2004-06-24 #1

Sound as a Second-Class Citizen for Dance on Screen

Something which came across on one of the arts mailing lists a day or two ago:

Desperately seeking choreographers, dancers and moving image makers!

As part of Capture West Midlands, a new 2-year initiative supported by Arts Council West Midlands to develop a dance and moving image infrastructure in the region, Arts+Media Training are offering a professional development programme of opportunities for dancers choreographers, and moving image makers to work together to create pilot projects.

I can only assume that silent movies are back in fashion, since nowhere in the entire call-for-participants is there any mention of music or sound.

The article refers to the recent Arts Council Capture3 awards; I downloaded a list of the projects and artists, and of the eight projects, only one mentions music, and only two of the sixteen named artists appear to be musicians (although not all roles are specified).

I find this sad. Of course, I have a vested interest as a composer and sound designer (although I generally prefer working in live performance), but my experience is that choreographers and dancers have a keen interest in sound; it is also my experience that many do not have much experience of the creative and collaborative process of putting together audio composition and choreography, and often seem surprised by what can be achieved in such partnerships. And when one sees the importance (or lack thereof) given to sound composition by the dance funding and administrative bodies, it is denying choreographers an important resource and source of creative collaboration, as well as denying musicians the chance to be deeply involved in the creation of dance work.