artistic fulfillment

I have to ask, what is artistic fulfillment in dance? Because it doesn't seem to be the same for other art forms. Dancers feel fulfilled when they complete triple pirouettes flawlessly or when they get to do an emilianovich, staying in the air all the way through. But is that artistic? Isn't that a skill you practice over and over until you get it right?

There is a very fine line between what is artistic and what is acrobatic. What is art and what is entertainment? What is art and what is spectacle? Of course, we first have to ask - what is art, in the first place? It is so dangerous to attempt a definition. I used to think, art is what moves you. Now that's dangerous as well. For example, when I first saw the woman with no arm and her partner with no leg in that pas de deux together, I found it hilarious. Now, people are forwarding the clip and posting it up on Facebook as so inspiring, so moving. It almost made me feel bad that I laughed at it before.

Almost.

Coming from a show by somebody who argued with me about artistic fulfillment, I find the need to stop and try to define "artistic fulfillment" first. What does this mean to a dancer? Dancers do not create the choreography, but we add in our little things. Some of us perfect the steps - we are then called virtuosic. Some of us inject so much of ourselves into the steps that we become one with the steps, that we become the dance. However, I don't think these dancers would go out and say, "I am artistically fulfilled." That would be too weird.

Instead, dancers say they are artistically fulfilled when they find themselves dancing at the company of their choice or working with a particular choreographer, or when they are given their dream role, or when they complete their 32 fouettes, or when they are bowing to a standing ovation and the moment is so big that tears just stream down their face. It has become a general catch-all phrase. And it has nothing to do with artistry, except that they are dancing.

I guess I just want to pick a fight. I'm crazy like that.

on blogging and putting yourself out there

I am planning to put up an online version of my magazine, Runthru, very soon; I'm in the process of figuring out what to put in it, what it will look like, why you will still buy the print version even if there's an online version, as well as figuring out what platform to put it on and how I'm going to pay for it. I've been looking for pegs* and of course had to check out Dance Magazine's online version.

They have this section called "Blogs," like online versions of broadsheets and newspapers do (My favorite blog on a broadsheet is Mayo's: http://blogs.todayonline.com/forartssake/). So I was thinking, maybe I should link my blog to Runthru, too. But how different would my blog posts be once I put up Runthru, which I plan will have regular news updates so that it's current and relevant and not necessarily waiting for the print version all the time? Right now, I'm mostly putting up news bits on this blog, basically because I've been busy doing actual writing, among other things. I also haven't been comfortable about what kind of things I want to share on this blog, given that I don't want it to be a "personal" blog anymore. So I've been wondering, is this to personal to share here? Wouldn't people interested in dance in the Philippines be interested to read these things, also?

That's one thing about blogging - it's a public endeavor. Very, very public. I always have personal blogs that anyone can read (on livejournal, I do not lock my posts because I have friends who read my blogs who cannot be bothered to get a livejournal account just to read my locked posts), but I'm always startled and uneasy when somebody comes up to me and mentions that they read my blog. I have to watch what I say. Going from that kind of blogging to wanting to share a blog on the Philippine dance scene is quite a difficult transition. I'm worried that this blog is getting a bit boring; at the same time, I worry about its/my credibility. Such a difficult transition, isn't it?

So, hoping to solve my dilemma, I checked out Dance Magazine EIC's blog to see what she blogs about. It wasn't much help - she casually talks about a Ballet Russes exhibit (which she could have had a full feature on in her magazine), about the death of Merce Cunningham and how that affected her and the artists around her, her thoughts after seeing Pina Bausch's dancers perform after her death, all little editorials that could be bigger articles. Which I guess is what a blog of an editor-in-chief should be about.

I know I'll figure it out eventually. I hope you stick around for the ride.

--

*One of my pegs is CritiCine, the independent online film criticism magazine, produced by the late Alexis Tioseco, which is an easily navigable site, whose valuable content matched the site's gorgeousness. Interestingly, when I was going through the site to get ideas, thinking what a brilliant man Alexis Tioseco was and how encouraged I felt that I wanted to do the same for dance, I didn't know yet that he had died - I believe I was looking at the site the day after if not the same day. I believe his work continues even after his death, inspiring a lot of us to take up the good fight and keep fighting. And so I shall. Though I have yet to figure out my attack strategy haha.