Design: Jenny Lederer www.jennylederer.com
Throughout 2017, we will be using the alphabet as a novel way to unpack the many concepts of arts administration. Please join in. Thank you to the following arts administrators for adding ideas to the project:
- Ashley Thorndike-Youssef, Now Next Dance
- Fernando Maneca, BAX | Brooklyn Arts Exchange
- Hillary Kooistra, Abraham.In.Motion
- Kathryn Humphreys, Hubbard Street Chicago
- Katie Kruger, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center
- Liz Hitchcock Lisle, Shotgun Players
- Phyllis Haskell Tims, University of Utah (retired)
- Rebecca A. Ferrell, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Sarah Crowell, Destiny Arts Center
- Tammy Cheney, Lines Ballet
Arts administration relates to work at dance centers, arts councils, arts education programs, companies, and college programs. Please read on to explore the many and varied topics within arts administration. While not every topic applies to every setting, we hope that you will still find one or two ideas in the post that are useful and applicable to your particular setting. Please feel free to add ideas and links in the comments section below.
This week, we will talk about the letter T:
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Let's unpack, consider, and reflect upon each one of these terms and phrases. Even before reading further, you might want to take the list of ideas here and simply journal for your organization. What do these words mean to you at your organization?
T is for Time Management
Take a moment to rate yourself and your colleagues at work on "time management." In your mind, give everyone a letter grade - A, B, C, D....
Truth is, good time management is one of the most essential qualities of an arts administrator. We live in an art form wed to time. Good time management leads to strong performances, sold out shows, grants submitted on time, well-crafted classes and lessons, and good customer service. Timelines, pacing, follow through, completion...
T is for Touring Strategies
To begin, Charles Slender-White (Artistic Director of FACT/SF) offers, "Figure out why you want to tour, and what you hope to gain from it. Understand how those desires and outcomes fit into your larger artistic practice and/or organizational development. Identify partners within your own community. Start conversations. Be persistent. Be patient."
With a bit of humor, Keira Heu-Jwyn Chang (Executive Director of Kate Weare Company), shares three key touring concepts here:
"Assuming makes an ass out of you and me." Before I sign a contract, I have a list of about 100 advance questions that might impact my artists or my production team. And I ask them ALL, from crew call minimums, to body work, to stage dimensions, to laundry facilities and whether there will be snacks/coffee in the green room. None of them are deal breakers, but when you're going to a new venue where a million surprises will happen no matter how prepared you are, every bit of knowledge saves you time and effort on the ground. Advance the hell out of that shit!
Build time in your schedule for everything to go wrong. Always. If you've followed Step 1, you'll rarely be in that kind of crisis mode, but it does still happen. It's easier to cut an extra 4 hour call than to add one. And if all is going well, you get to decide whether to use the time to work on the luxury of improvements to the show, or be everyone's favorite person for a day and set them free.
Creature comforts make a difference. My dancers are all consummate professionals and can weather virtually any situation, but I wholehearted reject the "suffer for your art" martyrdom. For every tour, I create a comprehensive overview document with maps, schedules, venue contact info, special events. travel itineraries, local transit options, food recommendations and body work contacts. The more they can focus on the work instead of wondering about logistics, the better the show we can give the audience, which is in the end what it's all about.
Becca Levy, Artistic Director of Jacksonville Dance Theatre, also highlights:
Travel with 5 or fewer dancers. This is obvious, but rental cars, housing, and airfare are easier with fewer.
Per diem for the dancers is really important, even if the budget is tight. We try to provide per diem per day if the meals are not covered by someone else.
Keira's and Becca's comments are about presenting opportunities and gigs already in motion nationally. I also want to highly another side of touring - taking it back a few steps. For many, the bigger question is,
"How can I make any kind of tour, of any size, possible this calendar year?" Here are some details about
FACT/SF's exciting new initiative called PORT. (Text below is a quote from the FACT/SF
website.)
PORT (Peer Organized Regional Touring) is a touring initiative to support increased performance and engagement opportunities for West Coast contemporary dance companies. The program was developed in response to the lack of touring opportunities for small and mid-sized dance companies, and with the desire of connecting the otherwise isolated dance communities on the west coast.
