the fringe and the post
i’m jealous of the fringe festival…it’s only in its second year, and the festival’s already gotten massive press coverage and huge kudos from the dc arts community. and of course amazing participation from artists. and they’ve got money. and organization. and volunteers. when i compare it to our little dc improvisation festival and my struggles to keep us moving forward, it exhausts me.
but i really should be glad. the fringe is great. it highlights art in dc, brings people downtown, gets them talking, and generally makes for a more experimental atmosphere…all important things that i’ve been wanting to see in dc.
so far, i’ve only seen one performance, that of nancy havlik’s dance performance group over at the atlas theatre. first of all, what a beautiful and swanky space! i could make a room out of those bathrooms alone.
and i really enjoyed the performance. it was a group of strong performers, and i especially liked the first piece, which featured three dancers moving very sinuously around the stage. interesting movement, interesting dynamics.
amazingly, the post covered the piece and has been pretty good at hitting the main dance performances at the fringe–”death before dying,” with jane franklin’s choreography, “69 ways to fall in love” and the weerd sisters, as well as nancy’s piece. be prepared, though–they’re all pretty negative reviews. still, it’s simply nice to read about dance in the post and see that someone’s watching. i confess that i’d hoped the choreographers’ showcase at dance place that i was in a few weeks ago would be reviewed, but it wasn’t. i’m relieved to see that at least some things are getting coverage.
i always wonder whether dance in this town isn’t getting covered simply because reviewers are tired of being disappointed with what they see. we can’t just whine about it–sometimes disappointing results (like the paucity of dance reviews) can be traced back to our own missteps. in this case, though, maybe it’s simply that there’s little patience in this town for less ‘finished’ art.
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Ananda, I can totally understand being jealous of the Fringe and its success. But, (I’m sure you know this), Damian and Julianne (who started the fringe) worked 60-70 hours per week for a year while living off credit cards to start it up. While many of us have put in many hours to get the improv festival going it completely pales in comparison….
Comment by Daniel Burkholder — July 25, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
Another note to add, although i am not for sure if the improv festival is corporated - but the Fringe is. This brought some backing to the effort up front to launch a good media campaign, marketing, and funding of the event, not to mention focus for additional grants, etc. The artist pool that participate, at fee, is also a large community. i don’t want to venture to say larger than the communicty for the improv fesitival as I know it is an open door. And Daniel raises a very criticle point, this was their entire focused and all their time was devoted to the organization of it.
Comment by Anonymous Director — July 26, 2007 @ 7:52 am
thanks, y’all. i do know that the fringe was a massive undertaking involving many fulltime folks, a lot of funding, and tons of time and energy. i don’t disparage it at all. i’m only shocked and impressed at how quickly the festival was able to get up and running, to get massive coverage and a lot of participation. damian and julianne definitely deserve kudos for that.
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