written by Elizabeth Boles
Internship Week 1
My first couple of days I learned the first rule of working for a non-profit organization: be flexible. Everyone is expected to help out in whatever way possible, and most training happens on the fly. Hence, my first two days were spent not working as a box office intern (contrary to what my name tag claimed), but helping the store manager unpack and organize ADF merchandise. The weather in North Carolina is hot and humid, and lifting and unpacking boxes was a laborious process. However, I found my fellow interns to be enthusiastic and committed to helping out, which made everything a lot more enjoyable and easier.
On Thursday I finally got to see the actual box office where I will be stationed for the remainder of my internship. The manager, Tim, and assistant manager, Audrey, guided Robyn (the other intern) and I through the process of using the computer program Patron Edge to process single ticket orders. We also took a tour of the two main performance venues, Page and Reynolds theaters. We attempted to familiarize ourselves with the seating layout in order to provide customers’ with the best information regarding seating. Today we also received our work schedules for the remaining six weeks. Five days a week we will be working 10am-5pm, followed by a dinner break and then back to work from 6pm to 9pm. On weekends we will be expected to come in early for matinees, meaning our days will be almost as long, from 11am-5pm. It is certainly not all work and no play, however. Each intern gets one night off to attend one of each company’s performances. Also, we will be given time off from our schedules to take dance classes four days a week.
Thus far, I am having a blast being in the midst of all of this activity and getting to meet so many people with similar interests but vastly different backgrounds from my own. Over dinner tonight I fell into conversation with a production intern and learned that she was from Istanbul, Turkey. We discussed the strong support dance and the arts receive in Istanbul, but at the same time the tensions that exist between East and West, and between the traditionalists and the modernists within the country. I was fascinated by her description of a performance by a Sufi dancer who wove contemporary elements into his performance of a highly traditional dervish dance piece. She suggested that with my background in anthropology and dance I should consider making a visit someday to Istanbul, and I intend to seriously consider this idea.
Internship Week 2
Dance classes for the ADF six-week school began this week. Interns are allowed to take one two-hour class a day. I am taking class with Keith Thomson. I’m interested in his focus on developing fluidity in the spine and sequencing through the body. My days are long, beginning with dance class from 8:00-10:00 a.m., then work from 10:00-5:00 p.m., a short dinner break, and then back at work for that evening’s performance.
Today was my first day actually answering phones and assisting customers in the box office. It was a bit nerve-wracking at first, because if you mess up a customer's order it can be really hard to fix (if at all). By the end of the day, however, I was becoming much more comfortable with the computer program and I was even able to tell customers where the best seats were located and give directions to the theater. I also spent a great deal of time stuffing envelopes, one of the many menial tasks that are inevitably delegated to interns. Yet it is a small price to pay for the opportunity to be in the midst of something as memorable as the 75th anniversary season of the American Dance Festival. With Thursday’s opening night performance fast approaching it seems that everyone is keyed up to a near-fever pitch with excitement!
Internship Week 3
As part of the internship program at the American Dance Festival there will be a weekly seminar on different aspects of arts administration for interns to attend. This week’s seminar featured two speakers, Pam Green, a booking agent and Sara Procopio, a member of the Shen Wei Dance Arts Company. Green discussed how she designed a “free-lance” career for herself as a booking agent, which allowed her to work from home and keep her family and career in balance. Her job involves acting on behalf of various dance companies to solicit interest in their work and secure tours and performances for them. Besides offering insight into this lesser-known career in arts administration, Green also offered some good advice: a master’s degree is necessary to reach higher positions and salary in a career such as hers.
Procopio discussed how she started out as a dancer with the Shen Wei Company and later came to take on multiple administrative roles within the company. She pointed out that dancers often work part-time in arts administration related jobs, and that many employers in the theater and dance world appreciate working with people with a performance background. It was useful to hear these two individuals’ ideas on how to develop a career in the performing arts, and I will definitely take their advice into account as I chart my own path in dance.
As I intern I also have the good fortune to be able to watch performances, which has given me the opportunity to view a broad spectrum of modern dance styles. My exposure to these companies has not just been limited to being an audience member, however. Many performers hold workshops during their time at ADF. I attended a workshop with the Japanese performing couple Eiko and Koma. Their movement vocabulary is characterized by a slow and deliberate quality that is utterly unique compared to anything I have witnessed before. I was struck by the compassion and awareness they imbued in their work. Even more impressive was the fact that Eiko was 56 and Koma was 60, yet they danced with strength and beauty.
