新GRE阅读能力提升素材分享贴四十三

KnightBM

   The new arts patron
Dance’s next generation of audience? College students.
By Andrew Carroll
Arts presenters: University students are your next potential arts patrons.
   This is a brilliant generation raised on technological innovations. Millennials are versed in technology in ways that still baffle many of my [older] generation. They’ve gained easy admittance to the gentry of the technological elite. Access to this world carries budding consequences: impatience, the need for instant gratification, and impersonal communication methods. This generation has no need to find a phone, computer, book, map, or other resource; it’s all available on their handheld devices. Anyone born in the mid-1980s or later does not know life in the slow lane.

   To best capture these potential ticket buyers and audience members, arts presenters must understand this generation, their specific needs and current environmental, social, and entertainment interactions. These soon-to-be-graduated, well-educated young adults will go forth in the world, eager to begin employment and make adult decisions. With earning discretionary cash, they will choose what forms of entertainment to spend their time and money.
How can dance appeal to a generation accustomed to receiving astonishing images and experiences with the click of a button or tap of a keystroke?        
   
For presenters to succeed, they must provide entertainment that interests these youthful, technologically savvy, independent-thinking ticket buyers. University students want to see productions that are in some way out-of-the-box, diversity on stage and more personal engagement and involvement before, during, and following the event. They also want events to be faster paced. Using interdisciplinary collaborations, technology, choreography that breaks tradition, and the athletic aesthetic contribute to creating one-of-a-kind experiences.
Choreographers can utilize the talents of artists from other genres to construct works that feature multiple layers of original and assimilation material. The course, Viewing Dance, developed for non-dance majors at the University of Akron (Ohio) provided many insights on what strategies might work for millennials. As the course instructor for nine years, I turned to technology to engage students and dance viewing assignments on YouTube provide rich material.  Dance and non-dance majors were each assigned to attend a performance of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s presentation of Fondly Do We Hope, Fervently Do We Pray at the Ohio Theatre in Cleveland. This rich tapestry of dance incorporated the artistry of Jones’s choreography and vision, paired with various artisans: stellar company dancers, two live singers who at times followed the dancers or remained stationed downstage to sing, a narrator who recounted background lore during certain sections. Also movable visual art that served as set, scene manipulators, and video technology projected on an enormous curtain displaying written text and images that ushered the audience into this work. The piece, performed without an intermission, ran for approximately an hour and 40 minutes. Dancers and non-dancers noted this event was out-of-the-box. The artistic aspects and diversity held their attention. Many expressed the desire to attend future productions of this nature.
   
As in the Jones piece, choreographers have and continue to include technology in their works, adding more texture, stimuli and dimension. While most students may not understand particulars of the language of dance technique, they are innately familiar with technology.
Out-of-the-box programming
Choreography that breaks tradition is another feature of out-of-the-box programming. Breaking from traditional dance technique, like ballet, modern, or folkloric forms, creates new, exciting and unexpected shapes and transitions that take audiences by surprise. This contributes to building a more athletic and visually rich experience.  Dances featuring athleticism provide a common aesthetic most viewers understand but appreciate and wish to emulate.        
   
Contemporary choreographers such as Alonzo King, William Forsythe, David Parsons, Jennifer Muller and others feature dancers that emphasize the streamlined physique of the dancer as athlete. Non-dance majors express interest in works that exhibit the physical and virtuosic. William Forsythe’s In The Middle Somewhat Elevated was so valued that many male students stated they often returned to YouTube to watch this piece because the sheer athleticism intrigued them.
   
One can find ways to personalize dance events on university campuses and beyond. Interviews and profiles seem to bridge the gap between unknown performers and the audience that views them. Why doesn’t dance take this up? Videos that depict the hardship, tears, trials, triumphs, laughter, nerves, and excitement of performing endear dancers to their audiences, who may relate to similar emotions in their own experiences. Filming rehearsals not only illustrates sequences that do not work and the frustration that ensues, but it also shows the joy of achievement when the process yields a desired result. Who doesn’t cheer for a success story? In addition, audiences glimpse the “secret” life of dancers through clips of them panting in the wings, rubbing ointment on sore muscles, applying band-aids to bloody toes, actions seldom seen in the context of concert attendance. This can serve to further interest in the field.
   Podcasts, purposely filmed in the wings during a performance, are another option. Audience members might be captivated by seeing behind-the-scenes action. Perhaps this could result in purchasing a ticket to see the concert from the angle of the audience.
       
As dance advocates, teachers, and presenters, we must recognize and respect this changing landscape and open ourselves to strategies that best appeal to future generations. The art, beauty, and communication of dance deserve this.

小圆子Theresa

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