[dance-tech] dance tech network attacks

Dear List 

I can no longer keep silent about a dance tech attack that I experienced a few 
days ago. Thank you for that Marlon for your video on the matter and I respond 
here:

I was encouraged to describe what I felt whilst dancing in a performance piece 
"entraced" and in my own words set out quite honestly to write down my thoughts 
on what happened during the event. I casually made reference to and reflected 
some views on discourse that I have, as a dance practitioner, picked up along 
the way. I was then attacked by a list member demanding from which 
philosophical/intellectual framework I was writing from and made to feel 
ignorant and humiliated by my own personal views, as I did not quite fit in the 
framework of discourse that seems to be driving that person to only criticize 
from a seat of First World privilege and a university post. 

The way I see it, there is no room for the "other" voice, nor improvement, as 
this network is a site for the privileged few who feel they have the right to 
exclusive intellectualism in their views. I have seen other dance practitioners 
attempt the same thing, only to be shot down in flames and silenced for good. I 
thought this site was a site for exchanging views and ideas, opinions about our 
craft and not a place to demonstrate our prowess as intellectuals. 

So now, for me, it is a site that fills one with awe and dread. It is after all 
a dance/tech site, the one side that has a history of words, context and 
re-definitions (ad nauseum) and the other that attempts to express in a 
coherent string of words that which is ineffable and constantly escaping 
definition (how romantic). How can you ever hope to get these two to talk to 
each other?

regards and with an eye to the future
jeannette


Jeannette Ginslov
Director
Walking Gusto Productions
multimedia dance theatre
 www.wgp.co.za

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