Internship Week 4
In this week’s seminar we met with Joseph Henderson of the Walltown Children’s Theater, a non-profit organization based in North Carolina. The impetus for creating this organization came from Henderson’s desire to bring the arts to an essentially “depressed community.” In his talk he described both the challenges and satisfaction that can be derived from a career in the non-profit sector. As he said, “Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to, because the organization needs money.” Yet by being flexible and willing to compromise Henderson has been able to make several significant contributions to the local community, including giving kids free tap shoes and starting a program that provides piano lessons for seniors. One of the most crucial points he brought home was the idea that being successful and making a difference in the world of dance and theater does not necessarily have to entail a high-powered career in New York. As he spoke of one production done by the Walltown Children’s Theater, he pointed out that although they didn’t have fancy sets or costumes, they did work harder and with greater creativity to bring the show together.
I was particularly interested in this talk because I come from a rural area and I was grateful to have access to strong community theater programs as a teen. It appeared to me that the Walltown Children’s Theater has filled a real gap in the local community by providing this artistic outlet. I also appreciated Henderson’s honesty when describing the long hours and financial difficulty that come with starting a new non-profit organization. He painted a realistic picture of what it takes to sustain such an organization.
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This week was the most intense of my internship thus far. The dance-theater company Pilobolus was performing and their reputation for spectacular acts of physicality and acrobatics had preceded their arrival, resulting in an onslaught of ticket sales. In the box office the phones rang constantly and people arrived at the window each day seeking tickets to the show. I became adept at assisting customers and answering their questions through constant practice. When the performance dates finally arrived things only grew more hectic and my duties continued to expand. Before this internship I had no idea the amount of organization and hard work required to run a non-profit organization. On show days we had to make sure complimentary tickets went to the right VIPs and ADF students, we had to give directions over the phone to patrons attending that day’s performance, make sure that parking vouchers were accurately distributed, set up a will-call booth for people who had purchased tickets, and sell last minute tickets at the window. Additionally, we needed to closely coordinate with the house and production staff, a task that was complicated by the fact that all three shows had managed to sell out the 1200 seat theater. Unforeseen complications arose, including a malfunctioning printer, a handicapped patron requiring special seating, and several customers that had misplaced their tickets. This position has tested both my patience and my ability to multi-task, and while at times stressful, I have found myself learning and adjusting to my new work environment.
Internship Week 5
This weekend I had the opportunity to take a contemporary Indian dance workshop with choreographer Ananya Chatterjea. The movement was entirely different from anything I had done before. It required both strength and specificity and drew on a combination of classical Indian, yogic, and contemporary forms. Chatterjea has trained extensively in the classical form of Odissi but now uses her knowledge to make work that tackles issues of social justice. She explained that her goal was to make work that was both excellent in terms of dance technique and of political consequence. Intrigued by this concept, I joined the Art and Social Justice Project she is heading here at ADF. This particular work deals with the issue of environmental justice. As a joint major in anthropology and dance I am passionate about this project as it reflects my desire to use art to reflect the issues of culture and identity in response to questions of land ownership and resource management.
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After the chaos of last week, my box office duties seemed comparatively easy this week. This internship is teaching me the importance of being flexible and accepting of the fact that sometimes my position requires a lot of me and at other times very little. My work this week consisted of filing, answering phones and helping usher at a performance. Now at week five of my internship I can field most questions with confidence and I feel secure in my ability to help customers.
This week’s performances were my favorites of the season thus far. The beginning of the week featured a cultural bonanza, with a performance by Sufi dancer Khadija Radin, a piece by Turkish choreographer Aydin Teker, and a piece by French choreographer Maguy Marin. Each piece stretched the boundaries of the definitions of dance and at times even bordered on the bizarre. Radin danced to the words of the poet Rumi, Teker’s piece featured dancers attempting to navigate the world in oversized shoes, and Marin’s piece consisted of a tunnel of mirrors through which the audience caught glimpses of dancers performing pedestrian movements. In stark contrast to these experimental works, the second part of the week featured the Martha Graham Dance Company and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. Both of these companies are more grounded in the classical dance tradition and it was glorious to watch the ease and grace with which the dancers performed technically demanding sequences. For me, it was particularly gratifying to be able to see the works of Martha Graham live. Although her contributions to modern dance are required reading in most any dance history course, seeing the work onstage truly added another dimension to my understanding of this profound choreographer.
