A Meeting of Bloggy Minds

 

Zac Whittenburg perhaps tweeted it best:

Zachary Whittenburg ‏trailerpilot In full effect: deep-fried pretzels and real talk with dancinbranflake artintercepts danceadvantage mariasmovers + 4dancers.#DUSAconf

What kind of blew my mind about my dinner dates last night, aside from the fact that some of the best bloggers nationwide were sitting around a table together over fried dough, was the fact that most of us had only met face-to-face an hour prior at the Dance/USA’s opening reception at City Hall.

You would think we were old friends.  

On the other hand, this diverse panel (ahem, brilliantly constructed, if you ask me) comes not only from all parts of the country but all parts of the blogosphere, and we found as many things out-of-common as in.

I think the most revealing moment in our deep-fried conversation was when Catherine Tully asked us each to say “What do you WANT out of blogging? What’s your goal?”. Our answers are as individual as we are, and that’s what makes the community of dance bloggers so fascinatingly awesome.

Collectively, the goal of our panel discussion on Friday is to take some of the mystery out of blogging, and to help others in starting, maintaining, or improving their blogs, or just figuring out if it’s something that’s worth the time and energy required to do it right. That, and, how cool is it to get these leading voices in dance writing in a room together?!?

So that begs the question:

What do YOU want to hear from us about?

 

 

Author: Lauren Warnecke

Lauren Warnecke is a freelance dance critic, contributing to the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Magazine. She is senior editor of See Chicago Dance. Lauren covers dance across the Midwest and writes regularly for Dance Magazine and Pointe with additional bylines in Milwaukee Magazine, St. Louis Magazine and Dance Teacher. Forthcoming publications include essays on ballet training in Chicago (University of Illinois Press) and Shirley Mordine (University of Akron Press). In 2020, Lauren published an opinion piece on the impact of COVID-19 on the arts in the South African journal Agenda. Lauren holds degrees in dance and kinesiology and has presented research on dance training practices at the National Dance Education Organization and the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. She has co-facilitated critical dance writing intensives in Chicago and Durban, South Africa, and participated in writing residencies at the National Center for Choreography, Bates Dance Festival and JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience. Lauren teaches dance history and kinesiology for dancers, with part-time appointments at Loyola University Chicago and Illinois Wesleyan University.