As Seen through the Windshield (and other perspectives on making dances)

A presentation and town hall discussion for dance makers and cultural practitioners with choreographer Wendy Rogers

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A Dance Discursion sponsored by Dance Advance
Tuesday, 15 March 2005, 7.00pm
Meeting House Theater
Community Education Center
Philadelphia, PA

Introductory comments by Bill Bissell

I'm delighted to have Wendy Rogers here in Philadelphia tonight. Dance Advance has been conducting an informal series of "Dance Discursions" for the past two years, and tonight Wendy will provide us with a glimpse into her working process. Her presentation will serve, I hope, to stimulate conversation about making dance and the many different things that making dance means for each of us.

I'm very conscious of how much information we're bombarded with every day and how hard we work at trying to filter it, to make sense of it, and to continue to make work under very challenging circumstances. I feel it is important for us to take a moment, as difficult as that can be sometimes, to sit back collectively and talk about what we do.

We all come at our work from different viewpoints. Though we are constantly being asked for business plans, outlines of current projects, and productivity goals for our work, ultimately the art is in the dance itself. Wendy Rogers is someone that I've heard speak several times and in each instance I have felt moved and renewed and left with a feeling that the work we all do is so important within our culture.

Wendy Rogers is from California, where she's a choreographer and professor of dance at the University of California, Riverside. She's a voice in dance that is, while incredibly personal, also visionary in the way she is able to situate her individual viewpoint within the larger context of our discipline.