American Dance Abroad’s second edition of American Dance Recon/New York (ADR/NY) just wrapped up last week. Each of the four and a half days of the symposium was incredibly full. Each day started with a roundtable discussion and featured studio showings or full performances from American dance companies (we saw 17 in total!)
Almost the whole group at DANY studios on the second-to-last day
A common question we get is “how do you choose which artists to feature during ADR/NY?” Much of the time it depended on who was rehearsing where. The goal was to highlight a half-week slice of dance in New York City; any other week, we would have seen just as much dance of equal quality, but completely different artists. A context session with Deborah Jowitt, a lunch with American presenters, and the town hall co-hosted with Dance/NYC were some other highlights.
We consistently received feedback that forums like ADR are essential to “building the story” through which American artists’ work can be presented. Seeing dance in live performance, making a personal connection with the artist, and being able to contextualize the artist’s work through the lens of dance history are all necessary for presenters to overcome obstacles to presenting American dance.
TAY Tong (Singapore) and Risima Risimkin (Macedonia)
It was amazing, also, to see the ways in which the international guests connected with each other. Over such a short amount of time, the presenters – from Croatia, Singapore, Lebanon, Australia, Macedonia, Brazil, and Korea – formed strong bonds with each other, through discussing artists and enduring the whirlwind of showings. The biggest problem was jet lag – as Carolelinda and Andrea know, having come straight from Performing Arts Market Seoul in Korea.
But no time for a break – we’re holding another American Dance Recon in San Francisco November 7-11!
American Dance Abroad 
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