Dance Summit
14 August 2010
On this Tuesday, August 10th at the Eubir Blake Center, Dance Baltimore held a summit for local dance professionals. There was a basic agenda. The turn out was good, with about twenty in attendance. The most prominent topics of discussion included creating a regional Baltimore/D.C./Philadelphia network, recruiting dance writers, establishing a more central, online resource for dance, and publishing a seasonal dance calendar of events in the mid-Atlantic region.
Going in, Effervescent Collective aimed to explore successful models from the DIY art community that could better establish dance in Baltimore. Effervescent considers Aural States, Nudashank Gallery, Transmodern Fest, and The Red Room as examples of artist shared and mantained resources, regional networking, and local, urban focus -- all of which the dance community could benefit from. Although not all of these points were integrated into conversations at the summit, many productive conversations began at the reception following.
The dialogue was positive and receptive. Heads nodded approval to the ideas of others. If nothing else, this summit was a thought-provoking meeting with many people that intend to make dance more commonplace in Baltimore. The turnout was a reassuring sign, and the positive feedback was even better. That in mind, the next step has yet to come when we are able to actually move forward with these plans.
