In October 2011 thINKingDANCE convened its first workshop with twenty writers. Ever since, we’ve been providing dance artists with valuable critical attention and readers with an unprecedented volume of high-quality original coverage and knowledgeable writing about dance in our city. TD’s writers—some who’ve remained from the onset and the newest joining this month—have enjoyed ongoing opportunities for development and community. We’ve held 36 lively first-Tuesday get-togethers with a total of 36 writers and interns current and past and offered them 13 workshops with guest writers/artists. Our over 500 original published articles involved endless hours of viewing, writing and email back-and-forth to edit each piece. We’re being read in 164 countries. And there’s interest from other cities in learning to replicate what we do!
thINKingDANCE weathered a shift from its beginning with foundation funding to having far less in monetary resources, but we’ve kept going strong. Meaningful and important support from you, our readers, has filled some of the gap. No one gets a regular paycheck at TD; you can call us volunteers. We pay our guest teachers, and writers get honoraria as TD is able to pay them, but nowhere near equivalent to the energy and skill we invest. Going forward, we hope to improve on that equation! Now, in this last year, we’ve been awarded city and state funding for the first time—small amounts but significant endorsements of the value of our work.
As with any challenging endeavor, fresh energy and vision are vital. At the close of 2014, I’ll step down as TD’s Editor-in-Chief to be replaced by our new Executive Director, Megan Bridge, and our new Editor-in-Chief, Kirsten Kaschock. Both Megan and Kirsten came to TD with its original group of writers and have served as editors and passionate advocates. They are both generating new ideas that will move us into unforeseen directions. A third person, as yet unnamed, will share leadership responsibilities with them, serving as Board Chair.
I hope you will keep reading and supporting thINKingDANCE: engaging in the conversations on the site and in Performance Club get-togethers, and telling others about us. Join us on Facebook, twitter and ello. Sign onto our e-list on our homepage. We began as strictly local, and with the expanded activities of our writers, have branched out. We started not knowing how to do what we envisioned—it was all an experiment!—and we proved that there’s a need for what TD offers and that the wider world wants to know about it.
Here’s to a fourth robust year of thINKingDANCE, and many more beyond!