Internship Week 6
This week’s intern seminar featured Nancy Galeota-Wozny, a 2005 NEA Fellow of the American Dance Festival's Institute for Dance Criticism. The first thing Nancy warned our group of aspiring dance critics was, “dance writing is not a career! There is only ONE full time dance critic in the U.S.!” This being said however, she then proceeded to offer a lot of prudent advice on how to pursue arts criticism and journalism. She counseled any would-be dance critics to take a basic design class, because a design background provides a fundamental education in “seeing.” On the subject of how Nancy personally came to be a writer, she jokingly remarked that she had previously been “a frustrated choreographer!” At first, she was adverse to the idea of being a “critic,” especially after the experience of having her own works reviewed. However she later came to fall in love with the idea of being a “designated watcher.” One of the most important qualities a dance critic should possess is to be able to approach each piece as if you were “a stranger to this land.” She discovered the importance of this particular trait at a world dance conference in which a dancer from Cambodia implored the critics, “please do not tell us we’re too slow, because all Classical Cambodian Dance is slow!” This reference to the ability to appreciate and understand diverse movement aesthetics appealed strongly to my background in anthropology. I found one of her observations especially striking: “Sometimes our aversion to a dance form is due to ignorance …we have to learn the language.” Certainly my immersion in the American Dance Festival this summer has helped me develop a broader appreciation for a variety of dance styles!
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This week’s performances by Keigwin & Company and Battleworks introduced a sense of levity not seen in the season’s performances thus far. The works of both companies managed to temper the raw, physical strength of their dancers with a generous dollop of wit and whimsy. As an audience member I was constantly surprised and amused by the dancers’ unexpected capers onstage. I was impressed by Keigwin’s use of entrances and exits on and off-stage, which flowed together nicely and allowed the piece to retain a sense of narrative continuity throughout. My favorite piece by Batteworks was “Promenade,” a distorted look at a junior high square dance that made liberal use of movement that was both sensual and grotesque.
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In previous years at ADF an open showing had been held for staff and interns to perform works of their design, but this year no one had volunteered any interest in organizing a show. My fellow intern in the box office and I decided that this was a shame and took the initiative to organize a Staff & Intern Choreography Showing for Wednesday, July 2. We found a venue, borrowed equipment, put up flyers, and encouraged other interns and staff to participate. Several people volunteered to perform solo and group work, and I performed a solo movement study I had been developing titled “Altered Frame.” The evening of the showing we were gratified to find our efforts to generate interest in the ADF community had not been in vain, for the audience overflowed with supportive staff, faculty, students and interns. Even better, the mother of one of the staff members happened to be a documentary filmmaker with a particular interest in dance. She filmed the entire performance and made a tape for the ADF Archives. This experience will probably become one of my favorite ADF memories.
Internship Week 7
Bridget Kelly and Kathryn Ullom were the speakers for this week’s seminar focusing on the subject of how to create one’s own dance community. Bridget runs Choreo Collective in North Carolina, which brings together modern dancers and choreographers to produce and stage performances. Since graduating from UNC at Greensboro in 2004, Kathryn has been active in the local community teaching, collaborating, and staging performances. Both emphasized the necessity of finding a supportive infrastructure for creating your work, particularly if you have always known the security of the college “cocoon” that provides both creative and practical support. Not to despair though, Bridget and Kathryn affirmed that it is possible to find a dance community outside of a university setting, although it takes self-initiative on the part of the dancer. In order to find ways to continue making and showing work, it is important to embrace the idea that the production side of things is an integral part of the creation process. Self-production requires finding a market, an audience, a venue, and dancers. The ability to multi-task and to address the issues of marketing, raising money, hiring a tech crew, and writing grants are all necessary skills. In short, producing and organizing a show requires much more than just being a dancer. Building an audience for your work can include outreach to nursing homes, hospitals and public schools. It also means being flexible and adaptable with your work and creating pieces that translate well to a variety of settings. As Kathryn pointed out, the general public tends not to be aware of modern dance, and therefore they are not going to actively seek it out. As a dancer and choreographer it is your job to bring modern dance to audiences through establishing relationships and networking. Bridget stated emphatically, “I’m a big advocate of DOING.”
I appreciated their honesty and practical advice concerning the ins and outs of creating an infrastructure for producing and showing work. I felt that the importance of the intersection between business and dance could not be understated. They also offered good recommendations for how to patch together a living through working in a variety of different jobs in the arts sector, as they noted, “It is unusual to get paid to dance.” However, it is not impossible to continue dancing and Bridget also discussed the option of becoming incorporated as a non-profit organization to make the process of applying for grants and accepting donations easier.
