Communication and Persuasion in Dance Reviewing and Grant Writing

Being a Dance major and a Writing minor, I have always been interested in how these two creative arts can come and work together as one cohesive art form. Dance and writing on the surface seem so different. One art form is completely verbal, the other, completely non-verbal. But through my years of study here at BYU, and taking multiple classes that are specific to writing about the arts, I have seen how dance needs writing. 

The world of dance needs verbal communication. While it communicates primarily through body movement, dance also needs writing to communicate. This communication comes largely in the form of dance reviewing and critiquing. As dancers, teachers, and choreographers, it is critical that we receive verbal and written responses to our work - to know how it affected a viewer, and to know how to enhance the quality of the choreography. Reviewers of a non-verbal art form such as dance, need rhetoric to learn how to craft their words to accurately describe a piece of movement or choreography, and to persuade others that a work is worth seeing. Persuasion is necessary in the world of creative arts when discussing and debating if something is an effective, good work of art or not.

This kind of discussion that takes place when reviewing work can be done in a written sense - a review published in a newspaper, or dance magazine - and it can also be done through verbal discussion. In the dance world, adjudications are events where a judge or critic views a piece of work and gives on-the-spot feedback. An adjudicator such as this must have an understanding of communication and rhetoric in order to effectively verbalize and talk about the things that occurred on the stage.

Persuasion is also needed in the dance world through grant writing. Dance is a low-funded art form in our society. Hence the "starving artist" stereotype. Collaboration is a method being more largely used by choreographers and dancers to improve their work. Choreographers collaborate with musicians to create an original score for their piece. They collaborate with tech designers to set up a graphic on the backdrop of the stage. Choreographers want to take their pieces to conferences and workshops around the world to expand their work and increase their abilities. All these many forms of collaboration are expensive. It is important for dancers and choreographers to learn effective communication in their writing skills as they write grant letters to established organizations and donors who, if convinced their cause is worthy, will grant them money to pursue their particular avenue.

While dance is typically just seen as an art that is set on a stage, using no language, and only the human body to communicate, it is critically important that dancers and non-dancers alike learn how to more effectively articulate dance into words.