Archive for kristin sloan
February 19, 2008 at 6:15 am · Filed under dance, injuries, blogs, writing, wingers, magazines, marketing, TAYLOR, kristin sloan, bloggers
(LINKS UPDATED 2/20 SO THEY ACTUALLY WORK! HAHA SORRY ABOUT THAT)
Hi Wingers!
Life has certainly been keeping me busy since my last post about graduating from college, and there’s lots to catch up on (performing, teaching a bit, internship, writing…). But instead of focusing on that (which you can read about in my other blog) I wanted to write about an event tonight hosted by movmnt magazine.
Movmnt is a quarterly dance lifestyle magazine that just came out with it’s spring 2008 issue. The Winger was featured in their last issue, and in this new one there’s an article I wrote about injuries, featuring The Winger’s own Kristin Sloan. First of all, if you haven’t seen the magazine you need to get a copy of it…and I’m not just saying that because I write for them. It’s really a fresh take on the dance world that most other dance writing out there doesn’t offer.
THAT being said, tonight the magazine hosted another blogger get-together similar to the one that Cedar Lake Dance had last month. This time we were able to sit down and actual have some serious conversations about dance, publicity, pop culture, and so much more.
Readers, you should know that all of these bloggers you follow are really incredible people with unique perspectives, who all deeply care about dance on a level that I have personally never experienced before to such a degree. It’s different than being in a room full of dancers, or full of just dance enthusiasts. We all come from different places and have our own ideas, and to share them with each other and on blogs like The Winger really does something for the dance world (in my opinion!).
Tomorrow or someday really soon I promise to post details of our (fascinating) conversation and conclusions we came up with, but for now here’s a basic rundown of my experience at the get-together.
I ran into Evan of Dancing Perfectly Free in the elevator on the way up to the movmnt office, and when we got there we were welcomed by David, Editor and Publisher, some of his magazine staff, and Doug . A stack of sandwiches and multiple diet cokes awaited us, with chips and snacks added to make us feel at home. It’s funny because even though we all see each other in person once in a while (and only since the Cedar Lake event), we all have a sense of what’s going on with each other that we don’t really even need to ask, “So how are you?” Haha we read each other’s blogs and it’s such an amusing connection. Sometimes when I blog I think, who on earth actually reads this. It’s nice to hear that people actually do!
Anyways, multiple other bloggers filtered in within the next half an hour, including Tonya and fellow Wingers Tony & Brian (visiting from San Francisco). After munching and marveling over each other’s real life personas versus blogging personalities (haha), we got down to business.
The nearly 2 hour long conversation went everywhere from what influence do bloggers really have on the dance world, to what dance companies are/aren’t doing to modernize themselves through publicity, to social networks and the fame culture, to where is the blogosphere headed in the future (any thoughts on any of this, please comment!). Everyone raised some very interesting points and sparked some great debate/dialogue. It’s really inspiring being surrounded by people who care so much about dance…I was fascinated by each person at the table.
After saying goodbye and walking away with another copy of the new issue, I took the subway uptown with Evan and we continued the conversation for the whole ride, discussing the issues already raised and bringing up other things we forgot to mention. Now that I’m home and thinking it over I realize there is so much to be discussed and we’ve only touched the tip of it. I hope we have more get-togethers like this regularly in the future, and it would be great to hear from blog readers about some of the issues mentioned above.
More details from our conversation and photo(s) to come soon, but big thanks to movmnt for hosting the get-together. If you get a chance, head to Barnes & Noble and pick up the new issue to see my article and lots of other interesting dance writing!
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
January 12, 2008 at 5:33 am · Filed under dance, friends, dougfox, david hallberg, danny tidwell, blogging, cedar lake, TAYLOR, kristin sloan
Okay, so I’m a little behind the blogging times (even though it’s only been 48 hours since this event…) but I just HAD to write about the blogger meetup hosted by Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet on Wednesday. We saw a dress rehearsal performance followed by a quick q&a with Artistic Director Benois-Swan Puffer. You may have seen Kristin’s (real time!) photos of it. What a great night, and what a great show!
My actual review of the performance can be seen here on ExploreDance.com. They have such a nice facility there in Chelsea, and some truly great dancers. Each of the three pieces we saw at the dress rehearsal performance were different but equally exciting.
Perhaps MORE exciting for me, though, was meeting fellow bloggers. Of course I had already met Kristin in an interview for my article in movmnt (coming out in early February!), but this was the first time meeting some of the other online dance writers whom I mentioned in my thesis research and who I read so often!
Before the performance there was snacks and mingling for all of us, and I was quickly introduced to Doug, Tonya, Ariel, Philip, and Evan (with whom I sat for the show). David also showed up (to Tonya’s delight…hehe) and there was a spotting of Danny Tidwell, too. All the bloggers took a group picture, which we’re hoping will pop up here on The Winger soon!
It was so wonderful to meet everyone and discuss blogging, dance, the performance, etc. We bloggers are certainly a motley crew, haha. Check out other people’s coverage of the event: Tonya, Doug, Ariel, Evan, Philip, and Kristin.
While I was so excited after the evening, I didn’t get to write about it until now because the last two days have been insane: I started my internship at The New Yorker as well as a temporary apprenticeship with the Rebecca Kelly Ballet. Talk about busy! Both my “first days” have gone well…
I’ve gotten a lot of questions about my experiences at The New Yorker and more, so I wanted to announce that I also write another blog, Off Center, which chronicles more of my daily life of ballet classes, internships (ie: New Yorker), writing assignments, and more. I’ve had it for a few months now but have kept it pretty quiet - but I think now that so much more is going on I want to invite more people to read it! So check it out if you’re interested!:-)
Anyways…BIG THANKS to Cedar Lake for inviting the dance bloggers! It was such a fabulous night!
More updates on dancing with Rebecca Kelly Ballet and more to come soon…meanwhile, check out Off Center. Countdown: 2 weeks til I graduate from Marymount Manhattan College 
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
October 17, 2007 at 8:59 pm · Filed under SLOAN, dance, community, myspace, THE ( INTER ) MISSION, kristin sloan, social network
Hello WIngers!
We’d like to invite you to join THE ( INTER ) MISSION - a Social Network for DANCE - brought to you by The WInger.
The intermission is a time when people in both the audience and backstage can decompress and discuss what’s happening with like-minded people. They share what they’ve seen, what they’ve done, experiences, ideas, and opinions.
The mission is to bring that discussion online, to a group of unique individuals with one common interest, potentially bringing new life, ideas, and expertise to ongoing issues within the dance world.
The site functions a lot like MySpace and Facebook but there is one important difference - everyone on the site has an interest in DANCE.
There are currently over 100 members, so you won’t be lonely. Also, if you are a member or organizer of a dance company of any kind, the Group feature makes it really easy to have a central spot in which to promote your company. Individuals can also add photos, videos, blog posts, forum discussions, customized widgets, RSS feeds…
All blog posts and forum discussions throughout the network appear on the main page (unless you choose to keep them private), opening up everything you contribute to a community of dance enthusiasts.
In the future I’m hoping to be able to offer discounts or special offers to our members for performances or dance products.
If you are an event organizer or represent a company that creates dance products and would like to work on creating a special offer in conjunction with THE ( INTER ) MISSION, let us know.
Hope to see you at the intermission!
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
