few weeks! Keep a look out for both of those articles, and see some recent reviews I wrote on ExploreDance.com
Moving on…
TOP 10 MOMENTS FROM MY 2 ½ YEARS IN COLLEGE AND DANCING
(in chronological order)
1. Moving to my dream city
2. Getting an internship at Pointe Magazine & seeing my first real (short) article printed
3. Dancing a soloist role in Balanchine’s Raymonda Variations with BAE
4. Working with big names in dance at BAE
5. Meeting the best teacher in the world
6. Finding the guts and opportunity to interview important people
7. Cashing my first major paycheck for performing with a ballet company
8. Having my website take off and getting writing opportunities from it
9. Starting my internship at The New Yorker
10. Realizing that all the hard work paid off as I graduate and move forward with both careers
To anyone who is torn between pursuing dance or falling back on college - I say YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL 
Last but not least, today we had another blogger meetup like the one at Cedar Lake a few weeks ago…this time it was at NYCB’s matinee performance, which was amazing by the way! I’m reviewing it for ExploreDance. It was nice to see all the other bloggers again!
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
January 4, 2008 at 4:49 pm · Filed under TONY, dance technology, community, blogging, communications, THE ( INTER ) MISSION, social network, discussion
I have been fairly quiet this semester on the winger, delving into deeper recesses of the blogosphere. Most of my writing has been on Dance Machines, the group blog for my class at Sarah Lawrence College, and in the bowels of the dancetech network. The dancetech network is similar to the inter-mission, they are both social networks run on the ning platform, and cast the ever enticing poly-panoptic gaze.
Its decription reads:
A dance and technology social network that aggregates and facilitates the flow of information and the distributed intelligence among movement, new media artists and theorists working in the confluence of embodied performance practices and new media.
It is interesting to compare the two. To view the intermission you have to be a member. You dont have to be a member view dancetech. The intermission has great graphic design. Conversations are friendly and straightforward. I especially like the fact that their is a member called theintermission whose interests include 1’s and 0’s and bodies in motion. This embodiment of many in one is Malkovichian and devilishly post-modern. It is a socialist gesture made through recursive induction.
The dancetech network is not such a friendly place. The site lacks the solid design of intermission/winger; the erratic changes in the layout make it feel more like battleground on some unstable landscape. Conversations range from metaphysical to ‘pataphysical. Forum conversations often run off topic and involve a significant amount of head-butting. The language can be cryptic, esoteric and vague.
And for all this I love it. Come over and have a look. The blog can be found here.
It is a great place to interact with people entangled in research involving technology and dance. It is where I met Julie Cruse of Ohio State’s Experimental Media and Movement Arts Lab. The work and interaction demands its own posting.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
November 6, 2007 at 5:03 am · Filed under dance, class, writing, dancewebsites, dancebloggers, costume, schoool, TAYLOR, communications
Hey everyone,
Wow, midterms and rehearsals have had me going crazy lately! Things are calming down a bit for the moment, but I have lots to share!
To start, I just HAD to post these pictures from our Halloween class. Every Halloween I can remember I’ve been in class or rehearsal, and we always dress up and attempt to have a serious class — but it always ends up being somewhat less than the normal plies and pirouettes and more of a blast of fun! This year was particularly amusing…I was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and 2 of my friends were the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. I made a yellow brick road and actually danced on it at barre! What fun
(note the yellow brick road haha)
Next order of business: The November issue of our college paper, The Monitor (where I’m the Features Editor), is now online. Lots of work went into it…click and go to pages 10-11 for my two articles. One is a set of interviews I did with student choreographers in the Dance Department preparing for a show next week. It was so interesting to hear their processes of working together with other students. Extended interviews here.
Also of note is that I’m starting to crack down and write my senior thesis. As I might have mentioned, our assignment as Communication Arts majors is to consider some aspect of new media and relate it to how it’s changing society.
Being the ballet dork that I am, I am focusing on dance journalism/criticism/discourse and the effect that the internet is having on it - basically the shift that’s going on from print to online dance writing (this website, The Winger, as an example!).
I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts about this and how you think blogs, etc are changing the scope of communication about dance. Below is part of my proposal for my thesis - just a basic outline. Any comments or input would be greatly appreciated!—
Dance Journalism and Criticism in New Media
For my paper I would like to explore the changes that the internet and new media are bringing to arts journalism, specifically dance criticism. With the invention of online communities, blogs, and social networks, the journalism and publishing industries have seen significant changes in recent years. I want to investigate these changes and see how they are leading us to the future of arts journalism.
Being passionate about both dance and writing, this topic has intrigued me for some time now. The culture of the dance world is extremely unique and the way this community fits in and interacts with the larger world has proven to be a special relationship. Concert dance is far removed from mainstream culture and the art form has always struggled to find a place in popular media. I personally want to find a way to integrate this sector of society and raise awareness of what’s going on in the dance world by communicating with the mainstream. In a culture that thrives on celebrity pitfalls like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton it seems as though true art is far underappreciated.
With that being said, the most powerful method of communication about dance, besides movement, has been in print media. Newspapers traditionally provide entertainment listings where dance performances are given brief blurbs of details and ticket information. Only the country’s largest papers allot space to dance criticism, and as a result only few dance companies are represented in the press.
The more important issue is that in recent years there has been a severe cutback in print space given to dance coverage. Magazines, such as New York Magazine, have completely eliminated the position of Chief Dance Critic and run stories on dance very rarely. Newspapers have also seen a shortage of staff on this beat. The New York Times, which is the largest print outlet serving the dance community, has cut space for dance in the popular Arts section in recent years.
Another major issue with dance journalism is the shift in dance magazines, with the merging of all titles into Macfadden Performing Arts Media in 2006.
What seems to have risen as a solution to these two major issues of coverage cutbacks and media convergence is dance criticism online. A number of message boards have been in existence for years, allowing dance enthusiasts and balletomanes to express their opinions on the goings-on of the performing world. But only recently have blogs begun to pop up that provide more in-depth coverage of performances, news, and general issues relating to dance. These sites allow a bigger variety of perspectives to be exposed and are not limited to the restrictions of time and space as print outlets are.
The internet has allowed for a beneficial increase in dance writing and has allowed for a close connection to be developed among the community. There is now an outlet for public discourse around the art form that would be nearly impossible to have without new media. Especially with the New York Times rumors of eventually going out of print and being solely online, this could be the future of arts journalism and potentially publishing as a whole.
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
August 3, 2007 at 3:24 pm · Filed under dance, student, welcome, wingers, school, TAYLOR, rock school, communications, college
Taylor, on the right, with friends at their Graduation from The Rock School in Philadelphia
Hi Wingers.
We’d like to introduce you to Taylor Gordon, a talented and ambitious young woman who attended the Rock School at Pennsylvania Ballet year-round, while finishing her high school degree at age 16. She’s now living in New York City and attending Marymount Manhattan College as a Communications Arts major and is set to finish in January at the age of 19. At the same time she is pursuing her dreams of a dancer career while also exploring the world of dance journalism with internships at Pointe Magazine and Ellen Jacobs Associates, a PR agency representing dance companies. This fall she will be a trainee with Ajkun Ballet Theatre.
Welcome Taylor!
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