We want to be articulate and descriptive. But are we continuing to ask ourselves what are the most current and relevant terms - internally and externally facing? An initial list includes ideas such as:
- Performance, showing, sharing, work in progress, open rehearsal, open studio
- Traditional setting, nontraditional setting, site-specific, site-adaptive (read more in the book Site Dance, with Steve Koplowitz's essays)
- Teachers, instructors, facilitators, specialists, teaching artists
- Emerging, established, early career, mid-career, late-career
- Curate, present, produce, support, commission, incubate
- Dialogue, panel, roundtable, gathering, town hall, summit, conference
- Dance criticism, dance writing, performance studies, reflection, review, interview, response
- Choreographer, creator, director, collaborator, performer, co-creator
- Coach, rehearsal assistant, dramaturg, stage manager
- Modern dance, dance, contemporary, postmodern, Dance
- Company, group, collective, project
- Individual artist, independent artist, solo artist
- Training, movement practice, performance practice, creative practice, studio practice, studio time
Check out the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage site and its In Terms of Performance project as well for an exploration of key words.
T is for Teacher Support/Trainings and Teacher Training Programs
Let's put these two ideas together for a moment.
First - do you have the ability at your own site to offer teacher support and trainings on a yearly basis (whether with in-house people leading or hiring guest facilitators)? Can this be an opportunity for distributed leadership - a moment to give various staff members a chance to develop and lead a workshop or discussion?
Second - thinking more about dance education with Prek-12th grade students.....what teacher training programs throughout the country can support your work back at your site or in your company? Can you find funding for employees to study at such programs as:
T is for Teachers' Reference Library
If you had $300 to build a small teachers' reference library, here is what I would suggest:
Dance Pedagogy for a Diverse World: Culturally Relevant Teaching in Theory, Research and Practice - Nyama McCarthy-Brown
Harnessing the Wind: The Art of Teaching Modern Dance - Jan Erkert
The Place of Dance: A Somatic Guide to Dancing and Dance Making - Andrea Olsen
Step by Step: A Complete Movement Education Curriculum - Sheila Kogan
Creative Dance for All Ages - Anne Green Gilbert
Dance Education Essentials: 55 Objects and Ideas for New Preschool - 12th Grade Teaching Artists - By Jill Randall and Valerie Gutwirth
Body, Mind & Spirit in ACTION: a teacher’s guide to creative dance - Patricia Reedy
Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14 - Chip Wood
A Life in Dance: A Practical Guide - Rebecca Stenn and Fran Kirmser
Creative Ballet Teaching: Technique and Artistry for the 21st Century Ballet Dancer - Cadence Whittier
The Body Eclectic: Evolving Practices in Dance Training - Melanie Bales and Rebbeca Nettl-Fiol (editors)

http://blog.lifeasamoderndancer.com/2016/08/ten-resources-for-teaching-artists-as-we-prepare-for-the-new-school-year-2.html
T is for the Teaching Artist Field
How are you a part of the teaching artist field? For nearly a decade now, the term "teaching artist" has come to the forefront to emphasize the beautiful intersection of dance making and teaching. Here are some key articles, leaders, and publications.
"What is a Teaching Artist?" - article by Eric Booth
"Guidelines for Teaching Artists" - article by Eric Booth
"A New Framework for Understanding the Field of Artists Who Work in Education and Community Settings" - article by Eric Booth
Becoming a Teaching Artist - two graphic organizers
"Thinking Out Loud - Two for One" - article by Jill Randall about the term "teaching artist"
Speaking as a Teaching Artist: 50 Perspectives
Association of Teaching Artists
Teaching Artists Guild
Teaching Artist Journal
T is for Team Building
"Team building" might sound a bit too much like corporate culture, and not dance culture, but pause for a moment. Is there potential to try out some kind of team building activity with the staff that brings people together, offers humor, offers challenge, and could potentially strengthen the way that people work together? In the broadest sense, what does team building mean to you?
Ideas include:
- A monthly service project together in your neighborhood
- Cooking class together
- City scavenger hunt
T is for Transitioning Leadership
Last, let's consider transitioning leadership. We recently saw this on the national level with the two leaders of The Dance Place stepping down, and Christopher Morgan stepping into new leadership. Read the Washington Post article here.
If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, Compasspoint leads a stellar workshop about transition, change, and leadership in nonprofits. Find out more here.
And again, let me reference the thoughtful and inspiring document Dancers' Group created entitled the Living Transition Plan.

Screenshot from page 6 of the Living Transition Plan
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