Hi Jeffrey
We recieved your contact information from Chase Granoff who told us of your interest in some kind of collaboration with the website
administered through Movement Research in NYC – critical correspondence.

(www.movementresearch.org/publishing)

Alejandra Martorell and I are currently the two editors of the site, and we would be very interested in some form of written collaboration, as would the organization of Movement Research. MR recognizes the unique opportunities provided by the internet to engage in discourse across large physical distances and communities. Chase speaks very highly of the goals of your site and I think it would be great to work together.

That said, Im wondering if you have any specific proposals in mind.

Currently, cc is in a bit of a holding pattern. MR just got money to redesign their entire website and greater integrate cc into it, but that process is moving pretty slowly at the moment. Currently we are unhappy with the design of the site but feel it is important to keep it active and keep content coming in. I think the role cc plays in MR will be changing as the web presence of MR changes, but for now we want to keep supporting artists writing about or talking about art, and approaching issues and critical discourse that affect artists in the dance and performance field.

Also, as I just said before, we think cc will be a natural part of MR where there can be a discourse shared among physically distant areas and a way of maintaining a connection with the international dance community.

Let me know any ideas you may have, would love to get something
started.

best
Levi Gonzalez

hi levi
many thanks for yr email. i had frankly given up on you guys, so this a really pleasant surprise.

i had one bright idea while taking with chase:
we are currently developing this site re content, audience, format, presentation. it seems you are doing the same. how about an editorial meta-logue about between yourselves and we about what we are trying to do, how it fits into the goals of our parent organisations, the importance or consequences of talking about dance & choreography in the particular ways that we do…

otherwise, any dialogues we could set up betwen artist/thinkers on each side of the virtual and literal pond would be a bonus. let’s think of people we know who’d like to be in exchange, the kinds of people they’d like to exchange with, and the topics of choice.

great to be moving
jeffrey

Hi Jeffrey
Great. Because the Movement Research website is so in flux, now really is a time that we are trying to rearticulate the roles, goals, ideas for both cc and the larger MR site. We are trying to create an opportunity for artists to give their input into what that should be, so I’m wondering if we could set up a dialogue that invites that kind of input. Ale, is there a way technically for this to happen, posting comments for ex.? I am not sure how your parent organization is structured in relation to choreograph.net, but I know its tricky for us to be the spokespersons for all of cc and certainly not for MR. But there are certain ideas and agendas we are trying to make visible. I wonder if starting with a history of where the two sites started from and how they have developed thus far might be interesting? Perhaps Ale and I can co-write something and we can have a back and forth? I’m ccing this to Ale, please weigh in with your thoughts as well.

We are stretched pretty thin here with all our other nyc commitments, but we care very deeply about cc and want this to happen so please forgive our occasional slowness.

Setting up dialogues between artists/thinkers is easy for us, would love to do that. My hunch is you might be able to propose someone from your end first, and what their interests might be, since im assuming the scene is significantly smaller there in terms of sheer numbers. Chase of course comes to mind since he had been there, but I will also pick his brain since to see if he can think of any other good potential pairings.

best
Levi

dear Jeff, Levi and Chase,
i’m excited about building a dialogue between organizations, publications and people at last. thank you!

i’ve included Chase in this email in case you have thoughts on other possible topics and directions.

briefly looking at Daghdha’s site and choregraph.net, i see more concretely that there is really a lot of ground within which to exchange ideas. i think focusing on the development of the sites can be a helpful guide from which to detour into more detailed conversations since in that process we are all to some extent re-articulating our purpose and vision. i’ll be looking into ways to do this format-wise in CC. is the current choreograph.net that i visited a new site, already re-designed? is it still in progress?

it will take more reading and thinking, but at first glance, i see that some of the nuggets to be explore include:

the relative space that Daghdha occupies in the dance ecosystem in Limerick vs. MR’s space in NYC. (history, growth, relative to other organizations, funding structures, etc)

the differences or similarities between a model that includes an artistic vision along with servicing dance in broad ways, in the case of Daghdha (an organization with an Artistic Director, and producing work), and an organization that although artists-founded and driven, is not itself in any way related to a particular artist, in the case of MR.

more on the conceptual side, and possibly related to the previous topic, i’m impressed by Daghdha’s capacity to state views of what dance is or can be. it makes me think and feel my own inability, but also perhaps from an institutional or organizational perspective, to speak in definite terms or commit to language and traditions of thought the same way. this is to me an interesting and vulnerable spot.

i’m also curious about the concept of “social choreography” and the idea of speaking about a “relationship between dance and choreography”—which somehow speaks of a very precise use of the word choreography, but maybe enormously inclusive in its specificity.

ok, these are more rampant thoughts. next we will come back with a more concrete space and beginning of an—open or close?—conversation.

re: beginning at the begin, it seems like a fine idea to me. and since we are doing this re-visiting of all the Performance Journals from the beginning in celebration of MR’s 30th anniversary, we’re not far from digging into those origins.

Alejandra Martorell