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One of my favorite parts of doing an internship at the American Dance Festival is being able to take advantage of dance workshops on the weekends. This weekend I took a master class taught by a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Having seen their performance the previous evening (and having been completely blown away by the choreography) I was delighted to be able to learn some of their material. I have also been attending weekly Yoga classes and I am amazed by the increase in strength and flexibility I have gained, in addition to the accumulation of pure bodily knowledge.
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As I noted in prior journal entries I have discovered through the course of the Festival that my aesthetic tastes tend toward those pieces that push the traditional boundaries. For this reason I was excited to see Meredith Monk’s rendition of “Education of the Girlchild,” which blended vocals and movement into a work that would fit more easily into the category of performance art than dance. As she regressed through the stages of her life throughout the course of her piece, I was impressed by how easily she moved from embodying an elderly woman to a young girl, perfectly capturing the mannerisms and textures of each stage of life. The haunting vocals that accompanied her simple movement showcased her powerful voice and solid training, but rarely ventured into any realm that could be considered “classical.”
Internship Week 8
Our seminar for the final week addressed the issue of arts advocacy with speakers Margaret DeMott of the Durham Arts Council and Karen Wells of Arts NC. This was a subject area of which I knew little and I was excited by what I learned. Karen is a registered lobbyist, which means that she can campaign for a candidate to sign-off on a specific piece of legislation. Through her hard work, the Arts Council in NC saw a more than 80% increase in grants funding over the past year. However, one does not have to be an officially registered lobbyist to simply advocate for the arts. Both Margaret and Karen work to make arts a priority for legislators and help officials to connect the dots between investing in the arts and investing in the economic and social infrastructure of communities. They work to provide legislators with the numbers and data that show, for instance, a direct correlation between a diverse artistic scene and increases in tourist spending or the impact of arts on education. I was particularly interested in the role of cultural consulting firms in researching and gathering data from communities through interviews, surveys and town meetings. With my background in anthropology and dance, a future position in a cultural consulting firm could be a perfect fit!
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The 2008 ADF season concluded with the Japan Festival, which featured a variety of Japanese dance styles. In a performance by the companies Dairakudan and Kochuten I was introduced to the style of “butoh” dance for the first time. This form of dance revels in a sense of the bizarre and grotesque, featuring dancers with bodies powdered white slowly moving and contorting their bodies and faces. At first I was skeptical about whether or not I would like butoh, but as I watched I became enraptured by the dancers deliberate, hypnotic movements. Other pieces featured in the Japan Festival were not in the butoh style; of these my favorite was “Circus” by the Natural Dance Theater. This was also an eye-opening performance for me, as I have seen very little dance theater. I enjoyed the manner in which costuming, characters, and narrative held the piece together while keeping the dancing central to the work. The performances at ADF have continued to expand my sense of the multitude of possibilities that exist in the realm of dance, and I am consistently amazed to discover yet another take on this already diverse art form.
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As an intern I have grown accustomed to fluctuating between two wildly different states: boredom and utter chaos. I suppose that these states could be better described as varying in pressure. At times pressure is low, the phones are silent and the only task consists of some filing that may be completed at a leisurely pace. These periods are contrasted with high-pressure periods of pure frenetic energy, when all of the phones are ringing at once, a customer has misplaced their tickets, people are jostling one another to find a spot in the long will-call line and the printer has suddenly, mysteriously, decided to jam. I have learned valuable lessons from having survived both states. Low-pressure periods have taught me patience and how to use spare time wisely and effectively to complete other tasks. High-pressure periods have taught me to multi-task and stay focused, even when the world around me is going crazy. In sum, the long hours I have put in at my internship have given me a much clearer and informed understanding of the field of arts administration and I feel much better prepared to enter this field, if I so choose, upon graduation.
What made this internship particularly outstanding was the level of gratitude and acceptance that existed within the ADF community. Students regularly approached teachers after class to say thank you and people were forthcoming with feedback and praise for individual work. I felt like part of a community by the end of the eight weeks and I am truly grateful to have been able to take advantage of this unique opportunity. My advice to anyone considering an internship is, JUST DO IT!
Elizabeth Boles served as an ADF Box Office Intern during the 2008 season.
She is a double major in Dance and Sociology/Anthropology at Middlebury College in Vermont.
